Our family of 4 (two children; 10 and 6) were first time cruisers. We flew into Orlando on Saturday, the day before departure, as it was much cheaper than flying into Miami. We rented a car from Alamo and stayed at a hotel in West Palm Beach. In the morning we returned the car to the Miami airport and caught the free Alamo shuttle to the seaport - all quite uneventful and everything worked out as planned.

The security check, cruise check in and embarkation was simple enough but took about nearly an hour due to the long lines at 12 noon.

Our balcony cabin (highly recommended if you have kids sharing the room with you) was ready and our stateroom team was on hand to welcome us and explain all we needed to know - very helpful for first timers. The only glitch on the first evening was that our last bag did not make it to our cabin until 7pm so we could not dress for our 5.45pm sitting in the formal dining room, so we just ate at the buffet on the Lido deck - which was just fine. Read more