Landed in Miami from Toronto on Valentines day and rented a car for the day, went to a fabulous restaurant called Fleming (A taste of Denmark) on 136th St. (located in a strip mall) this restaurant is very quaint and elegant and the food is fabulous as is the waitstaff. We went to the Deering estate afterwards to a "Moonlight and Music" jazz concert on their 444 acre estate. This estate overlooks Biscayne Bay and was a stunningly romantic locale for Valentines Night. We had wine and dessert while being lured by the wonderful jazz talent of Nicole Henry. Because we rented a car we were able to drive around South Beach Miami for the day prior to cruise embarkation. Hertz rental at the Hilton is very well run, staff is very informative and friendly and the rental was really reasonably priced, better than taxi or shuttle prices (try to get this fee included in your hotel stay)

First Day: Cruise day on Sunday, embarkation was very smooth because we completed all the necessary documents online the week before the cruise. The timing on the luggage delivery was great, we had a chance to putz around the ship and get our bearings including our room while they were organizing the luggage. Our room (inside cabin) was really nice, not big at all but we didn't spend a whole heap of time there so it didn't matter. The housekeeping was always available to assist especially when they forgot to replace our shower curtain, they were very apologetic and accommodating. The ship is spectacular and had so many places to go and see, I didn't even get to everywhere in the one week. Our first day was a fun day as sea, David our Cruise Director always made sure he was heard and had different plans arranged.

Dinner/Food/Drinks: We had the late dinner seating and were with 3 other couples, we had many laughs and tons of conversation (having dinner with unknown people is all about what you make of it). Dress up evenings were so fun (a little too many photo opportunities) and it was nice to see everyone so elegantly dressed. Drinks are not free and because we only used the sign and sail card we were a little cautious of our drinking levels, still we enjoyed the specials of the day (small without the glass purchase was about 4.95US, otherwise it was 6.95US)or the bucket of beer which was 4 beer at about 17.95US. First day we purchased the 5 bottles of wine with dinner deal for about $110US and this did last us the whole week as we didn't finish a bottle every night and it was stored and on our table the next night when we returned. Buffet breakfast at Rosies diner was always awesome (omelettes made to order) but the last morning we discovered the sit down seating for breakfast and had we not had early morning adventures on port we would have attended these breakfasts/lunches more often. Read more