Background: My husband and I were celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary with my parents who were celebrating their 34th anniversary and my parents closest friends who were celebrating their 35th. We have all traveled with RCCL before numerous times and definitely consider ourselves to be VERY LOYAL TO ROYAL! We love everything about it and have been on all the levels of ships from the smallest to now the biggest in the world - a.k.a. Liberty!

Day Before: We flew into Ft. Lauderdale the day before and stayed at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Miami, Fl. The hotel was fabulous - beautiful, clean, free full cooked-to-order breakfast as well as a manager's reception with free drinks from 5-7 all included with your stay. I would highly recommend this hotel because all of the rooms are suites with a living area and a bedroom, a wet bar and a huge bathroom! We used Miamibeach411.com to book our transportation arrangements, which also worked out great. They picked us up at the airport, brought us to the hotel, brought us from the hotel to the pier on Saturday and from the pier to the airport the following Saturday. They were a little expensive in my opinion but a private shuttle picks up your group only and all the taxes, tips, tolls etc. are included - so I really can't complain!

Embarkation: We arrived at the pier around 11:30 AM and thought that we might have to wait since we got there so early. We used the Platinum check-in and were in line to board the ship in about 15 minutes. There were some passengers from the previous cruise that were still getting off the ship so we waited about 30 minutes for the ship to clear and then were on board by about 12:15 - it was fabulous! The ship is truly unbelievable from the moment you step on board and you will be in awe of the size and awesomeness of it! Read more