Ship: NCL Pearl Miami/Western Caribbean Feb 22 09- Mar 1 09 7 day cruise Ports Roatan Island Honduras Belize City Belize Cozumel Mexico Great Stirrup Cay Bahamas

Pre trip Miami: Readers Digest version: Hotel Roma- don't stay here- bad facility, miles from terminal (and anything else)

Long version: (Caution! I need to get this part of the 'adventure' off my chest it's cheaper than therapy but it runs a while, so if you just want to know about the cruise, skip waaaaay down the page to the heading 'ON WITH THE CRUISE'. I won't be offended- honest. We booked a room thru Hotel.com at the Hotel Roma and Golden Glades (I'm not making that up and the name alone should have triggered alarm bells- it used to be called El Palicio, which is why the cab drivers didn't know it), which was reported to be 5 minutes to cruise terminal with a shuttle bus. Cheap price - $69/nt- we prepaid online. Nightmare began with no cabs at the airport having any idea of where the hotel was! Without too much detail (OK- I lied, plenty of detail coming up) it took three different cabs to get us to the Hotel Roma, which was about 20 minutes and a $40 cab ride to the cruise terminal (no shuttle). Also, it was in the middle of nowhere and had just changed hands, so the beds were awful (hammock slope), general repair of the hotel terrible, and the continental breakfast the worst ever. One of two elevators didn't work, wi-fi didn't work, courtesy computer out of order etc. Even the telephone didn't function properly- you had to call the front desk and give them the number you wanted to call and then they'd connect you. Read more