This was our family's second cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Our previous cruise was in June 2006 to the Western Caribbean. We chose the CB because it is a beautiful ship, and wanted a Eastern Itinerary this time. Our extended family cruising included young adults (18, 19 & 20) middle ages (45-60) and seniors. This was our 4th family cruise.

We flew into FLL three days earlier to enjoy the sights of FLL prior to our cruise. We usually do this so we are not rushed. We stayed at the La Quinta, Airport/Hollywood and were very pleasantly surprised at how nice the hotel was. It was very clean, nice outdoor pool & whirlpool, great continental breakfast & a shuttle both to the airport and to the cruiseport. It was a bit pricier than what we paid on the last trip, but apparently no where near what I see others paying. We paid a rate of 103.00 a night. The rooms were spacious. The only problem is one of the elevators were not working & the halls were long for hauling luggage. We rented a car, used it during our visit & returned it the morning of the cruise. The driver then took a cab from the airport to the cruiseport & met the rest of our family that used the hotel shuttle. We arrived at the cruiseport around 12:30pm. We had boarding passes printed, etc., and the line, although it looked long already when we arrived, went very quickly and we were getting our cruise cards within about 15 min. We had a problem at that point with some missing documents but if it hadn't been for that issue, we would have been on the ship by 1:10. I won't go into specifics on that except to say, if you are a citizen of another country, but an resident alien, you will need BOTH YOUR PASSPORT AND YOUR ALIEN RESIDENT CARD. You will not get on the ship without it.

We missed the muster drill because of the above, but once that was behind us we dropped our carry on's in our 4 rooms all on Baja, all connecting balconies. Wonderful. The rooms were familiar, because we had balconies on Baja last cruise, only a bit farther back. The rooms are adequate, bathrooms tiny, but the balconies are heavenly!. We immediately had our steward "James" unlock the dividers between our rooms & we were able to freely walk between balconies for the rest of the cruise. Read more