In one word...WOW! This was my first cruise and even after a lot of research I was still amazed at how awesome the whole experience was!
My travel party was myself (39) and my mom & stepdad (> 39). (Actually 72 & 81, but very young for their age!)
Embarkation: We arrived on a 10:40am Alaska Airlines flight and out of customs opted for a porter as we had 8 bags, several of which were BIG bags! Carts were scarce so plan on grabbing the first porter you see if you have multi-baggage! Limo to port was excellent choice...about $45, no hassle, no waiting and curb side service! Once at the port, there were lines but nothing drastic. The "holding area" was a bit of a pain as we were ready to roll. I would guess we probably didn't wait but about 45 minutes or so till our boarding number was called. I do know we boarded the ship at 12:50pm as we were instructed we couldn't enter our rooms till 1:00 pm so we just went straight to Deck 10 so we could unload our carry on's relatively quickly.