I'll be doing this on a rating scale of A (best) - F (worst) and covering the areas that we had an opportunity to experience.

Sailing out of Port Charleston was not as much of a hassle as we anticipated based on the comments we had seen prior to our departure. We had a stay, park and cruise package at the Rodeway Inn in Mount Pleasant. When booking I had been advised the rate included the transportation cost to the cruise port. Upon check in they tried to say it didn't. The hotel does not have a shuttle; they have a shuttle service that they use. Ultimately, they did pay for a cab, there and upon our return. I would rate the hotel at a C. The stay included breakfast in the morning and our car was parked in the front of the hotel in view of the front desk. The rooms were okay, nothing fancy, but for the price, it was well worth it. The port was no more then 10 -15 minutes away - directly across the bridge.

After taking advantage of early luggage drop-off (I'd recommend strongly to all), we had the cab drop us off to look around the Charleston market. Very stuffy and hot and really not much there that interested us. I think it had more to do with being so hot and all we wanted to do was get on board. We headed over to the "tent" to grab a seat (of which there were about 10) and sit in the only shade available. We did inquire if there was anything in particular we needed to do for VIP and were immediately dismissed by the security officer. "There's no such thing". So, we sat and waited, we got onto the first shuttle and eventually at about 11:45 were off to the check in. Overall I would rate this part of the embarkation a C. Read more