Our vacation started with an uneventful flight to Miami on Saturday. Both legs of the flight were slightly ahead of schedule and we arrived just before 6:30 PM, called the hotel and inquired about a shuttle. We were told where to go outside and one would be by in a few minutes. Well...almost an hour later we were finally picked up by a van.....we were so packed in that DW had to ride in my lap. There was no way I was going to wait another hour though. We originally booked the Clarion Collection Las Palmas Hotel. About two weeks before our flight we learned the hotel had been sold to Holiday Inn...it was now Holiday Inn Express at Doral. Our reservation was still confirmed so ok...right? Wrong...they were obviously going through start-up pains because they were so disorganized it was ridiculous. Oh well...c'est la vie!

Sunday morning the hotel had shuttles to the port every hour starting at 10:00 AM for $9 pp. We signed up for the 11:00 shuttle and came downstairs at 10:30 to check out. Somehow they did not have us down for the shuttle!! Luckily it was the same guy at the desk and I was able to jog his memory. Unfortunately, once again the shuttles were overbooked. We got outside with our bags so we were in the front of the line...I wasn't going to miss a seat or have DW ride on my lap again! Surprise, surprise...the shuttles were already running late. Ours finally arrived at around 11:45. Needless to say I would not recommend this hotel. The one kind of cool thing about it though, was we found the Carnival Cruise Lines Headquarters building was one block away.

Embarkation: We finally arrived at the port a little after noon, gave our checked baggage to a porter, and headed to the port terminal. Oh happy day, there were no lines at security, we got right through and were directed upstairs. Here we found the cattle runs fairly full. The Carnival staff was efficient though and kept things moving. We were on board just before 1:00 PM, took quick tour of the ship, and enjoyed lunch on the Lido deck before going to our cabin. Read more