Well the day before we were supposed to leave we were notified the ship would be about 5 hours late due to a "medical emergency". (By the way we later heard some moron got hurt climbing on something they shouldn't have.) So needless to say I was in a sour mood hearing that, knowing we would fly into Ft. Lauderdale and have nothing to do for around 7 hours. Not to mention lose several hours of precious ship time, arriving just in time for dinner and soon bed because we had been up since 4:30AM. But after reading the posts on Cruise Critic, I decided to turn lemons into lemonade and have fun no matter what. So my husband and I rented a car in Ft. Lauderdale and had fun, despite waking up with the worst stiff neck and upper back of my life! (Must have been the way I slept). So late start, stiff body, all this already and I only cruise once a year or so. I actually yelled in pain when my husband went over bumps too fast, and he had to help hold my head steady in the taxi later on and help me in and out of the car. Once I laid my head back on the headrest, I had to physically pull it back up with my hands each time, wincing in pain. Total bummer. I o.d'd on Motrin which seemed to really help.

So as we arrive to the ship, we reluctantly tipped the bag porters that seemed to ignore us for a good 10 minutes, only because we didn't want any troubles with our luggage. At embarkation, it seemed to be held in a temporary warehouse with temporary stations set up. I did like the lady working the metal detector, who was quick and efficient and with a smile kept repeating, "come on, don't stop my machine! don't stop my machine!" We took our welcome aboard picture with Steve (husband) holding my disabled head straight.

Once in our teeny, cozy inside cabin we were pleasantly surprised to find a welcome aboard gift from our good friends Dave and John (Shout out to Booboobear!) I was so touched. What a wonderful way to start our cruise. I was instantly in a happy mood as we drank and nibbled. I kept saying over and over, "I'm so happy!" Our room was on Deck 10 forward, very convenient as it was one level above "all the action" (food/ Lido). I love how the elevator lady announcer with the accent would say "Deck 10, Panorama". Read more