• Thursday 22 November 2012

I am just back from Fort Lauderdale and a Royal Caribbean Cruise and just wanted to fill you in on a few handy tips! Fort Lauderdale is fabulous and a really good destination for honeymooners or older clients. The beach is stunning and great bars, restaurants and shopping. We took a trip to the everglades and there are lots of other day trips you can book locally. Miami is literally 20 minutes away. The airport is just 15 – 20 minutes from the hotels and the Cruise port is about 10 minutes - everything is very central. There are shuttle buses that run to/from airport and port but taxis are reasonable – approximately $20 to hotels from airport and about $12 to port. We stayed in Sheraton beach resort which is really nice, the service and room facilities were excellent – costa coffee maker in room, loads of toiletries in bathroom, bathrobes, iron and ironing board so all the extras you need. It is a bit of a walk from main centre ( Beach Boulevard) so a hotel I would choose that has great location would be Westin Hotel but there are good bus services that go right up and down promenade. I passed by most of the main hotels so if you are looking at any give me a call and I can tell you exactly where it is. Also the river taxis are great way of seeing all of Fort Lauderdale – Las Olas Boulevard is the main Street with up market shops and cool bars and restaurants. The Cruise ship was Royal Caribbean – Liberty of the Seas- 5 nights taking in Belize and Cozumel The first thing I would tell you is arrive at port early – we headed down to port around 1.30 and the traffic into port was crazy. Go down around 11 as you probably would miss the crowds!. The bigger ships do take longer to get onto and off of as you are talking over 4000 people and there can be long queues at times. We had a balcony cabin D2 which was lovely and very spacious with a nice view from the Balcony. The ship is fabulous with loads of entertainment and activities going on throughout the ship. We really enjoyed the Ice Show, but it is impossible to see everything Royal Caribbean offer for entertainment as ship is so big. We found the food really nice, the extras you get on Royal Caribbean like the frozen yogurt machines, coffee shop, pizzas – pastries etc. are a great addition especially as they are free. In Belize we tendered off ship and at the port there were shops and loads of Tour Operators so we just booked a tour there to see Mayan Ruins. In Mexico some of us booked Scuba diving at the port, but you can just as easily book on board to save time for when you dock at the port. I just looked around shops at the port so didn’t take any trip as I had already been to Mexico on a previous trip. Also we had prepaid tips, and previously you would get vouchers in cabins but they don’t do that anymore. They give you blank envelopes in case you want to give an extra tip for good service. The tips are automatically distributed to the staff, but we gave our waiter and cabin girl extra as we had such good service from them. Disembarking ship can take a few hours as there are 4000 odd passengers to clear so queuing is inevitable. I would strongly recommend any onward flights you book be in the afternoon as you may run the risk of missing morning departures. I would definitely recommend this cruise and a stay in Fort Lauderdale for Honeymooners in particular. Jackie Coakley - Cruise Travel Specialist