My wife and I decided to take a cruise to celebrate our one-year wedding anniversary. It was just the two of us traveling (we don't have any kids, no in-laws came along, etc.) and neither of us had ever been on a cruise before. We were very eager for the trip, but still had a little trepidation as the time approached based on all the good and bad we had heard/read about cruising. All in all, we had a great time, but unfortunately got to experience a big part of the negative aspect of cruising (more on that later). For easy reading, I'll take it section by section:

Travel to Miami: This was one of my biggest concerns as we had booked the trip to leave during Super Bowl weekend in Miami. I had booked a hotel room about 6 months in advance for the night before, and the best I could find was a Quality Inn about 15 miles south of the city. However, it all went smoothly as we didn't have any problem with our flight, rental car, or hotel. We had a leisurely Saturday morning before taking a cab to the Port of Miami.

Embarkation: The first of many pleasant surprises. I had warned my wife to be prepared for long and uncomfortable waits to get onboard, based on various things I had read. I don't know if it was just a good day, or we got there at the perfect time, but we arrived at the port around 1:15 and were probably standing in our cabin by 2:00. Everything went very smoothly and our luggage was probably in our cabin by 4:00. Read more