Thursday - Travel Day We left our house for Logan Airport at 11:45am. We flew out of Boston to Ft. Lauderdale Direct. We boarded the plane on time at 3:15pm but then sat at the gate for three hours as they fixed a fuel filter. You've got to love Delta. We arrived into Ft Lauderdale at 9:30pm and picked up our rental car - we were late so Avis had taken our reservation down off the preferred board and gave us completely the wrong car, another 20 minutes to straighten that out. It was now too late to go to Bayside Market and have shrimp at Bubba Gumps so we went straight to our hotel, The Marriott Courtyard - What used to be known as the Cadillac Hotel - Right at the top (North End) of South Beach (Miami) in the Art Deco area. It is a Beautiful hotel - Tiny Room but very comfy bed. There was a Carraba's in the hotel and it was open so we went down to grab late dinner (10:30) of Crabcakes and Pizza. We headed up to bed to pass out and get ready for our exciting adventure on Majesty of the Seas. Friday - Embarkation Majesty of the Seas Up at 8:00ish. Packed up our bags and went downstairs for breakfast. The breakfast buffet at the Courtyard was good. We then grabbed our stuff from the room and headed out @ 10:00. We dropped the rental car off at Avis Miami Downtown (About 5 blocks from Port of Miami) and took a cab ($15) to POM RCI Cruise Terminal @ 10:45. Majesty was the very first cruise ship I ever sailed on back in 2001, but after sailing ships like Explorer and Liberty, She looked tiny. As we walked up to the ship I pointed out our balcony room to my wife who almost had a heart attack when she realized that I had upgraded us from a porthole on deck 5 to a Junior Suite with a balcony on Deck 10 - My Evil Plan was working. Deck 10 was the only deck with balconies and the smallest balcony room is the Junior Suite. Our Room was a Junior Suite so we got priority embarkation which was to say we got checked in quick but then had to wait in line for 30 minutes to get our pictures for our Sea Pass and actually board the ship. It was 11:30 when we actually boarded her. We signed up for the Coke Cards Immediately.

I remembered what Majesty was like back in 2001 and I had heard folks saying the she was showing her age and was out of date with the fleet and was small but I was pleasantly surprised. She looked great for a lady approaching 20. It was obvious that they had changed just about everything when she was refurbished a couple of years ago. The Johnny Rockets was bigger than on the voyager or freedom class ships. The new Sorrento's was nice and they had the new Deli which seemed to have a good menu. This is all in what used to be the upper level of the Windjammer.

We ate lunch in the Windjammer and waited for 1:00 when we could get into our room. Lunch was Mexican and a carving station with roast beef. We shared a Pina Colada and ate. At about 12:50 we walked down one deck to see our room, we had to wait about 5 minutes for them to open the fire doors to access the cabins. Our Room, Room 1070, is Starboard Aft. The room was very nice and even had a bathtub! Clarence was our room steward. Upon Entering the room, surprise #2 was waiting for my blushing bride, the evil plan now completed. There was a beautiful arrangement of flowers on the Coffee table, Two Royal Caribbean Robes, a fresh plate of chocolate covered strawberries and an iced down bucket with a bottle of Champagne. This was all part of the Grand Romance package. I had to use the shock paddles but after I got Marcy's heart pumping again she proclaimed her excitement about the room the package and how excited she was to be away alone for the weekend - It was all worth it! Read more