Fort Lauderdale Cruise Departure

Arriving at the departure port city the day before you actually leave for the cruise is really the way to go in our opinion. We were able to sleep in late. We had a long, leisurely breakfast. We took our time, and we relaxed! We were on-board the ship in no time at all.

So far (unlike last year’s Carnival Cruise), everything about a Royal Caribbean cruise just oozes ‘first-class’. The Royal Caribbean cruise staff (so far) are courteous and friendly, and embarking was well organized, fast, and simple. The ship, “Independence of the Seas”, is absolutely beautiful, everything looks brand new.

It is a cruising tradition of ours to saddle up to the first bar we find once we get on the ship and toast to a great cruise. We found the “Boleros Tequila Bar” as soon as we stepped on-board and we quickly made fast friends with the bartenders Kristina and Ian. They are just great people and we can already tell that this is going to be a really amazing trip.

Last Year’s Lesson Learned: Get to the Ship the Day Before and Just Relax

Last year we were both complete nervous wrecks because the Orbitz and Carnival package barely gave us enough time to make our flight connections and make it to the ship on time. We nearly missed it and were literally two of the last ten people on board. This year we got smart and spent a few extra bucks by going down the night before as an ‘insurance policy’ for arriving to the ship on time.

The plane fare for arriving an extra day early was the same and the hotel was relatively inexpensive. We stayed at the Fort Lauderdale Embassy Suites and it was pretty good…nothing fancy, but they had regular shuttles for dirt cheap to the port and just knowing we had all the time in the world to make it to the ship was worth its weight in gold.

We had dinner at this little Irish pub across the street and the atmosphere and food were great. We highly recommend Waxy O’Connors if you’re in the neighborhood. I had the corned beef and cabbage, which was awesome, and Jody had a burger and it was also great. The beer was cold and the staff was very friendly.

We are excited to get started on our cruise and this little “pre-vacation get-a-way” helped take a lot of the stress out of the first day of traveling.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Adventure

That’s right, Michael and Jody are off on a new Caribbean cruise adventure! It’s been almost a year since our last get-a-away vacation, and just minutes ago we finalized our plans for an 8-day eastern Caribbean cruise to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Maarten and Haiti.

This time around we went with the world’s second largest cruise line, Royal Caribbean Cruise…we think they’ll try harder than the Carnival Corporation did.

Can’t wait to start blogging about it.