Tennessee for a week.  Immediately, the wheels started turning and my mouse was smokin' looking for cruise deals.  I have the opportunity to book under military discount and we soon nailed down one of three cruises that we found appealing.  We were considering Carnival Glory from Port Canaveral (on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary that week), Carnival Legend from Tampa (Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Belize and Roatan) or Carnival Valor from Miami.  We had sailed on Valor last November, with the kids and my Mother in Law, and were favorable to doing it again.  After careful research, we chose Valor again and not just based on cost which was slightly less with the other costs factored. 

We booked our cruise fare through the same travel agent as we did in November.  She always will beat or match what we find online.  I will provide her information, upon request, to any interested parties.   We booked our airfare through the discount site du jour with us arriving in the area the day prior.  I was tongue lashed by a lovely lady on our port transfer about how dumb I was for not paying the premium (and albeit) guaranteed airfare through Carnival.  We flew from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale non-stop, which was drastically cheaper than straight to Miami, 24 hours prior to the cruise departure.  I took my tongue lashing like the man I am and politely told her that there were no less than 12 additional routings that we could have taken to South Florida and still made the cruise with a lot of time to spare.  Carnival does do a fine job with the FlyAweigh program but I didn't feel like paying a premium rate for airfare.  Funny, my travel agent thought I had a good deal.

After our flight down, we stayed at the Sheraton Ft. Lauderdale Airport / Cruise Port Hotel.  Not only was the complimentary shuttle convenient and pleasant, but the accommodations were outstanding.  We arrived a little late and had some insignificant problems with the room.  The hotel staff made Herculean efforts to make amends, far surpassing any type of commensurate compensation.  I was using Starwood Preferred Guest points and they essentially "comped" me the room.  They provided supremely good customer service graciously presented by a remarkable staff.  We will use this facility again for cruises from Port Everglades (which is extremely close) or from Miami.  Read more