This cruise line (MSC) received very mixed reviews on line which made me nervous. At the deal we were getting it seemed worth the risk - they could serve McDonalds food and we would likely get our money's worth.

We arrived in Ft Lauderdale by 11:30am and quickly noticed the yellow "Park and Ride" buses we were familiar with from our airport travel. We found the cost at the PnR to be less than the port parking, so pulled in and waited for the shuttle. On the way out of the lot, we saw monkeys in the trees (including some with little babies).

Though we were not supposed to begin embarkation until 2:00pm, we were too tired to do anything else but wait at the terminal. Turns out, they were already processing passengers, so we sailed through the whole process in about 20-30 min. A pleasant surprise was that we had been upgraded from a class 1 cabin to a Class 11 cabin with a balcony. We carried all but one of our bags on board, so we took a quick shower in our stateroom and were eating lunch at the buffet by 12:30pm. Then back to the room for a well deserved nap. The smoothest embarkation we had ever experienced. Read more