Hotel and Pre-cruise travel.

We flew to Ft. Lauderdale the day before our sailing and stayed at the Los Palmas Hotel in Miami. We rented a car at the Ft. Lauderdale airport because we had 8 people total, including two children and one coming on a separate flight a little while after ours and we felt like having a car would really benefit us. This was one of the best decisions we made. We used our car to make two trips from the airport to our hotel, then later that evening we went to the grocery store to pick up the beverages and other last minute things we needed. We were very happy with our hotel choice and my kids, age 4 and 6 were sooo thrilled with swimming in the outdoor pool in the middle of winter. (We're from Michigan). We were concerned about the news of the noro and worried that our embarkation might be delayed or slow, so our car came in handy again. We sent out a scout on Sunday morning to see when they might start boarding. Everyone we spoke to either knew nothing about the noro outbreak, or was acting like it was totally no big deal. So, the scout came back to pick up the first of the group, then the second of the group, then two went to return the car and the avis people allowed them to ride the bus back to the port. This entire process from when the scouts came and picked up the first group took maybe an hour. Yes, it was a lot of running around, but we were more concerned about being hotel-less and stranded at the port if they were going to begin boarding late.

Embarkation. Once our entire group was together we began boarding. All eight of us got through in a total of probably 20-30 minutes. Someone asked me if I was with the children and I said yes, they separated us and took us to a special line where were the very next people to be waited on. I think it was sort of like a special-needs line for people who maybe needed to processed a little quicker and that was great. The woman who helped us was very friendly and nice. We were concerned because the four of us (my husband, myself and our two girls) didn't have passports, but we had our birth certificates. We had no trouble at all. It was a little more inconvenient for me personally to have to hold on to all those pieces of paper, but as far as getting on the boat no problem. We got through the picture taking (and it ended up being the one picture of all of us together, so we ended up buying it later in the week - so do it - it can't hurt) and we were on the boat at about 1:00pm. Read more