What a fabulous cruise! The wife and I choose this cruise because the itinerary included ports that we had not previously visited and it was sailing over New Years.

We began our trip by flying from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza because they offered airport and cruise port shuttles. Sadly, the airport shuttle was unbearably slow, we waited over an hour to be picked up at the airport. The cruise port shuttle was handled by a third party company, and was very prompt. They also met us on our return and transferred us to the airport. The fare was $10 compared to Princess’ fare of $18.

Our boarding time was scheduled from 11:30 to 12. From the time we were dropped off to boarding the ship was maybe less than 45 minutes. It would have been 20 minutes less if there hadn’t been a power surge and the computer system had to reboot. Checking in with the Medallion app was very simple. While there may be a few issues with it, it can potentially be the best system in the cruise industry. Read more