Background Info: My wife and I were on the January 28 Southern Caribbean 9 Day sailing of the Norwegian Dawn. It was our 12th cruise overall and 2nd with NCL. Last year we cruised on the Pearl. We have also been on 9 Carnival & 1 Royal Caribbean. Most of our previous cruises have been with our daughter primarily during President's Week. However, DD is now a freshman in college so this was our first cruise as "empty nesters".

Pre-Cruise: We flew into Fort Lauderdale Thursday afternoon arriving around 2:30 p.m. Living from Michigan; we fly in the day before we cruise. We used SAS Transportation to take us to the Holiday Inn at the Port of Miami. Cost was $15 per person plus tip. I called the number they gave me as soon as I secured our luggage and we were on our way within 20 minutes. The ride trip took about 40 minutes.

The Holiday Inn - POM is an old hotel. The room was clean and that's most important. The bed was decent but the bathroom is very small. Not the best hotel but certainly not the worst hotel in which I have stayed. The price worked for me ($99 on a discount website). A big plus is the location. The hotel was a short walk to the Bayside Marketplace which is an outside mall with a nice variety of stores and attractions. And most importantly ....a Starbuck's. We spent a couple of hours walking around and had dinner. They have a couple of excellent Cuban restaurants. It was a very relaxing way to spend the late afternoon. Later I found a local liquor store and a CVS for some last minute shopping. The next morning we caught a cab to the port. It was only about a 10 minute ride and cost $15 including tip. Read more