This was our 8th cruise, we have sailed once with Royal Caribbean and this was our 7th cruise with Holland America. My wife and I are in our 50's, took our 1st cruise in April 2000.

We departed for this vacation from Washington Dulles airport on Saturday, March 17th. Our airline and hotel arrangements were all handled through Holland America. We had a non-stop flight on United to Ft. Lauderdale. The flight went smoothly. After arriving at Ft. Lauderdale, we collected our luggage and a Holland America representative was there to greet us. Transportation to the hotel, Plantation Renaissance, via bus arranged with Holland America went very smoothly. Arrived at the hotel around 8:30PM and check in was very easy. Had a quiet dinner at the hotel restaurant. In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Instead of using the bus transportation arranged through Holland America, to take us to the terminal, we opted to rent a taxi.

Arrived at Port Everglades around 11:20AM, gave our luggage to a porter and entered the cruise terminal to check in. The registration procedure went very quickly. After registration we went to the second level of the terminal to wait for our number to be called to board the ship. This entire process took less than half an hour. Read more