Flew to Miami on Friday the 12th. Stayed at the LaQuinta Inn Airport East. They have a free shuttle to and from the airport as well as a free shuttle to the cruise port. They also offer a continental breakfast. Hotel was ok for a one night stay, but would probably not stay there again.

We arrived Saturday at the cruise port at around 12:30. Took quite awhile to go through check in and get our sign and sail cards. Once we finally arrived on board all the previous waiting just didn't seem to matter. Our cabin was already ready so we dropped off carry-on baggage and went to explore. We had previously cruised on the Norwegian Dawn, but this ship was larger and had a totally different layout. It did take a day or so to find everything, but the ship still seemed to be laid out better than the Dawn.

We had booked a guaranteed balcony cabin and did not find out our actual cabin location until just days before. What a surprise! We were upgraded to a larger balcony cabin off the back of the ship and a perfect location to get to most everything. The bed was really comfortable and the cabin a nice size. The bathroom wasn't quite as big as Norwegian, but had more storage space. The robes were a nice touch as well. Fortunately we had learned from our previous cruise and brought along a power strip because there few outlets in the cabins. Read more