Okay - time to give back. I always try to write a review because I get so much enjoyment reading others. A little background: Mom (50ish) and daughter (20 something) celebrating daughter's graduation from college (JuCo - still has two years to finish but we couldn't wait)! I must be living my life right as I just took a cruise with my husband and four other couples in January - see Serenade of the Seas Hootie Hoo Cruise. This was my seventh cruise and my daughter's second. This was a great opportunity for me to spend some quality time and make some memories with my daughter.

Pre-cruise ~ We flew out of Chicago Midway very early Sunday morning and since we're not morning people and we live in Wisconsin where it can and will snow in May we stayed at the Sleep Inn to use their park, sleep and fly option Saturday night. This also means you get to start your vacation early. They have a pretty good set up if you have an early flight out of Midway. Went to TGI Fridays for our first of many margaritas. Very prompt shuttle the next morning and an uneventful flight to Miami. Grabbed a cab to the Holiday Inn Port of Miami for our pre cruise one night stay. We really enjoyed this hotel - had a room on the eighth floor overlooking Bayside and the Port. We walked the four or five blocks to Flager Street to get some wine and a case of water (more on this later). Back to the hotel to lay by the pool and throw a couple of beers back. The pool area is pretty small and very enclosed but for our purposes worked just fine. There is a bar right inside the pool area that keep us hydrated (read more margaritas). Met four other mother daughter teams that would also be sailing on the Imagination. This is also where we met another family that we hung out with on the cruise. They had really cute kids - Hi Ellie and Duncan! After bronzing ourselves we got cleaned up and went over to Bayside where we quickly found "Lets Make a Daiquiri". What a hoot. We met two really nice guys from Amsterdam - Jeroan and Gamal - had a nice dinner at Bubba Gumps and danced to the live band that was playing by the water. Great way to start our vacation!

Embarkation ~ Hopped in a cab around 11 and were on the ship by noon -very painless. I'd read that the porters at Miami were very pushy and rude but this was not the case with us. It probably helps a bit when your daughter is gorgeous (I am prejudiced but it is true) Think tall blond basketball player. The only glitch we had at the port was that they would not let me check my case of water - bummer. So I hauled it through embarkation and stashed it in our cabin as soon as we were on the ship. Read more