We flew to Fort Lauderdale the night before our cruise, and stayed at the Marriott Springhill Suites. It wasn't far from the airport. We chose to rent a car so we could do some exploring. It was a little chilly... around 65 when we arrived. The hotel was nice and it does offer a shuttle for a fee to the port.

The morning of the cruise we returned our car to the airport, and took a Taxi to the port. The airport does offer a shuttle to the port for 11 dollars per person, but you have to wait for the shuttle to fill before they leave. We were way to excited and took a taxi. The ride was 5 minutes or less and cost about 15 dollars for both us plus tip.

We arrived at the port at about 11 am and were in the 2nd group. We sat for about 20 minutes before they started boarding and were on the ship before noon. This was our first princess cruise and we loved the ship. Our previous cruises had been on Carnival, and we had a lovely time, but the decor of the ship is more to our taste. This was also our first balcony and we were a little leery about the lido deck and the room we were upgraded to. Others had posted that it was noisy etc. We did not find this to be the case. The only complaint I had was that sometimes someone would prop open the double doors that led to the lido/pool and because it was the port side, the smoke smell would come in...we would just close the doors when we walked by and this took care of the problem. The room was regular size, and we had more than enough storage space. The shower was tiny....but we were able to manage just fine. Read more