Let me start off by saying that I have taken six cruises with Carnival in the past and I am not a picky person by any stretch of the imagination and this is the first review that I have decided to write given the amount of extreme options on either side good or bad. I will start off with an overview on our trip then give you a summarized opinion.

This trip included myself, my wife and two kids ages 11 and 14. We decided to fly to Fort Lauderdale the Friday night before the cruise. We arrived late Friday at the Town Place Suites Fort Lauderdale on Prospect Road. This place was perfect for a family to stay pre-cruise. With it being Spring Break most of the respectable hotels in Miami and Fort Lauderdale were $200 a night or more. Found this gem for $112 a night. It's in a quiet location next to the Executive Airport and there is a Super Center Walmart nearby for all of your last minute travel needs.

Made our way to the Port of Miami Sunday morning and just like everyone says these people have their act together. We were able to drop off our luggage and the port then we made our way over to the Hertz rental office a few blocks away to drop off the rental car. I have to mention this about Hertz.. this place is a debacle. It's located on the side of a building that you will almost never find even with a GPS. The people there do the best they can but the best thing I can say is that it is controlled chaos in a small snow globe. Hertz needs to find another solution. I won't go into details but just imagine 10 families with luggage trying to fit into two vans that ran every 20 min or so. Again the people working there did the best they can I just blame Hertz for not stepping in. This cannot be a surprise to Hertz that this place cannot handle. Read more