I arrived on Saturday night to avoid the rush of flying, transfers to the ship, etc. and so I could begin to relax. I stayed at the Marriott near the Miami Airport. For a Marriott, I thought I had a great rate - one of their "Come Out and Play" rates of $69.
Embarkation
I left my hotel to go to the pier around 10:40 and was at the pier by 11:00 AM. When I arrived at the pier, the Royal Caribbean's "Voyager of the Seas," NCL's "Norway," and Carnival's "Paradise" were the only ships in port. There were apparently people still leaving the "Paradise" from the last cruise but I was surprised that it wasn't any more crowded than it was. My stateroom was "to be assigned" at embarkation but Carnival was already on their toes before I got in the terminal. The porter who was loading my luggage to take to the ship handed me a manifest and asked me to look up my name and find my cabin number. I had originally booked a category 6B ocean view cabin on the Main Deck and had been assigned to cabin E194 on the Empress Deck. After the porter helped me get my luggage properly tagged and ready to take to the ship, he pointed me towards the terminal entrance. I had been dropped off at Terminal 9 and had to walk down to Terminal 8.