Arrival
DW and I (ages 51) flew down to Miami from Minneapolis the day before our cruise departure on Jan. 8, 2012. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Miami Airport South. Being close to the airport as it was, the hotel was rather noisy as it was right beneath the flight pattern for take-offs. Additionally, the hotel is located at a rather busy intersection so there was a fair amount of street noise too.
After picking up our luggage at baggage claim, the hotel was given a call and their free shuttle arrived within a few minutes. Upon arrival at the hotel, arrangements were made for transport the next day to the cruise terminal which was available at $12/person. The next morning the shuttle busses were early and we departed for the ship at 11:00 am and arrived at the cruise ship terminal at 11:30 am.
Our cabin was 1004 on the Panorama Deck. It was a handicapped accessible room and because of this there was more room than usual. Neither of us are handicapped. So the bathroom was larger than usual and so was the shower. However, the only complaint was an occasional "clanking" noise which mostly occurred during the day. Not sure where that was coming from. Being up on the 10th deck I wouldn't think it was from the ship interacting with what waves we had. It would have been nice too if there were chairs out on the public balcony area in front of our room. We saw that there were chairs on a Carnival sister shipped when were docked in Cozumel.