This was a much needed vacation! We weren't very worried about hurricanes, as the most important thing was that we are away from life for awhile.
We flew from Boston to Miami two days prior due to using frequent flier miles. We got a great rate at the Renaissance Ft. Lauderdale. The Renaissance was a nice hotel with a very nice pool area - they will bring drinks out to you there so you can have quite an enjoyable afternoon sitting poolside.
We put our names on the list for their van to bring us to port (4.00 pp). We got to the pier by 11:30. There was already quite the line waiting for embarkation. There was a bit of a wait. At 12:00 they started letting us in. We were onboard by 12:30.