Jan 11 - 18 Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Crown Princess

My wife, brother in law, sister in law, and I were all on the January 11th sailing of the Crown Princess out of Fort Lauderdale. This was our first Princess cruise since January of 2005. We had been happy with Princess on our previous cruises, but wanted to try some of the other lines to see how we liked them.

We flew from Kansas City to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday January 10th. We didn't want to fly in on the day of the cruise due to airline tendency to change flights. We flew Airtran, which in all honesty I wouldn't recommend. They do have a nice upgrade to business class policy, for a very reasonable rate. But in coach class, the seats are old and terribly uncomfortable. Also their baggage handlers apparently don't care about taking care of your luggage, as 3 of the 4 bags that we checked were badly damaged. Airtran agreed to replace one of the bags, but the damage to the other 2 was considered "Normal Wear". Personally I don't see how having handles, and external attachments ripped off, and big dents in brand new hardside luggage can be considered normal wear. Plus another passenger we saw with hardside luggage had a bag totally crushed. I appeared that it had been run over by something and was shattered. Needless to say we won't be taking Airtran again. We used Hotwire to reserve hotels in Plantation for the night of January 10th, and on the beach in Fort Lauderdale for the night of January 18th. Got good deals on both, and both were very nice. Would strongly recommend Hotwire! The Residence Inn in Plantation, and the Courtyard Marriott in Fort Lauderdale are both very nice hotels. Read more