This was my first cruise, therefore this review is geared toward the information for the first time cruisers. Instead of judgments or comparisons, I try to write down all the details that I wanted to know before the cruise. The information is based on a 4-day cruise started on 8/23/2004 from port of Miami, and may be specific to the ship.

Port Miami: Port of Miami was still under construction. It was quite a mess between the entrance of the port area (after the bridge) to the ship dock (the buildings). The Ship dock buildings were NOT under construction though. The main cruise lines that sailed from Miami port were RCI and Carnival. The docks for these two lines were not very close to each other.

Luggage handling: Luggage was taken at curb. Porters/luggage handlers would take properly labeled luggage at the curb and they were also happy to take some tip. Luggage tags were included in the cruise document booklet mailed to home, and the tags needed to be attached to all non-carry-on luggage. Our luggage was delivered to the outside of our room door in a couple of hours. There was no need to be present to receive them. The signs at the port said that carry-on luggage needed to meet the airline carry-on standard, although I've seen people carry luggage slightly larger then that. Upon arrival to the port, we waited a minute or two at the curb before a porter greeted us. We had a rental car, so we dropped off the luggage at the port first and returned the car and then took a shuttle back. We found that it would have been easier if we had just returned the car first and taken the luggage on to the shuttle bus provided by the rental car company (Alamo). Read more