This was the third cruise for my husband and I. The previous 2 were Caribbean itineraries with Royal Caribbean and we loved those and would highly recommend them.
We did this one because of the price and the fact that we didn't have to fly anywhere. We drove to the pier and parked our car there, paying $120. I thought this was good because it would have cost us more to take car service.
We got to the pier at 11:30am, dropped our luggage off with the curbside porters (tipped $4 for 2 bags) and parked the car. We then went into the terminal and sat in a waiting area with other early arrivers until noon when they started boarding. The boarding process, although very quick, was complete mayhem. They move you from line to line and no one behind those lines knows what they are doing. There were people everywhere and it was very unorganized.