My husband and I decided to leave the night before our cruise to ensure arrival to our port. We had a 6-hr flight to LAX so we didn't want it to be too risky for the same day of the cruise departure. We stayed at the Travelodge outside of the airport, which was a nice hotel for the price and just to stay the night. We recommend using the Super Shuttle or Primetime shuttles to get from airport to ports, because taxi rides are quite expensive! We didn't use a shuttle from the airport to the hotel and hotel to the port, because I didn't think they transported for that, but we did use it from the cruise terminal to the airport and it was only 34 a couple! We paid $70 from our hotel to the cruise terminal, which was supposedly only 25 minutes! So, definitely research in the shuttle services for your transportation.

We left for our port at about 12-12:15 and had a 20-minute ride from the hotel. When we arrived at the port there were already people on line to drop off their luggage. We immediately got on line and were inside the terminal in no time. I had checked in online via Royalcaribbean.com and had printed our seapass to make the process quicker, which it was very quick and smooth. We were on our way to the ship in no time. The longest we waited was 5-10 mins on the security line, piece of cake.

We were amazed at the ship and excited to get on it. We stood in line for our first official cruise picture, which we bought almost all the photos taken of us. Read more