My husband and I traveled with 4 other couples from Maine the day before our cruise and stayed at the Crowne Plaza International Hotel in Miami. It was very nice and quite and there was a Latin Cafe across the street that had a great breakfast for only 5.99 the next morning. There was a couple of convenience stores around that you could get soda but saw no wine to buy.

We took Super Shuttle to get to the port because there was 10 of use, but the hotel did have a free shuttle, all though they won't take you to the pot until 12 ish. We had wanted to make sure we went together and early. We got there at 11.00 after the shuttle driver took pictures of all of us, for 10 of us the price was 70.00. That was good for us for make sure all of us and luggage got to the port at the same time. We used them at the end of the cruise to get to the airport. We would use them again if we had this many people.

We had to wait at the port until about 12:00 to get on the ship and all was fast and then eating lunch in half an hour. Rooms ready by 1:30 and we had 4 balcony rooms and an inside on deck 8 and had the best room attendants, "B" and his crew. We gave a tip half was through the cruise because they were doing such a great job, but tipped all of them more at the end because they were so great. Always talked for a few minutes or had a joke while we waited for someone to meet us. Read more