posted 03-22-04 07:05 PM All reviews are just opinions, whether mine or others are subject to personal tastes, attitudes and reflections on past experiences. Saying that, this is my story.

Miami We flew down to Miami Sunday afternoon, the day before the cruise as we always do. We had booked a room at the Hyatt. Very nice hotel, only a few blocks away from Bayside Marketplace, I doubt I will stay there again, we had a great view of the old, soon to be demolished Duport Plaza Hotel and their parade of homeless people wandering about. If you stay at the Hyatt, bring your own sheets and pillow. I guess I'm just spoiled but the sheets were of the sandpaper variety and pillows melted away to nothing. We met several of our "Barcrawler Buddies" in the lobby, dispersed some of the special Brilliance Barcrawler 2004 shirts (which were the talk of the ship) and as a group headed to Lombardi's to meet up with our other CC buds. A total of 33 met and were seated in a section of tables and booths close together for drinks and dinner. The Lombardi's staff did a great job on very short notice of such a large group. We handed out more of the shirts (so we would be instantly noticed when boarding the ship the next day) and had a good evening together.

Embarkation: It was quite an interesting ride to the RCI terminal the next morning with all the new construction going on in the area. We arrived at the terminal around 11:30 and went straight up the elevator to a waiting area. There we only had to wait about 10 minutes before going through security and to the check in lines. RCI has really streamlined this part of the process. You line up by which deck you are on and we were all checked in, Seapass Cards in hand in about 10 minutes. Then on to the ship. We were told that we could not go to the cabins until 1:00 due to the extensive cleaning that is done before cruises so we just went up the Pool bar to break in the cards. There we met several other of our group, went down to the Windjammer for a bite and by then we were able to get into our cabins. Let me tell you that the aft cabins are all they are made out to be. We had cabin 9256, aft - port corner. The balcony was large enough for two lounge chairs, two regular chairs and a small round table. We spent alot of time out there, especially for coffee in the mornings and drinks as we sailed out of the ports in the evenings. It's quite a sight to see the sun setting on the skyline of Miami on one of those balconies. Well worth the long walk from the elevators located at the centrum. The cabin was spacious enough, plenty of storage space in the cabin, closet, and bathroom. At night you could literally be rocked to sleep by the motion of the ship, the sound of the ocean, and the light breeze from the open sliding door. Read more