I read several reviews of this ship before we left and I was really concerned because there were so many complaints from past guests about this ship. However, I had a great time and found nothing to complain about regarding this ship.
We flew in a day early and rented a car at the Orlando airport. We used Budget and paid $59 to drive us all to Port Canaveral and drop it the next day there. We reserved a minivan but they gave us a great SUV. We stayed at International Palms Resort Cocoa Beach which is beach front. I bid $55 on priceline and this was the hotel that accepted. It is usually over $130 a night during spring break season. The pool is fabulous and the kids had a blast here. But, do not stay here if you want to sleep! We were there over spring break and there was a ton of partying going on at this hotel. I honestly didn't sleep all night. Cocoa beach is nice and I enjoyed the beach there but the surrounding area is pretty seedy regardless of which hotel you stay at. There are gentleman's clubs all over and very little restaurant choices outside of your nicer hotels.
The next morning we drove over to Budget to return the car and took the Budget shuttle (free) over to the ship. The wait for the shuttle was about 30 minutes but everyone is so excited about their trips that we all talked and got to know each other. Just know you will wait a bit for your free shuttle ride.
We had two inside cabins 7442 and 7446 on the Empress Deck. This is a great spot in the aft of the ship because it is located between two decks that are all staterooms so there is very little noise in this area. The cabin had plenty of hangers for our clothes. It had the hair dryer in the vanity drawer. I believe there was only one outlet on the vanity for a curling iron. The beds were good and the pillows were good. We were on deck 7 in the aft so in the morning, we were able to go down a few decks to the open seating breakfast (Scarlet dining room) which was really convenient.