This was our first cruise for our family. We have 3 girls-5,9,and 10. We did not know what to expect and we were excited and worried because of negative reviews about the ship,and just what to expect. Our cruise was from Dec. 1-9, 2007. We flew from DFW to Ft. Lauderdale the day before and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. We were able to get a room with 2 double beds and a rollaway bed. The room was nice and amazingly, not cramped! It included free shuttle from the airport to the hotel and also free breakfast in the am. The breakfast was good--omelettes,biscuits w/gravy, cereal(hot and Cold), fruit, juice, tea,coffee, hot chocolate, etc. We were able to get free shuttle from the hotel to the port because I had the name of the lady w/reservations who had told me on 2 separate occasions that there was free shuttle service. I was told by the front desk that this had been discontinued. The usual charge is $7/person. Thank goodness I had all the info on who I had talked with and fortunately had called the day before to confirm! We were all excited going to the port. It took about 20 minutes because they had to pick up at other hotels and then the traffic. We were dropped off last at the ship port and arrived around a little after 11 am. There was no wait and we walked through everything quite quickly.
The ship is beautiful. We went to our room,8500, family oceanview room. We were so surprised at how large it was! We were expecting a squishy room. We had a queen bed and there is a separate little room with bunkbeds,closet, chest of drawers. There is also a sitting area with sofa,chair,and table. 2 large windows that we found useful for laying our wet suits on to dry. The kids also enjoyed sitting in them in the mornings as we pulled into port. The bathroom was nice and not as cramped as we expected. Just a note: The bed was supposed to be a sofa bed, but the bed was so short that my 5 yr old's legs hung off the bed! She is just average height for a 5 yr old. We requested a rollaway and everything was fine. We just pulled it up and out of the way in the morning. My husband went to guest relations to find out why the bed was so short when we were told it was long enough for adults. Apparently, this sofa was not supposed to be used in a family oceanview room. Just a little info if this ever happens to you.
After inspecting our room, we went to the Windjammer for lunch. We sat outside and enjoyed the view. By around 2pm we received our luggage and everyone changed to our swimsuits and went to the pool. we also played a round of golf with the kids.