We've been on one cruise before - Celebrity Galaxy - which we really enjoyed, but that was just the two of us for our anniversary. This time we were looking for a family trip and the great prices we found on a 9-day cruise sold us on the Jewel. We were hesitant about cruising with our children primarily because of the formal dining room and set dining times, so the NCL Freestyle policy sounded great - and it was!

We flew from Syracuse to Fort Lauderdale with JetBlue. Great airline. We flew in a day early in case there were storms and stayed at the Yankee Clipper. Big hotel right on the beach. It was OK but I don't think we would stay there again. We had rented a car from the airport in FLL and planned on dropping it off in Miami. This worked well since they have a shuttle from the drop off at the Miami Airport site right to the port.

Embarkation - Pretty busy and we had done some shopping before we got to the ship so we were not the first onboard. I think it was about 2 p.m. when we got on the ship. Read more