This is my first review so I'll try to cover things I think some of you may want to see in a review. This was also my first RC cruise. My wife has taken a few "girls" cruises on RC but for some reason for our family and couples sailings we have tended to migrate to Carnival in the past. We've sailed Carnival 6 times and because of this, the comparison process kicked in immediately for me. More on that later...

5 of us drove down from Jacksonville on Saturday, had a fantastic meal at Beauty and the Feast in Ft. Lauderdale and spent the evening at the Homewood Suites near the Airport. The hotel was fine although I would classify it as a bit tired. There is a brand new Residence Inn across the street for the Marriott people. I tend to steer to the Hilton brands, so we went with the Homewood.

Embarkation and parking in FTL is certainly different from the other ports we sailed from - Tampa, Port Canaveral and Miami. I had forgotten that they are stringent at the port level and require passports just to enter to port/parking area. It's not a problem, just different. So be sure to have your passports ready if you're parking at the RC port parking lot. We arrived at 11:15 and it was already quite busy. Dropping off the luggage with a porter and proceeding to the parking area was a bit hectic but very manageable. We even had luggage in a Yakima carrier on the roof, and that delay wasn't an issue at all. Parking was close-by on a surface lot and for the week-long cruise cost $105. It's cheaper off property, but the convenience was worth it to us. Read more