Please excuse me in advance for the poor grammar and spelling, English always was my worst subject. I wrote this review as my way of giving back to this forum - the other reviews and advice here was fantastic while we were planning our trip, and hope you can find something in this review that helps you plan yours.
We're a couple both working professionals in our early 30s, with no kids. We are fairly well traveled to the Caribbean (10+ trips) and other tourist destinations. However, this was our first cruise. We booked this trip directly through Carnival only three days before departure date for a highly discounted fare (80% off book rate, less than $50/pp/pd). We departed from Miami for 7 days on the Western itinerary during the last week of September 2008.
Embarking: We got to port around 1:30pm and we were on the boat within about 30 minutes, and the Port Security scan line took up about 15 of that. We carried our own luggage on, went straight to the room and unloaded our bags without issue.