Hello we are a family of 4 my husband 47 yrs, my two sons aged 13 and 10 yrs of age and myself 48 yrs old. This was our 1st cruise so didn't know what to expect but it far exceeded our expectations. We are from Iowa and we drove to Minneapolis, MN and flew to Miami FL on Sunday and stayed overnight at the Homewood suites by Hilton Miami-Airport on Blue Lagoon Drive. The rooms were very nice, ours had a separate bedroom with a king size bed. The living room had a sofa that pulled out into a bed a cushioned chair and a foot stool for it a flat screened TV on a stand, 2 end tables with lamps,a plant in one corner and a nice view of the street with palm trees. The kitchen had a small table and 2 chairs a stove, refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher and the cupboards had dishes and utensils. The bathroom had a big area with a sink and hair dryer and the bathroom had a shower and tub. It was very nice,nothing I would change for $188 advance purchase. We took a Taxi to a beach I believe Miami beach that had a board walk that was behind a lot on fancy hotels we walked thru a nice hotel and right down to the beach and played in the ocean for a few hrs than took the Taxi back to the hotel ordered pizza, watched TV and off to bed.

The next morning, Monday we ate the continental breakfast that came with the room.It was very good eggs,sausage,waffles,cereal, croissants, fruit and toast, good variety. Then it was into a taxi and off to the Port of Miami to board the ship we arrived about 10:45 and we had VIP boarding since we had a Grand Suite booked. (Originally we had a standard balcony room on Empress deck 7 but got a call from the Carnival upgrade Fairy a little less then a week before our cruise and we upgraded and I'm so very glad we did.)We gave our luggage to an attendant at the curb except for or 4 carry ons and were shown into 2 big rooms with couches and chairs which we got to stay in until we boarded. They had water and lemonade for us to drink.I went into the main boarding area to use the restroom and there were the other almost 3000 people waiting to board the ship, it was very crowded and noisy but everyone was very excited I kinda wished I had been out there with them. There was a wedding on board so the wedding party boarded 1st and then it was our family and the maybe 20 others that were in the VIP room, it was around 11:45 or noon I believe.

The first view was wonderful we went onto the lido deck with waiters carrying lots of DOD (drinks of the day)so of course we each had 1 and the kids had punch. The rooms weren't ready till 1:30 so we ate lunch at the buffet lots of new things to try (should have wrote down or had a tape recorder since my memory isn't very good) and sat on lounge chairs, the kids tried out the water-slides and pool(which was salt water)and we just soaked it all in. At almost 1:30 we went down to our room and when we walked in I was amazed at the Marble counter tops and floor.There were 2 hooks on wall for coats or robes, a counter top with 4 drawers, a sectional couch that would fold down into the kids bed with a light house shaped lamp by it,a big bed for us with a night stand on either side with the light house lamps, we could turn on or off and adjust the ceiling lights from our bed(really nice)Next to our bed was 8 built in drawers 2 bigger and six smaller, plenty of space Then was the dressing room with a huge mirror from the marble counter top to the ceiling and movie star lites around it and 4 good sized drawers for your makeup, mine just stayed on the countertop though, and a sink with a square padded footstool to seat on while applying your makeup.There were huge his and her connecting closets with a lite that turned on when the closet was opened and I believe 7 hangers on each side (14 in all)and 2 adult sized wonderful bathrobes. The bathroom itself was another big mirror and a marble sink with 2 metal shelves built into the wall for toiletry items on either side (4 in all) a hairdryer and a Kleenex holder down below. Of course their was a toilet and 4 towel racks and the jacuzzi tub(Love,Loved it) with shower and little shelves for soap and shampoo etc. They had built in dispensers with body soap and shampoo. When we 1st walked in to the right their was automatic lighted closet with 2 clothes hanging bars for clothes, countertop with a mirror and bar with a shelves that had wine glasses and drink glasses, a ice bucket and down below was a mini fridge that was stocked with beer and pop and water and mini bottles of liquor that you paid for if you drank, which we didn't. Read more