For our 25th Anniversary my wife and I decided to book a cruise. Being new to cruising we contacted a local TA. She handled everything for us and judging by what I have seen online and read here on CC I believe we got a very fair deal. I will book through her again.

Our vacation started with an uneventful flight to Tampa on Saturday. We arrived just before 5:00 PM, called the hotel and were picked up by their shuttle within 15 minutes. We stayed at The Renaissance at International Plaza, a beautiful hotel near the airport.

Sunday morning we had the hotel arrange for a taxi to the port - only negative about the hotel, no shuttle to port. Being anxious to get on the ship we had the taxi pick us up at 10:15 AM. The fare to the port was $16.50 which I thought was pretty good since I expected $20 - 25. Read more