I read through so much information on this website before I went on my cruise I feel it is my obligation to give back and write a review myself. I will make it as thorough as possible (thus why it has taken so long to post).
Just to set the stage - Our cruise was from August 22 - August 29. I traveled with my husband and another couple we are friends with. We are all in our mid 20's. This was the first cruise for 3 of us (one of these people being myself). We are by no means party animals but we do like to have a good time. Most of us were fairly well traveled so we had been on a variety of other vacations before. All four of us had a fabulous time on this cruise.
Embarkation - my husband and I had arrived in Tampa a few days earlier to visit family so they drove us to the port. Since we were being dropped off we got out in an "unloading" zone. There was a porter there who was able to tell us our cabin # (which we wrote on our luggage) and then take all of our luggage for us). We met our friends in the lobby area of our terminal (#2). I found the embarkation process to be quite smooth. All and all the whole process took us about 45 minutes. We arrived at the terminal at about 12:30ish and we were on the ship between about 1:15pm and 1:30pm. You wait in an intial line to go up an escalator, then wait in a line to go through security, and then finally the line where you do your final check in. There was a waiting area near the gangway to enter the ship but by the time we got over there we just walked right on (I assume this would be another waiting area if the ship was not boarding when you got there).