Departure day: This cruise was to celebrate our 9 year anniversary, and it was the first cruise we took without any other family members. We flew Southwest into FLL from Baltimore on the morning of the cruise (9/7/06) and had no problems. We caught a cab at the airport and were at the port in less than 10 minutes, for around $15 with tip. We dropped our luggage with the porters and walked right in to the check-in area. We had completed all our forms online and had our SeaPass printed so we were checked in very quickly ( less than 5 min).

We proceeded onto the ship and were onboard around noon. We forgot to pack our bathing suits in our carryons, so we went and had lunch in the Windjammer then walked around and waited for our room to be ready (they said 1 pm). Once our room was ready, we went and waited for our bags, which showed up shortly after. We put on our bathing suits and went to the pool deck for a celebratory Miami Vice ( half daiquiri, half pina colada) Mmmmm, sooo good. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the ship, then ate dinner in the dining room where Brenda and Nem were our wait staff.

We had made plans to meet some of the CC'ers from the message boards at the Schooner Bar, which we did. We also went to Karaoke and cheered for our new friend Renata as she belted out Madonna's Material Girl. You go, girl ! We watched the welcome aboard show, which was a funny comedian. He also had an adult show at midnight on the next night, which we also saw. Read more