After a long flight from the UK we landed in Miami and were picked up by Terry, a kind member of Cruise Critic who kindly offered to pick us up from the airport and drop us at our hotel and to "pay it forward". Boy were we pleased to see him after a nearly ten hour flight and about a ninety minute wait at immigration where the lines were horrendous. Even with our ESTA's in hand, fingerprints and iris scans it still took forever.

We arrived at the Renaissance hotel and check in was swift, we had a rollaway for our daughter. The beds were sooooooo comfortable and we slept well. Breakfast was not included and we treated ourselves to the buffet in the morning. Very good. Checkout was smooth and the van to take us to the ship was waiting at the front of the hotel. Cost was 6 dollars each.

Check in was chaos at the terminal. The lines were huge. Luckily, we had fast check in or whatever they call it so we were soon on board after filling in paperwork to say we weren't I'll etc. Read more