We stayed in Fort Lauderdale the night before the cruise, at the Holiday Inn across from the beach on A1A - What a terrible mistake that was. Dirty old place that should be torn down.
We took a taxi to the port about 12:30PM on Feb 17th for embarkation. They had recommended to board about 2:00PM, but we were anxious to get out of the hotel, so took a chance. Checking in was easy, but being some of the first people they hadn't quite fully staffed the check-in desks - so a little confusion for a very short time.
We were on board within 30 minutes and to our cabin which was a mini-suite on Dolphin deck. It was a spacious comfortable room with tons of shelves are places for clothes. My only complaint about the room was the balcony that was open in full sight of all the decks above. We had previously been in a regular balcony room on the Caribe deck which was half again bigger in size and very private with a roof covering. So - never the Dolphin deck again