This was, technically, our 4th, and actually our 3rd, cruise, so far all with Princess. It was hands down our favorite so far, with the others being Alaska on the Sea Princess and Honolulu-Tahiti-Honolulu (back to back) on the Dawn being 2 & 3. Embarkation was a breeze. We stayed over at the Hilton arranged through Princess, having flown in the day before from Hawaii. We went to the hotel gym, had coffee and joined up with the waiting group for transport in time to make the last bus to the port. The lines were pretty moderate by that time and we were about 45 minutes from arrival to on board. Our luggage arrived on board about mid-afternoon, but we heard of other folks who didn't get theirs until quite late, and one couple whose luggage never did catch up with them until we arrived in Aruba, the last stop before Ft. Lauderdale.

Disembarking was also relatively easy, and, for a change, it seemed like everyone had actually done their customs thing when we were ready to leave, so it was just a matter of finding luggage and getting transport to our rental car, neither of which was much of a hassle. Ft. Lauderdale is a pretty easy port facility to get around in and they seem to have their act together so things went smoothly.

We had a balcony cabin on Aloha Deck, which afforded about the only balconies with even a touch of privacy. All the others were quite visible from the decks above them. Ours was the top deck with balconies, so we had views of everyone else, but were less exposed than most. Read more