A little background first: This was my 2nd Carnival cruise. I've also cruised on RCCL and NCL. We booked this cruise as a "girls weekend" (o.k., so we extended it past the weekend!) and I travelled with my Mom, sister, and 12yodd.

We flew into Ft Lauderdale on Spirit airlines after an overnight at the Doubletree at O'Hare airport. The Doubletree used to have "park-n-fly" ... you could pay an extra $11 to leave your car there for up to 2 weeks ... but the City of Rosemont got wind of the money being left on the table and changed the gates at the parking ramp so that they could now collect $11 per day. Still cheaper than long term parking, and the shuttle drops you off at the door, so while we were disappointed, we took solace in the Doubletree's famous chocolate chip cookies and ponied up the extra money to the City of Rosemont.

We arrived around 10am in Ft. Lauderdale and rented a car from the Hertz at Port Everglades. This was pretty confusing because we thought that the Port location was different from the airport location ... turns out they are the same, but if you select the Port location, your car rental will be about $20/day less than if you rent from the airport ... just a tip for you savvy shoppers out there. (We checked Hotwire and Expedia and then went to Hertz to book. There are actually 2 different locations shown, but both are serviced at the airport.) Once we figured out the car thing, we jumped in and headed to our hotel for the night, The Sheraton Yankee Clipper. Read more