My husband, my 13-year-old daughter and I drove down to Miami from Atlanta the day before the cruise. I had used Priceline to book the Doubletree Surfcomber on South Beach. Though the room was a little small for the three of us, the hotel itself was nice and right on the beach. After breakfast, on the morning of the cruise, we spent a little time walking on the beach. That turned out to be a mistake as we didn't get to the port until a little after 12:00 p.m. and the line was already quite long. On my previous two cruises, I got to the port around 11:00 a.m. and never had much of a line to deal with. I have definitely learned my lesson and will make a solid effort to get to the port no later than 11:00 henceforth. I kind of lost track of time but I believe it took us around 50 minutes to make it through the line. I had filled out all our information online but the FunPass line was actually longer than the line for those who had not done the FunPass. Altogether, from arriving at the port to actually stepping onto the ship took about 1½ hours.

The Victory looks great. Having sailed on the Triumph last year, I was familiar with the layout. Personally, I preferred the more subdued dEcor of the Triumph but my husband (this was his first cruise) thought the Victory's dEcor was beautiful. He loved the mermaids and seahorses.

This being a Christmas cruise, the ship was adorned with nice holiday decorations. The decorations were very understated and quite similar to the ones I saw on the Triumph last year. Read more