We are a couple in our mid-30's to early 40's respectively, from NJ directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia PA. This was my lady's 3rd cruise (2nd with Princess) and my 5th cruise (also 2nd with Princess). After a rough couple of months at our jobs we really looked forward to this break, both from work and from some fairly nasty weather in our area.

We flew down to Ft. Lauderdale a day early for this cruise. We had never done that before, and it turned out to be a real blessing as the Philadelphia area got NAILED with a nasty rain storm the weekend we left. Our flight departed PHL one hour late, hardly affecting our vacation at all. We arrived at our hotel (Gallery One, A Doubletree resort) at around 3pm Saturday, checked in, celebrated the beginning of our vacation, and hit the beach for an hour or so. We then went back to the hotel, and took the water taxi from the back patio of the hotel over to Las Olas for some dining and a nice long walk. We really liked our stay in Ft. Lauderdale. It is a lovely place, and Gallery One is a fine hotel that is not outrageously priced. Unfortunately we were awakened very early by some stupid rowdy spring breakers who were fist fighting and ultimately got the police and emergency squad involved. All this, plus we lost an hour sleep due to daylight savings time beginning.

My lady was bold enough to ask the hotel for a late checkout, and we were able to check out at noon. We shared a taxi to Port Everglades with a couple sailing on Celebrity Solstice (Each couple paid 25 dollars US plus tip). We arrived to find a very long line to check in to the ship. At around 1pm the line started moving very quickly. I'm pretty sure we were onboard by 2. Our bags were waiting for us when we arrived at our stateroom. We asked our stateroom steward to place an eggcrate on our mattress, and she did this for us. Our stateroom, Plaza 328, was a little narrower than our stateroom last year (P309 on Ruby) presumably to accommodate the adjacent stateroom's pulman bed. Between that and our toilet having a raw sewage smell, I was a little disappointed in the beginning. After rearranging some furniture though, and buying a little can of citrus air freshener (a little over $6.00 US but it lasted all week, and it absolutely works) which we used before and after each use of the toilet, we were quickly satisfied with our stateroom. It was a good location, 4 staterooms forward of the International Cafe, which we (especially I) enjoyed at least twice a day. The Piazza and the International Cafe are wonderful areas to relax, snack and coffee up, and to be entertained by musicians, jugglers, hoola hoop dancers, and other cool activities. Read more