Pre-cruise: We stayed at the Fairfield Inn Miami Airport South. The hotel was nicer than I was expecting it to be. It is very modern and we got a good price on it. I found the bed comfortable because some hotels have scratchy sheets, but not this one. There was always lemon and water out as well as coffee or tea. Our room was located on the 2nd floor of the hotel at the end of the hallway. We are lucky that we got the 2nd floor as they wanted to put us up on the 3rd floor or 4th since it was crowded. We went to eat fast food next door and no one was really there. I had a vegetable pita, which I inhaled from traveling all day. I checked out the next door Marriott too, which was very impressive. It looked like a 5 star hotel. We met someone who was going on Norwegian Epic and traveling alone. Later, we went across the street to meet him at the seafood place across the street. It cost $17 for a bowl of soup and a cup of soup, which was the cheapest on the menu. Beware though that they include gratuity and many people did not know this. They are very pushy with tipping extra too and never seem to come back with the change. I tried the hot tub outside and it was very nice. Not a lot of people used it. Sometimes the jets did not work. It was hard to sleep for part of the night because there was loud music across the street and planes would fly over head landing every 30 minutes. I finally slept for probably about 4 hours, who sleeps before a cruise anyway? I had breakfast at 7 am. There was waffles, toast, English muffins, yogurt, fruit cups, juice, and more. It was all included in the price, which was very nice. We arranged a ride to the cruise ship at the front desk. The lady at the front desk recommended that we go to the cruise ship at 9:30 AM. We were going to go at 10 am, but she said that was too late and it would be too crowded then. We took her word. The driver was 20 minutes early and he was there right when we walked down at 9:15 AM. This driver ended up being much cheaper than the shuttle that they seemed to be pushing that didn't leave until 11 AM. I am glad someone at the front desk told us the truth and not to take the shuttle. The day before they were really pushing the shuttle on us. She says some hotels leave at 9:30 AM to the cruise ship and that was much better. The driver charged us $10 a person and the shuttle was $12 a person I believe. It was great and there was no one to wait for like a shuttle.

Embarkation: Very Smooth. We waited an hour or so before they let us through the security line. They called us according to room, class, and status. We were elite members. The only problem is that the lady who was checking us in couldn't scan our passports. The scanner was not working and she had to do it manually. That was kind of disappointing as it took longer than other people. After that, we waited another 30 minutes before we were allowed to board. At about 11 am, we were allowed to board the ship. It went very smooth and we just walked on board.

Stateroom: We were on the hump, very large balcony. I'm not sure I would get it again as we didn't use our balcony much. It was nice to listen to the ocean though. The room is very small for three people though and it is kind of like a closet, but I don't mind. The ceilings were definitely shorter than at the hotel. Read more