Friday, December 15, 2006

We flew to Fort Lauderdale 4 days prior to our cruise so we could relax and get totally de-stressed and get ourselves a little tanned before we sailed. Our flight from Vancouver left at 11 p.m. (a red eye) and we got into Toronto at 6 a.m. the next morning. Had about a 3 hour wait for our connecting flight to Fort Lauderdale.

Arrived about 3pm and it was very muggy and had been raining. We had booked our hotel through Travelocity, and it included a free shuttle to our hotel (Stirling Suites in Dania Beach) so we got it and proceeded to the hotel. When we got there we noticed signs saying there was construction going on, but we didn't see much evidence of it. There was a sign on the door leading to the pool area saying it was closed for renovations and would be open Dec. 18th. We joked that the Travelocity Elf should have notified us that our pool was closed so we could choose another hotel (like the commercials advertise). Went up to our room, and discovered several things that indicated this room was not really ready to be rented out to guests. There was nothing major, just several little things that should have been fixed. For example there was a huge screw sticking out of the bathtub where the drain plug should have been. We tried to call the front desk about it, but the phone wasn't working, so I went down and told the desk clerk about it. They sent someone up and it was fixed relatively quickly. The small refrigerator they had, was inside a cupboard too small for it. It also froze all the contents every night. Read more