We live in the Tampa area so we didn't have to fly. We just had Super Shuttle pick us up at our home to the port. We just took our bags to the shuttle and had a porter pickup our bags at the port drop off curb. Nice since we had six bags that consisted of 2 suitcases, a backpack of gifts, a cooler of wine, a bag with shoes and misc stuff, and a carryon. We didn't have to walk far with these bags coming back either. Porter pickup our bags after embarkation and to the curb for shuttle pickup. The bags were heavier as they will filled with lots of bottles of booze, coffee, and other touristy stuff.

Both embarkation and disembarkation were better organized and slower, casual pace (unlike FLL). We didn't feel hurried or rushed to get on or off. A porter got our bags at the curb We were group #11 to board. We actually waited in our stateroom to disembark and were one of the first groups to get off (group #3). We did have to wait about an hour for Super Shuttle to pick us but I will know in the future when they arrive and put a later time for disembarking (by 30 min).

We had a couple of nice gifts waiting for us in our cabin - our TA had a bon voyage gift of wine (2) and dinner at the Pinnacle Grill. Totally unexpected and appreciated. Our celebration package we had ordered from Ship Svcs. only had the flowers and champagne in the room on arrival to the cabin. Due to their new computer system, seems a lot of people had late delivery of gifts. We got the rest of our celebration stuff the next morning (the staff seem to knock on the door at the most inopportune times) with the cake the last night (but delivered late). Finally got our 2 T-shirts we ordered but never did get our beach towel that we also ordered. We also received our 2 Veendam tiles and HAL cloth bag later that week. Read more