We arrived a few days early and drove to Key West for two nights. The night before embarkation we spent at the Pembroke Pines Hampton Inn. The hotel met our needs but one of the rooms smelled distinctly mouldy. Free breakfast and parking was provided and the price was right so all in all not too bad. The next morning we dropped our rental car off at the Port Everglades location and caught their shuttle to the pier.
Embarkation was the quickest we've ever experienced. We arrived at the pier around 11:30am and were on the ship before noon. There were no lines and the check in staff were friendly and efficient.
Once on board we were in awe of the ship. We had lunch at the Park Cafe and ran into a couple we had met on a previous cruise (small world)! We went up to the flowrider deck to check them out and saw a bunch of people standing in line so joined them though we weren't sure what the line was for at the time. It turned out that everyone needs to get a wrist band before you can go on the flowriders, rock climbing walls or zip line even if you have already signed all your waivers. Once that was taken care of our 12 year old was keen to try the stand up surfing. His last cruise on Freedom of the Seas he was not tall enough so was excited to try it this time. By the end of the week he was doing 360's on the surfboard!