This was our second 7-day cruise...first being on Royal Caribbean to Alaska last summer with a total of 8 family members. Wanted to try a warm weather cruise and decided on this cruise/line due to itinerary and price.

We drove to Ft. Lauderdale/Port Everglades from Naples after being there for a conference the week prior to the cruise. We dropped our luggage off at the ship (very easy) took the rental car back to Ft. Lauderdale airport (also very easy) and got on the shuttle going back to the port. Shuttle was packed with Oasis of the Seas passengers so they were dropped off first and the traffic getting into the Oasis shuttle/bus drop off was horrible! Took us 45 minutes to get through the traffic, getting us back to the Crown almost 1-1/2 hours after we dropped off our luggage. Took about 30 minutes to get on our ship as we arrived in the rush hour (~1:30).

Once on the ship we were glad to see most of our luggage was already in our stateroom...last bag arrived about an hour later. We partook in the scavenger hunt to become familiar with the ship which was a fun way to learn the layout of the ship. We were last ship to sail away after a Holland ship and the Oasis...glad we were the only 3 ships in port as when we returned a week later there were 5 ships in port!! I'm sure sail away was much later that day! Read more