Embarkation: It was a breeze. We took a taxi from the Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale and were on the ship within a half hour even though the Terminal was VERY busy! We headed straight to the H2O Zone for the kids to play, ate at Windjammer and then headed to our room for the kids to nap and to unpack.

The room: We had an Aft Facing Junior Suite on Deck 10. It was LARGE...plenty of room for the 4 of us, plenty of storage, and the fold out couch was better than expected. I had no worries about the kids falling off in the night because of the way it was set up. Being aft has its pros and cons. Pros: giant balcony, quiet hallway, extra calories burned from the long walks to the room. Cons: Some vibration when going into port. I noticed it most at Labadee (it woke me at 4am). There was also an intermittent banging noise occurring at 1am, the source of which I never discovered. We got used to it. The balcony is also completely covered. This could be a pro or a con depending on the weather. For us it was a slight con.

Our bags: They were at our room by 2pm. Read more