I left Michigan on Friday night, arrived in Ft. Lauderdale a little after midnight. Grabbed a taxi and arrived at the Ramada Inn Airport/Cruiseport about 1:00 am. This hotel is really quite nice and I wasn't disappointed at all. We used their free shuttle to the ship on Sunday morning.
We left the hotel around 11:45, dropped a handful of people at the Princess ship, the rest of us were on the Solstice. We arrived at the pier about 12:00, dropped our luggage with the porter and proceeded inside.
This is the easiest embarkation process I've ever been through. With 60 check in windows, there was absolutely no waiting. It took about 5 minutes then we were on our way up to the ship.
Cabin had an unobstructed view. It was between where the lifeboats end and the specialty restaurants begin.