First, I am a 29 year old hispanic male from New York City, I went with my girlfriend and another couple on a five day, Key West, Cozumel, Belize cruise. I have never been on a cruise and learned a lot as I went along on my cruise , with help from the boards on this web site.

I left Monday morning ( the day of the cruise ), happy, excited, refreshed. I had heard ( after I already booked my airfare ) that it is better to get to the port a day or two ahead of the scheduled departure. I was a little nervous of my luggage not arriving. Getting to Ft. Lauderdale from New York was a breeze, I took JetBlue $79 both ways. The flight out was smooth, no delays,arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 2pm, luggage arrived on time, no sweat, so far so good.

Got to the port, dropped off my luggage with the porters, they were all very nice, a young lady actually took my bags to the holding area. I had no problems, I gave her a $5 tip, I had 3 bags to check in. She never asked, I just gave. Went inside, we showed our documents, left a credit card for the sea pass ( even though we put cash on the account once we got on board at the purser desk, so we wouldn't go crazy spending money ). Sign here, sign there, picture here, picture there, and we're on board. The time it took from dropping the bags to actually getting on board, no more than a full 15 minutes, no lie. Read more