We traveled to Fort Lauderdale a day early to avoid weather problems (especially coming from Canada in the winter). We stayed on Las Olas Blvd. in the Riverside Hotel. We booked through Priceline and saved around $50 by using the "name your price" feature. The hotel is in a great location and the staff were very friendly. We did end up in a room in the older part of the hotel, overlooking a roof and an air conditioning unit, but I suspect they save these types of room for people who use things like Priceline!

Embarkation: This went very smoothly. We showed up just after the recommended time of 1pm and were in our cabin within 20-30 minutes, with a welcome glass of champagne in hand. We took our carry-on bag with us, and our luggage was delivered a few hours later. We had brought 2 bottles of wine (you are allowed to bring 2 per stateroom) which was packed in our luggage and it arrived with no problems.

Stateroom: We booked a 2B category stateroom and were on deck 7(Sunrise), stateroom 7261 (port side). The stateroom was great - the nicest we've had on all three cruises. I read reviews of people concerned about whether the bed was near the closet or the veranda....our bed was near the closet (I think it might be the reverse for the staterooms on either side), and the sitting area was near the veranda door. This worked just fine for us. There was lots of storage space, a great flat panel TV (with decent on-demand movies) and the bathroom was perfect (again, lots of storage and a good sized shower). The only issue I think people may have is that smoking was allowed on certain areas of Deck 5 port side, and once in a while you could smell it if you were on the veranda. I dislike the smell of smoke, but this was really not enough to bother me. Read more