I travelled with my wife (we are both in our early fifties), and this was our first-ever cruise. We thought a cruise would be a great way to end our four-month independent journey through China, Tibet, Canada and the USA. And we weren't disappointed.

Booking and Embarkation: We booked the cruise about two weeks prior to embarkation through an internet agency, and our booking was managed very professionally. We flew on AirTran from Boston to Fort Lauderdale a week before the cruise and we stayed in Port Everglades at Extended Stay America Apartments just around the corner from the cruise ship terminal. AirTran was excellent, and so was our apartment that we booked for a very low price on Hotwire.com The apartment had a full kitchen and was surrounded by good shops (including the large Publix supermarket) and cafes, and is only 5 minutes on the local tourist trolley bus from the excellent palm-fringed Fort Lauderdale beach. The sight of the cruise ships on the horizon, and in dock at the terminal, whetted our appetite for what was to come for us.

We embarked on 1 December, arriving at the terminal at the earliest time recommended by Carnival in the documentation they supplied to us. We were very surprised at how easy and fast our embarkation was. There were no lines and we were attended to immediately at each point of the process. We were on Miracle within 10 minutes of arriving at the terminal. On boarding, we were surprised to see so many people already on board; they must have checked in well before the recommended time. We chose to drag our own suitcases on board rather than check them in at the terminal for later delivery to our room. This proved to be an easy task as there were escalators and elevators where needed, and no need to lug anything up stairs. This proved also to be a wise move as it was well into the first evening before many of the other passengers received their checked-in luggage. Read more