Background - This was my and my partner's first cruise on NCL. I have been on several cruises with different lines (RCCI, Celebrity, Carnival) in the past and he has been on Carnival in the past. We booked through and online travel agent and booked our flights ourselves.

Night before - We stayed at the Hyatt Place Plantation using Hyatt Points. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale and arrived after the hotel shuttle stopped running for the evening. We got our bags without any issues, found a taxi and headed to the hotel. No problems getting to FLL and the hotel. The hotel was nicely decorated and certainly fine for our one evening stay. It was our first time in a Hyatt Place. My only complaint was the "continental breakfast" on Saturday morning.

Heading to Port & Embarkation - We hired a sedan to take us from the hotel to the port. We called around and got various prices and found LeBlanc Limousine to be reasonably priced. They emailed a confirmation and showed up on time. The driver took us by a Target on the way to the port at our request with on hassles or issues. It was a great way to travel and we were very satisfied with the service provided by LeBlanc. We would use that company again. We arrived at port about Noon. We tipped our porters and headed inside the terminal. It was a little chaotic with the health form they wanted you to fill out, so it might be a good idea to have a pen handy. Then we lined up and headed through metal detectors and to start the process. There were lines but they moved pretty well. There are a few different stations/areas that you have to proceed through. The picture line slowed things up a bit and then the line to swipe your card to get onboard was long as well, but moved fairly quickly. The process wasn't too bad overall. Read more