We did the 3 day cruise out of Miami on the Norwegian Sky. This cruise consisted of a mother & daughter duo ages in the early 60's and 30's.
Before the cruise: We flew into Fort Lauderdale and took a shared shuttle to our hotel just North of South Beach. Hotel Croydon was great and away from any crowds although there were not a ton of restaurants around so it would only be good for a short trip.
Embarkation: We got there via taxi about 11:30 and sat in the holding room until 12:00 before boarding. There was not alot of communication so it was hard to know who's turn it was to finally get on the ship. Upon boarding they were directing everyone straight to the buffet which was good since we were hungry. They had both the main buffet and the one in the back open so we headed to the back to avoid the crowds. This was the only mean where we struggled to find a table to eat at and got lucky with one outside. There were tables in Dazzles and at the pool selling the various restaurant and drink packages. We walked around and found most of the main areas of the boat. Rooms opened at 1:30 and we spent the rest of the trip relaxing.
The room was small but clean. The mid-ship location made it pretty easy to get anywhere we wanted and we liked that we were only 1 floor from the pool/buffet.