Background: We are married, ages 50 and 58, and experienced NCL cruisers (28 and 18 NCL cruises respectively)

Getting there: This cruise was booked as a celebration of my parents 60th wedding anniversary. Due to some last minute medical issues, air travel for my parents was not allowed, so we decided to drive ourselves (and my parents) from North Carolina to Miami, Florida. We booked a couple of rooms at the Red Roof Inn +Plus at Miami International because they have a good Park-and-Cruise option there. We left Statesville, NC at about 4 AM on the day before the cruise, and arrived at the hotel at approximately 5 PM with a few quick stops along the way. There were absolutely zero traffic issues. The hotel was adequate, although very very close to the airport so planes coming and going can be an issue for some people. The parking situation, however, is a little tricky. The lot fills up very quickly, and if you arrive late to the hotel you may find yourself waiting for people to arrive and leave so you can claim a coveted spot behind the locked gate. We were fortunate and got one of the last ones available on Friday evening. The hotel does offer a shuttle service for free to the pier, but the catch is it leaves at 1 PM ... so if you are like us and want to get on the ship early, arrange for your own cab.

We arrived at the pier a little before 11 and were checked in and on board by 11:45 or so. No line at the platinum and gold latitudes line. We had brought six bottles of wine and paid the corkage fee on the pier as expected. Read more