Miami Arrived in Miami early Friday afternoon and was transferred very smoothly by Royal Caribbean to the Marriott in Dadeland. Spent the rest of the day shopping at the Dadeland Mall which was a 5 minute walk away but due to jet lag we crashed out at 7:30pm!!!

Day 1 - embarkation All I can say is WOW have these guys got it sorted at Miami. We arrived at approx 1pm and was onboard and all sorted by 1:45pm and headed straight to our cabin - we had 8288 which was really lovely although I will NEVER book mid ship again as it killed us every port day with the long walk LOL Then headed up to Windjammer for lunch - not as packed as I had expected which was great and very easy to find a seat. Muster drill was organized as usual but horrendous in the heat - definitely don't go there early as it makes it worse in that humidity! Our cases arrived about 7pm which meant it was nice to change for dinner and we found we had a table of 6 with 2 excellent couples and had a real giggle. Robert who was our head waiter on AOS was with us again this year and it was great to catch up, he even remembered when we sailed last year!!! For the parade we decided it was going to be really heaving so watched from the balconies on deck 8 and had a much better view although most of the parade seems to happen as usual mid ship.

Day 2 - sea day The weather was perfect and boy did I get burnt!!! Had lunch late at 3pm which was a mistake as it was awfully busy in WJ. Formal night was fab and it was great to see lots of people making the effort. Read more