My wife and I flew from Philadelphia to Ft. Lauderdale early on Sunday morning, Dec 9th. We arrived at the Winner Parking Lot, a couple miles from the airport, about 6:30am and a valet driver had us in front of the US Air counters 20 min later. Very efficient and only $63 for the week. The flight was uneventful.

On arrival @ FLL the Princess folks met us at the baggage claim area. After a 30 min wait, they walked us out front to a shuttle bus ($20/each - round trip). We rode about three miles to the cruise terminal, stopped in front of the wrong door where the driver stood up and reminded us to tip him as we got off. NOTE: At the airport baggage area I spoke with an older gentleman who mentioned that he frequently cruises but never takes the shuttles. He said the taxis charge $14 and there's no waiting.

We waited 45 minutes in a large room with not enough chairs; after that, boarding was typical. They announced that lunch was available at the 24/7 cafeteria-style dining room on the 15th deck. We encountered this type of dining on our last cruise (NCL in 2004) but were not prepared for the layout. On NCL there were four lines, clearly marked ENTER and EXIT. On the Caribbean Princess there is an oval shaped food area (one on each side of the ship) with an oval island in the middle. It looks attractive but in practice it's much like one of those European traffic circles with no road signs and scores of vehicles going every which way. People were cutting in front of others and we witnessed some nasty exchanges. Princess should find a more orderly method of cafeteria feeding. The food was very good but somewhat cold by the time you found a place to sit. Lots of couples sitting at tables for four or six. When my wife asked one couple "May we join you?" They responded that they were looking for another couple who they "hoped would be coming". The rest of the cruise we avoided that venue. Read more