We did not explore Ft. Lauderdale before we embarked. We have lived there, so no need to tour around. The only real negative was that there was a huge line for embarkation. It was probably the worst in all of our cruises. We flew in to FLL around 10:30 am and took the Princess transfer directly to the ship, The bus drivers were really friendly and funny also. When we arrived at the ship there was a sea of people. I thought that we would get there before others, boy was I wrong.
We chose this cruise because of the itinerary, and because it was a Princess cruise. We had not been to 3 of islands that we visited. The ship was beautiful, it seems that there was music and dancing much of the time in the various places on the ship. There were lots of line dancing classes which were so fun.
We loved the Piazza area which was used for dancing, concerts, etc. the Gelato place (which we often frequented) was also there along with other restaurants. The entertainment was great, the first comedian was hilarious. The singers and dancers as well as the bands were great. One highlight was going to the cooking show and tour of the kitchen. The Head Chef was hilarious and bantered back and forth with the maitre'd, definitely worth going to. We ran into the maitre'd a day after and told him how much we loved the show, and he raged in his beautiful Italian accent more about how the head chef did things wrong and that he was italian and he knew best! All in good humor!!!
The cabin was fine, not much more to say about it.
Loved the beach, what a beautiful spot!!!
We had family that lived there, so we went to the beach with them.
The island was beautiful, I wished that we had taken an excursion on this stop.
Picked up some spices, the town wasn't much to see.
The Shopping guy told us of a wonderful beach, and it was beautiful.
Beach, loved it.