This was my first cruise I'm 27 and I went with my mom who is 54. Now this was also my mom's first cruise 10 years ago on the same ship (12th overall now), so I knew what to expect. Or so I thought.
We flew in from Chicago the day before stayed at the Holiday Inn at the Airport, and though we weren't there very long, the hotel was nice, but very old looking. Had dinner at the hotel, only place to go unless you wanted to grab a cab. The hotel had a shuttle to the pier for extra, which we took.
Getting on the ship was a piece of cake, only took about 10 minutes, although we did get there really early around 11:00am. Went upstairs to the Windjammer and had lunch. We then walked around the ship to get used to where everything was. It was pretty easy to get around. Then we went to our cabin, dropped everything off and enjoyed the couple hours until the muster drill.