Booking: Went through a travel agent and booked my Dec 2-5, 2005 cruise in August. Paid $545 for an inside cabin in category 4c. Got airfare online by doing a search through Travelocity/travelzoo/orbits to see who was cheapest, then booked directly with the American Airlines webpage for $173/person after taxes. Another couple decided to join us at the last minute, paid $655 for an inside 4c cabin, and used FF miles for Southwest. I believe the cruise was not that full.

Preparations: Made my list from comments on several boards. Packing was perfect- took everything we needed, and didnt pack anything we didnt use. List will be posted in later follow up. Posted on Roll Call and found other folks on our cruise and made arrangements to hook up. We psyched each other out, and couldnt wait to get down to Miami.

Embarkation: Our flight was that morning at 6am out of Washingtons IAD airport. Way too early! Had to get up at 3am to make it to the airport on time. There were 3 couples in our party. We did early check in online, so all we had to do was check our luggage using the AA self assist and off to the gate we went. Security line at 5am was about 15 minutes long. We got to the gate and opened up a few baby bottles of champagne and OJ and we each got a small glass of celebratory pre-vacation mimosas. We cheered, wished for a good vacation and got on a full flight. After sleeping most of the way, we landed, grabbed a taxi and were on our way. We asked our driver to take us to a store, so we stopped around the corner from the airport at the Winn Dixie for sodas and Red Bulls. The cabbie didnt charge us for stopping, but we tipped him extra for taking care of us and not charging us. Read more