Background: Just DH and I (mid-30's) for this one! This was our third cruise overall and our first on RCI. We had been on Carnival and Princess before.

Hotel/Air: We decided to fly in a day early (a must) and finally found a decent (though still obscenely expensive) flight on Continental to Ft. Lauderdale. The days of cheap flights with no thoughts to security, baggage weight and fees are long gone, my friends. We arranged for SAS Transportation (they were fabulous by the way and VERY reasonably priced) to transport us to our hotel in Miami.

We booked the hotel through an online auction agency. It was a Doubletree on North Miami Beach. It was nice, but not as close to port and SoBe as I would have liked. Had to take the public transportation to get around town (yikes!) as we did not rent a car. Miami was fun and I wished we could have spent more time there! (Next time!) Read more