First, don't read this and assume I'm the type to find something wrong with everything. I'm not. See my review of our Thanksgiving cruise on the Freedom last year if you don't believe me. There's far more negative in here than my last review, but it's honest feedback. None of this ruined our vacation, either, I just wanted to be fair in my review and call out things that need improving. We simply didn't find this cruise as good as past ones in many areas.
Booking: We booked through CruiseQuick, a place many people seemed to fear. We got the room for a couple hundred less than anywhere else (even taking incentives in to consideration), and had zero issues. I'd totally use them again.
The port: This was our first time going out of Tampa, and I wouldn't be sad to skip it in the future. Embarkation was faster than last year, which was a positive, but getting off was a pain compared to last year. We do self-assist, and last year we were off the boat and on the highway by 7:30am. This year, self--assist didn't start until ~9, and was very poorly organized. Took quite a bit longer to get off. Also not a fan of how the port area is laid out, driving around down there was a bit confusing compared to Miami and Lauderdale. Going under the Skyway bridge was cool though. We were an hour and a half late leaving port, so it was completely dark by then, which was pretty cool too since the bridge was all lit up in green lights.
No other balconies right in front of it, so we didn't have any smoke blowing back towards our balcony. Also, for those looking at this room in the future, yes there is a lifeboat right where the room next to you would be, but don't worry about it messing with the view, 99% of the time it was a non-issue. If you want to see what the view looks like from that balcony, search for the image named "Roatan, as seen from our balcony" on photosynth.net (upload date is 12/1/2012). Overall a good room, nice and quiet.