This was our fourth cruise, first with Carnival. Our other 3 were with RCCL (Royal Caribbean), so I was interested to see how the two "entry level" lines stacked up.
Embarkation was pretty smooth. Got to the port around 12:30pm. The EZ-park place near the ship was a waste of money. It was raining, and there was only a very small tent to keep about 40-50 people dry (it didn't happen). We had about a 10 minute wait before we made it into the building, but after that we were on the ship within about 15 minutes.
The ship itself had its good and bad points. For such a large ship, it seemed to be very "closed" in design. The lack of windows compared to RCCL was sorely missed. As a result, not only does the design come off like a riverboat casino, but it was surprisingly difficult to get around. Carnival needs to employ a more open floor plan IMHO. The rooms are also a bit smaller, which may or may not be an issue for some. On the plus side, the casino had the nicest windowed area on the ship, so it was always nice to be there. The baths in the staterooms seemed to be larger.