We arrived 2 days early in Ft. Lauderdale. It was pouring rain and unfortunately, our luggage got wet along with our clothing inside. We discovered this when we opened our suit cases at the hotel. I'm thankful we arrived 2 days prior to the cruise.

We stayed at the Hilton Marina Hotel. We wanted a more "upscale" hotel to stay in while in Ft. Lauderdale. This hotel will nickel and dime you to death. You will pay for parking and for wifi. They offer a buffet breakfast for $25.00 pp which was not worth it. We found the offerings of little value to us so we decided to eat at Joe's Cafe down the road. For the two of us, we got a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, coffee, toast and juice for under $20.00. When I made the reservations for the Hilton, I asked for a view room and was assured we would have one. Upon arrival around 7:00 pm we were told there were no more view rooms available. We paid $179/night to stay in a room that at best had a view of a yacht sitting out in front of our balcony. The next morning the maid tapped on our door and asked if we wanted room service! I told her we needed fresh towels. She went to her cart and got towels and wash clothes and handed them to us. Never had that happen in a hotel like the Hilton. Needless to say, we did not leave her a tip.

We took a taxi to the port as the Hilton wanted $8 pp. The taxi only costs us $6.00 total. Another Hilton rip off. Once we arrived at the port, we dropped our luggage off and proceeded to the check in. Everything went smoothly. We were seated by row number, and we were on the ship within 30 minutes of checking in. Read more