This was our first cruise that was longer than 7 days and loved the added days. We also both agreed that this was our best cruise ever (out of 8). I am 51 and my husband is 58. We felt like we were in the majority of the age group. I would say that there was about 15% less than 50 and about 25% over 65.
We flew into Miami the day before and stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott downtown. We were happy with the accommodations and the location. We walked to Bayside for dinner, though it is somewhat of a long walk. Before heading to the port we had breakfast at a little bakery kitty corner to the hotel and walked around the stores in the area.
Headed to the port about 11:45 pm via shuttle at $5.00/person. Embarkation was fairly fast and we were eating in the Windjammer by 12:20pm. It was a little bit of a challenge to find a place to sit as it was already pretty busy. We then dropped our carry-ons off in our cabin about 1:10 pm to check out the rest of the ship.