After several months of contemplating a vacation, my husband finally decided that we should go on a cruise. We booked this cruise about a month in advance. We were somewhat disappointed that there didn't seem to be any discount in the price considering the fact that this is hurricane season and we didn't book too far in advance. On our last cruise we had a balcony room so we decided to book a room that overlooked the promenade for this cruise.

We flew to Miami from the akron/canton airport and had a short layover in Charlotte. In Charlotte they announced that the flight to Miami had been overbooked and were asking for volunteers to give up their seats in return for free round trip tickets to use in the future. We were going to be staying in Miami for 2 nights before our cruise began so we thought it was a great opportunity to get some free airline tickets. So, we volunteered our seats and were guaranteed seats on the next flight to Ft. Lauderdale with free transportation to Miami. While waiting for the flight to Ft. Lauderdale they announced that that flight was also overbooked and were looking for volunteers to give up their seats. We were getting worried that we wouldn't be able to make it to Miami that night. Eventually they found enough volunteers and we got seats on that flight. However, there was more issues when we arrived at the Miami airport. Our luggage had been locked inside the US airway office and there was no one there to let us in. We ended up waiting about 45 minutes for someone to come.

Finally we were able to make our way to the beautiful Seaview Hotel in Bal Harbour. We stayed at this hotel on our previous cruise and loved it so much that we knew we wanted to come back. We were disappointed this time to find the sea view cafe closed. We loved to eat there for lunch and breakfast. I guess it is only open during the winter months because it's too hot in the summer. The hotel does have a dining room and bar so we were able to still eat there. The coffee is really good and for breakfast you can get a big bowl of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. It was so good! Read more