My wife and I flew down to Miami from Minneapolis on 1/17/16 and stayed overnight at the Embassy Suites Airport in Miami. We have stayed at this fine hotel before many pasts cruises. They have a nice managers cocktail "hour" and a full breakfast the morning before you board. We take a cab to the port which runs about 30.00. The hotel also has a airport shuttle to and from the airport to the hotel. I believe you can also purchase a transfer to the port but we find taking cab works better for us.
We had no problems boarding, we are Platinum but we noted the boarding seemed to go good for other passengers as well. We were on the ship just before 1PM and headed to the Lido deck for a snack or two while our cabin was being readied. We were in our cabin by 1:30 or so. I always try to book a mid-ship balcony cabin on a lower deck as my wife does better with a cabin in this location, less movement for her. We had early dinning and shared a table with three other nice couples. We both enjoyed the meals in the main dinning room for the whole cruise. The food was done the way we like it and the service was very good. The menu's were the regular ones, not the American table ones I have read about in some postings. Generally we were very happy w/all the food we had on this five night cruise!
We have been to these ports of call many times before, Grand Turk, Half-Moon Cay and Nassau. We did not do any excursions, we did the beaches in Grand Turk and Half-Moon Cay and shopped a little in Nassau. We had some drinks at Margarita Villa in Grand Turk and Fat Tuesdays in Nassau. We just enjoyed the ports and more so being on a nice ship.
Our cabin was a balcony cat. 8B. The cabin was clean with lots of storage room. Our cabin steward kept it clean and made sure we had ice and clean towels. The balcony was fine! We enjoy having a balcony. Its nice for reading and having coffee of course just watching the sea go by. This cabin was on deck 6 mid-ship.
We stayed overnight in Miami before our cruise.
We just enjoyed the beaches and some drinks!
More beach time and some more drinks!
We walked around town and checked out shop or two. Stopped at Fat Tuesdays for some munchies and drinks then back to the ship.