We flew out of Pittsburgh on Monday, May 3 morning heading first to Tampa then to Ft. Lauderdale. Flights were not fun. Lots of turbulance which did not make me happy. Arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 11:30 a.m.. Our friends whom we were going cruising with drove in from N. Carolina. They met us at the airport and the four of us stayed at the LaQuinta hotel near the airport. The hotel was clean and the continental breakfast was very nice. We stayed at this hotel because they let our friends park their car there while we were on the cruise without any charge. The next day (Tuesday) the hotel shuttle took us to the ship (no charge). The same shuttle arranged to pick us up after the cruise and take us to the airport for a fee of either 8 or 9 dollars. Which was worth it. Also, our friends were picked up and taken back to the hotel.

I want to mention that we flew in on Southwest. One thing that SW has done was when we arrived and was getting our baggage a representative came up to us and informed us of their luggage deal. We paid $10.00 per bag and at the end of the cruise after you collect your luggage and go through customs their is a counter SW has and they will take your luggage and ship it to the airport and you don't see your luggage until you arrive at your destination. I have to say it was the best $30.00 we spent. Other airlines were charging $25 - $30 per bag. My hats off to SW for doing this.

We arrived at the cruise port about 11:30 a.m. Being we had SA Suites we were taken right in and was on board within 15 minutes. This was our 14 cruise but, our first on Holland America. There were all ages on this cruise. Alot of people from Europe and there was a big group from the Netherland countries. There was not many children on board and the ones that were on baord were very well behave that we noticed. Read more