My husband and I (36 & 38) sailed with our 4 children ages 5,7,9 & 11. We sailed October 25th on the Liberty of the Seas out of Miami to the Eastern Caribbean. We booked through a local travel agency about 5 months ahead of time.

We flew from Wisconsin on Friday morning into Miami (NWA). That evening we stayed at The Hampton Inn Blue Lagoon. The hotel was reasonably priced at $169/night for a one bedroom suite. The room had a separate bedroom with two double beds and a pull out double sofa in the living room. It also had a full kitchen. I booked this hotel after reading reviews on the trip advisor website. They also had a complementary airport shuttle and a free breakfast. The buffet was nice for the kids to fill up before we hit the pier. It was a great location walking distance to Walgreens, fast food, grocery store and liquor store for any last minute things. My only complaint was that the pool and hottub were VERY COLD. That evening week booked the Super Shuttle to the pier. We were traveling as a party of 10 and the shuttle arrived 10 minutes ahead of time and got us to the port at 11 am. Their cost was $50.00. We also booked our return ride at that time.

Since our family is so large we booked the Royal Family Suite. This allowed us priority boarding. We used the suite lines, however, all of the lines were very short and I didn't see anyone waiting for very long. We were on the ship within 15 minutes. We looked around the ship, and let the kids swim and play in the H2O Zone until our suite was ready promptly at 1:00. Read more