We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before we set sail. We stayed at the Fort Lauderdale Grande. The price was right ($69), the beds were very comfortable, and we had fun looking at the yachts in the marina. The hotel is a $13 cab ride from FLL.
Boarding:
From our hotel we could see our ship docked at Port Everglades. The hotel provided a free transfer to the port. We arrived at the port around 1:00 p.m. (the cruise booklet said that boarding began at 2:00 p.m. but we'd heard from other cruisers to try to board early). It took a short while to complete all the check-in procedures, and the next thing we knew, we were onboard looking for our staterooms. I liked being on deck 7 because it was very central -- two decks below the pool, two decks above the dining room. After finding our rooms, we bought our soda passes and our excursions. We had lunch, toured the spa and gym, and made our spa appointments. We had our luggage by 6 p.m.