This was the first cruise for myself and hubby. We traveled with my brothers family, who are dedicated cruisers. My niece who is 4 has been on 3 more cruises than we have. :-)
Embarkation was OK, we were prepared for the worst based on the comments here on Cruise Critic. We arrived around 1pm, there was someone right there to take our baggage and lead us directly to the person who would check us in and tell us what line to wait in. On a side note, we had scheduled a van to take us from the hotel to Pier 66 but it got into an accident, so they sent a stretched limo that would fit all 7 of us. This may be the reason that the luggage people helped us right away.
Because we had a suite, we were in a special line and taken to an area where they provided us with our room keys, champagne and snacks. Someone was assigned to us to escort us onto the ship and to our room. The "extras" that we received with this room I think made this cruise at least bearable.
Very spacious! Lots of room in the closet, plenty of drawers, big balcony. I especially liked that you were able to draw curtains around the bed so that you could leave the balcony door open to hear the ocean. Finally having a room at the back of the ship offered spectacular views.