I guess the cruise is really over when its time to write the review. There were 4 of us on this sailing, myself, my better half, my 16 year old son and my Mom. Hopefully between us all we can give a comprehensive review.

Lets start at the beginning. We flew down on the 3rd of December to be able to explore Ft Lauderdale a little bit. We had a reservation for the Days Inn. We booked it through our trip rewards program. Well the hotel no longer exists, they are in rebuilding mode. Yes I had confirmed reservation before we went. Problem is I checked through trip rewards and not the actual hotel. Lesson learned. So our wonderful cab driver informed us that the only rooms he knows of were at the Hard Rock Hotel at $350 a night, because of the motorcycle Christmas drive. So we called and were able to get a room. It was a costly mistake but it was very cool. I highly recommend this place. If you are able to book ahead of time the rooms arent quite as costly. The hotel has a restaurant, casino, and an outside shopping plaza that includes other eateries and clubs. It is about a $25 van ride to the pier.

Embarkation: We stood in long lines and waited in 3 different areas until we got to the actual checking in part. There was a group of travel agents touring the ship and we had to wait til they were done. But once we started moving it went very quickly. When we got on the ship there was a crew member handing out deck plans instead of a line of people waiting to help you find your way to cabins. Needless to say we got lost. Eventually we found our cabins on the main deck. I missed not having an escort or at least someone to answer our questions as to which way we should go. Read more