We flew in two days early to make our usual trip to the Keys. We were a little apprehensive about a ship this close to going in for refurbishment and what it would be like. Not to mention the complaints some other reviewers had. We were pleasantly surprised. Having cruised Royal, Carnival, Princess, Disney and Holland America, my wife and I enjoyed this one the best.

Having a rent a car, we decided to drop our luggage off before returning the car to the airport. We are glad we did this, it was a lot more convenient than trying to schlep the luggage through the airport. We arrived at the port about noon. Fighting the traffic, and getting to the cruise terminal, dropping the bags and getting out took about 45 minutes. If you have your bags tagged, all you need to do is hand them off to the porter, tip them and leave. Very convenient.

Returning from the terminal to check-in was just as convenient. Having Platinum status, we were routed through check-in quickly and had less than a 5 minute wait. Up on the ship quickly and into our stateroom that was waiting for us. Read more