I'm a Chief Petty Officer, retired out of submarine engine rooms in the US Navy. My wife is an chemical engineer with experience operating a submarine engine room as well. We flew Southwest to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) two days before the cruise. We had a room reserved at Homestead Air Reserve Base (Homestead Inns). It's a little out of the way, about 25 miles from the Port of Miami, but you can't beat $39/night. The room was equipped with double bed, cable TV, refrigerator, microwave, full bath and free wifi. Unfortunately, no pool or commissary like you'd find at larger bases, but for the price, still hard to beat.

I rented a car from Hertz through AAA, so I got a good price on a full size car. At the counter, the clerk offered me an upgrade, wound up with a Volvo hard top convertible for about half the normal price. It was a blast driving around Miami with the top down while there was still snow on the ground at home. I lived in Miami in the 1960's. I took my GPS and searched out and found two of the houses we lived in to take pictures. In addition, a friend of mine from my early Navy days in CT lives in Homestead now, we met up with her and had lunch. Found the local Wal-Mart and bought some snacks and stuff to take with us on the ship.

Dropped the car off at the Hertz office nearest the port, the place was a zoo, with people that had just checked off the ship trying to get cars. We dropped the car and caught the free shuttle from the office to the Port of Miami, arriving about 11:30. Took a matter of minutes to check in, and we were on our way aboard ship. There was quite a large pile of contraband liquor, beer, pocket knives, candles, irons, etc. The usual excuses, my agent told me it was okay to bring two bottles of wine, bottle of Jack Daniels, etc. Didn't matter, the security agent took it all. Even checked the empty water bottle in my bag. I spoke to various people through the cruise, as is always the case, some managed to smuggle booze on successfully, many others were called to the naughty room to open their luggage for inspection. Booze smuggling is luck of the draw, you take your chances, and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Read more