We spent a pre-embarkation day in Ft. Lauderdale on the Water Taxi and an everglades tour. See the Florida departures board for reviews of this as well as the Renaissance on 17th and 3030 Ocean restaurant.

Embarkation: We took a taxi from hotel to Port Everglades a little before 1500 hours. Tipped the porters at the port $2 per bag for our checked luggage, filled out all the requisite paperwork, stood for the obligatory photos (although we never did find them on the boards at the photo shop the next day), and onto the ship—all without lines or stopping. Total time from hotel to stateroom was 20 minutes.

Ship: This was our second time on Princess, first time on Coral. We booked a suite on the port side of Dolphin. It was nice, but not much larger than the aft mini-suite we had on Dawn. Also found the room furnishings a little tired (and the bed was horrible) and steward service mixed. (A full posting on our "suite experience" is on the main Princess board.) Overall, the Coral is a beautiful ship—lovely public areas and very nicely decorated and maintained. It was decked out for the holidays for our cruise and looked very festive—unfortunately, however, they didn't set up the snow machine for the lobby until the end of the cruise and didn't use it until the one following ours. Read more