Arrived in Miami December 2nd...stayed at the DoubleTree Hilton in North Miami. We had a 2 bedroom suite with full living room, kitchen and dining room. We also had a huge balcony with a beautiful view of the beach. We were traveling with 2 other couples so splitting the cost of the room was real cheap. Beautiful hotel definitely recommend!

We arrived at the Port about 11am December 3rd. There were signs posted that boarding would take place at 4pm instead of 2pm. We followed the suite line for priority check-in and when we arrived at the counter we were given a letter stating there were a number of people sick on the previous sailing with Norovirus symptoms. In turn, they were busing us to Parrot Jungle for the afternoon with full access to the entire park with free food and drink. We were a little stunned but happy RCL was taking this serious and handling the situation. We basically went with the flow and arrived at Parrot Jungle, had some food and drinks walked around and then realized about 3900 more people have now showed up. It was quite crowded as you can imagine. We began to realize how unrealistic it would be to get back on a bus with all these people. The six of us walked out to the street and flagged down a taxi and were on the ship by 3:50PM. After talking to people who waited and finally got on the ship after 8PM, we knew we made the right decision. I have to say, Parrot Jungle never ran out of food or cold drinks the entire time we were there. They did a great job of handling this amount of people. Well done!

Once on the ship we went straight to our room and found all our luggage waiting for us. We had done very well in the casino on the Mariner last November, so we decided to upgrade to a Junior Suite for this cruise. What a difference! We loved the extra room. Some don't care the size of their cabin, however, we like to sit on our balcony and do definitely spend time in our room. It was 287sq ft. with 101sq ft. balcony...loved it!!! Read more