We booked our cruise directly with HAL and made all of our own arrangements pre and post cruise. We flew to Ft. Lauderdale from Philadelphia on January 9, 2015 and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Dania Beach, close to both the airport and Port Everglades. The hotel was clean, well located and offered free breakfast. We took a cab from the airport to the hotel for $20. We could have waited for the free shuttle from the hotel but it was a 25 minute wait and we chose to go on our own. That evening we walked about 2 blocks from the hotel to Grandpa's restaurant, after getting directions from the hotel desk clerk. We had great sandwiches there. The restaurant won several annual awards for "best diner" and "Best bakery." There were many pastries, cakes, cookies and cupcakes also for sale.

In the morning we ate the breakfast in the hotel dining room. There were hot items as well as cereals, breads for toasting, coffee, tea, milk, juice, danishes and other assorted breakfast items. It was a clean area with an attendant and was plenty for us to eat. At about 10:30 we took another cab to the ship at Port Everglades, about 5 minutes away. We could have taken the ship shuttle from the hotel but the price was the same as a cab and it would not be going to the port until 11:30. We wanted to go earlier so we took a cab. When we arrived at the port there were attendants standing around waiting to take our luggage, ensuring we had the appropriate tags attached, and guiding us into the terminal. From hotel room to terminal check in was about 10 minutes. There was no one ahead of us in line so we walked up the next open attendant and checked aboard. We had completed all of the pre boarding check in online so we only had to present our boarding passed we had already printed out, stand still for a photo, and we were handed our cabin cards and led into the terminal waiting area. HAL had some of the ship's crew in the waiting area with water and raisin rolls. Staff were walking around offering them to passengers while they waited. We also had received a number which was a call number for when we would board. At 11:30 they began boarding by calling out the numbers we had been given. At first the woman doing the calling did not have a microphone and it was really not effective as most in the terminal could not hear the woman. Finally after about 10 minutes someone arrived and gave her a mic to use and it went much more efficiently. Before noon we were aboard the ship. We were told our cabin was not ready but we could go to the Lido for lunch, or, because we were Mariner returning cruisers, we could go to the dining room for lunch. We went to the dining room, which had just opened and were given a good lunch from a short menu of about 6-8 items. It was so nice to have lunch served to us this way rather than having to find a line in the Lido and then hope to find a table.

Before we were done with our lunch, an announcement was made that cabins were now ready. We had been upgraded to a Signature verandah cabin just a couple of days earlier, so we set off to find cabin 6143. We were not sure how much of an upgrade this would be so we were pleasantly surprised to find that there were about 100 additional square feet, which meant we had a sofa instead of a loveseat in the living area. We also had an additional chair, an ottoman, a second long vanity, a tub AND a shower with two sinks in the bathroom. There were extra drawers and storage areas everywhere, even under the bed. The balcony had two chairs with ottomans and a table between them, along with a round table with two chairs for eating if desired. We were quite happy with this upgrade. Read more