As a navay officer I've been to sea many times, and visited ports in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North America, and the Caribbean. But my wife had never been to sea, and because she is prone to motion sickness, was highly very apprehensive about taking a a cruise. However, we found a five day cruise from Baltimore (whwre she lives) to Bermuda, and thought it would be a good test of whether we could ever do a cruise again. Turns out we will!
Hotel Info: My wife lives and works in Baltimore, so we did not need to stay ina hotel. However, there are many great hotels in Baltimore, some of which will allow you to par your car there while you're on your cruise. Shuttle service to and from the port are provided by many of the hotels in the Inner Harbor area. If you are fliting in to BWI airport the day before the cruise, stay either in the Inner Harbor area, or Harbor East. Great restauants are within walking distance, including the great italian restaurants of Baltimor's Little Italy (my favorite is Ceasar's Den, and dessert at Vacarro's).
Embarkation: We were dropped off by a relative at 11:30 and it was smooth sailing the whole way. The biggest delay was the bottleneck at the obligatory embarkation photo (it being our first cruise, we dutifully posed for the photo; will probably skip it next time). Once we were aboard we hung out a bit in the Centrum and then grabbed lunch in the Windjammer. By 1:00 pm our stateroom was ready and our luggage had arrived.
Stateroom (Junior Suite) was roomy. Located port side aft, it was aft of the pools and therefore we didn't hear any of the deck chairs being moved around at night. It was quiet and comfortable.