We flew from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale for a 4 night Bahamas cruise from the port of Miami. We spent 2 nights pre cruise at the Hampton Inn Hallandale Beach. Very well run clean Hotel friendly attentive staff. Your room stay also includes a full hot breakfast with juice and coffee. Very good. This hotel is right on a bus route that runs South to Aventura Mall Miami and North to Fort Lauderdale Airport and Las Olas Blvd. We strolled Las Olas Blvd downtown area, there was an art fair that day so there were lots of open air shops with beautiful artwork. Then we hopped on the Sun Trolley and headed East from downtown to Las Olas beach. Here you can walk for miles on beautiful white sand beaches or rollerskate down the beach walkway or stroll along across the street where all the restaurants and shops are located. Our favourite place here is Rockbar, good food and great Margueritas,,we chilled here for a while at the outdoor bar and just enjoyed the sun.

From our hotel to the Miami Port we made arrangements with Jiffyjeff Transportation. an excellent shuttle company. New, clean Sprinter vans, friendly, knowledgable drivers. I will always use them when in the area.

The ship was nice, Food at the buffet was excellent and although it was usually busy we always found a table. We spent most of our free time around the pool, always music and entertainment Our favourite port of call was in Freeport. We hopped in a taxi with 8 people, 6 went to Port Lucaya shopping for $5 each, we paid an extra $2 each and were dropped off at Junkaroo Beach. We had an excellent day there. Perfect beach for swimming or lounging and lots of cold local beers.