This was our 16th cruise and the 12th to the caribbean.We live just outside of Atlanta and drive to Ft. Lauderdale, extending our vacation by a few days. We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Ft. Lauderdale Plantation prior to sailing. The hotel is about 20 minutes from the pier and was a great choice. You are not far from the Sawgrass Mall but you do need a car to get around. We were on Marriott Rewards so I do not know the normal room rate. Would stay there again. We usually pick the week after Presidents Day to sail to avoid kids out of school. Understand there were 848 passengers from Brazil on board and apparently school was out in Brazil. When you add this to what may be a normal compliment of kids, well I guess you can see where I am going.Embarkation was easy. Got to the pier, dropped off the luggage, and was through reception in about 20 minutes. This was our first experience with e-docs and at the suggestion of our travel consultant, we made our own luggage tag by using copies of the tag in the documents and clear mailing tape. Worked fine.

This was our first cruise on a mega ship. The Independence is classy and the designers did a great job planning people movement. Never waited any longer for an elevator or a table at the buffet than on smaller ships.

Our stateroom was great, plenty of room to store our clothes. The veranda was bigger than other ships, however, there was a smoker upwind that interfered with our time out there. The corners of the bed are rounded that makes it easier to get around. Only complaint is that the stateroom door has a strong closer on it that cause it to close with a bang that rattles the walls. Read more