This was our 9th cruise with Disney, but our first without the little (now all grown up) children.
This was a trip with highs (many) and lows (just a couple). We arrived a day prior into Vancouver because I a): Am Paranoid about being late to the party and b): Love to see a bit of other cities. Our first low (but very minor) occurred about 2 months prior to arrival when we were notified the ship would be embarking at Ballantyne Pier vice Canada Place (Which, conveniently (we thought) was where we had booked our "night before" hotel). I don't think this was Disney's choice, because there were 3 other ships docked at CP that day. The first "high" was that Disney had arranged free (yes, that's right, you read it here first -> FREE) shuttle transportation to Ballantyne. They took our luggage at the Pan Pacific, put it on a truck and bussed us to Ballantyne without having to mess with the bags anymore (score!!).
Embarkation was well handled (but announced very quietly). The only issue was that they did not seem to give one whit about the "port time" on your cruise papers. You could show up anytime without worry, so embarkation passenger level was probably heaviest in the morning instead of steady throughout the day.