Pre-Cruise - My wife and two sons, 8 and 4, left Boston the Tuesday evening before the cruise by flying to Fort Lauderdale on Spirit Airlines. I know many people don't like the a la carte approach that Spirit Airlines has to making reservations and claim leg room is lacking. I made sure to un-check the box for trip insurance, and I pre-paid for reserved seats and baggage on-line. We bought snacks and drinks for us to have on the flight at the airport, and the seats had plenty of leg-room (I'm 6'1"). Our flight arrived on time, as did our baggage, and the airfare was much lower than any other direct flight from Boston to either Fort Lauderdale or Miami.

Once we landed in Fort Lauderdale, I picked up my car rental at the airport. I had a reservation with Hertz and was supposed to get a Toyota Rav4, but because of the recall I was upgraded to a Jeep 4X4. It was huge! However, the extra space was useful to hold all of our luggage. I drove to our hotel, the Hampton Inn & Suites Fort Lauderdale West-Sawgrass in Tamarac, Florida. The hotel was built less than a year ago, and we reserved a king bed studio suite that had a refrigerator and a pull-out sofa bed for the boys to sleep on. Each morning continental breakfast was served in the lobby.

On Wednesday we visited Wannado City located in the Sawgrass Mills Mall. It is where children can pretend to try our different adult jobs (while the parents watch) and earn pretend money that they can use to buy small prizes. Our younger boy in particular had a great time here. On Thursday we went to Boomers near the Fort Lauderdale airport. That day was an all you can play for $12, and we all went non-stop with video games and miniature golf. Friday included a visit to Butterfly World, and the boys enjoyed the insect and bird displays. On an unusually chilly Saturday we went to Everglades Holiday Park and went on an airboat ride where we saw six alligators. Then we saw a brief alligator wrestling show, and the boys got to hold a baby alligator. Read more