This was my second CCL cruise and my DH first (we sailed on the Caribbean Princess July 2006). DH and I flew into Ft. Lauderdale the day before we were to sail on a non-stop Frontier flight from Denver. Aside from the rain all went well. We were meeting friends from Virginia who had never cruised before and decided to share a room at the Courtyard by Marriott since they offered free shuttle from airport to hotel and then free shuttle from hotel to port. (sign up as soon as you get there for the time you want to take the shuttle to the port it leaves at 10, 11, and 12, we chose 11am. The room was perfect for the four of us and with our friends military discount was only $120. The Bass Pro Shop is within walking distance and we walked to it for dinner at the Islamorada Seafood restaurant. It was delicious but a bit pricey with appetizers.

After dinner we decided to make a trip to a local store (Target)to pick up forgotten items like sunglasses, DVDs for the camcorder, etc and it ended up costing us close to $50 for taxis both ways. Nothing is close not even a liquor store. The taxi driver took us to BJ's wholesale for liquor and they don't even sell wine. So it was off to KMart for the cheap stuff to save a few $$ on the ship drinks. Last year when we cruised on Princess the hotel concierge took us to a local liquor store for free.

We returned to the hotel, sat in the hot tub for awhile and then went to bed with great anticipation of our cruise day on Saturday. Read more