First and foremost I would like to thank all who post to [Cruise Critic's] boards. Your comments, reviews and answers to our questions were instrumental in our planning the "vacation of a lifetime". From the start of our cruise adventure to the very last minute of our trip home, including the blizzard of 2003 - everything was absolutely wonderful.

We left for Miami from the cold northeast 2 days before the actual departure of our cruise, and with the unstable weather conditions this winter, this alleviated any worry of getting to the ship on time. If I were to offer any one piece of advice it would be to plan a little lead time getting to your cruise departure destination. Being well rested the day of departure allows one the opportunity to enjoy every minute. We arrived at the Port of Miami by 11:00 a.m. on February 9th. We were basically among the first 25 people in line waiting to start our adventure.

Boarding was painless, actually fun and a wonderful adventure. Seeing the ship at dock was magical and by no later than 1:00 p.m. we were standing on the balcony of our Panorama deck cabin. This was a wonderful surprise. We knew our cabin assignments by using the 'Kelly Method'. We had originally booked an 8A guarantee and were extremely happy with our cabin assignments as we were cruising with friends and our cabins were side by side. Read more