My brother and I are veteran cruisers. My brother has done 11 cruises and I have sailed 17. We brought our cousin along this time for his first ever cruise. This was the Fascinations 1st 7 day cruise...it was GREAT! My brother and I drove down from Rockford IL to Indianapolis IN and overnighted there, picked up our cousin then drove just past Atlanta, woke up early again and hit the road to Jacksonville FL. We stayed over night at the La Quinta Inn airport north. It was fine for a quick place to sleep, but wasn't the best. It was around a lot of restaurants. Room was ok, a bit small, kind of smelled musty, but I have noticed most hotels in Florida, do smell like that lol.

I booked this cruise because of the price. for a 7 day cruise, outside room, booking 2 weeks before departure we paid $450 per person!! we also looked at a 5 day cruise for $379, but we thought..heck, for the extra $71 per person and 2 extra days, lets go big! plus were driving 18 hours, we may as well make the most of it!

The next morning we woke up and drove to the port. We ended up parking at a lot right near the port for $8 a day. You are given tickets and board in order. Apparently, this is hard for adults to understand. The ship took longer to disembark due to a drug bust/arrest from a passenger that tried to smuggle in drugs (idiot!). Their shuttles from the lot started at 1030. we were numbers 41,42,43. So, they started calling numbers 1-33 to get into the first few shuttles, somehow, people that got there after us, were numbers 60, 90 etc. managed to get on the shuttle. VERY disorganized. I told my brother, if we are to ever sail out of Jax again, we pay the extra and pay at the port. Read more