I have gold status with Carnival and my wife has platinum. I say this simply to let you know that this was not our first rodeo with Carnival.
We took our 18-year old son and a friend of his on this trip. We stayed in a balcony (obstructed view) quad room. It was really tight with 4 adults in a room, but we made the best of it. The "obstructed view" was not very obstructed at all. When you looked down, there was a lifeboat instead of water. If an obstructed view saves money, you might want to take a serious look at it. That being said, I doubt that we will ever have 4 adults in a stateroom again. Too crammed.
Embarkation out of Tampa always seems to run smoothly, and this was the case once again. Our room was ready when we boarded around 12:30. It was nice to just kick back and relax. The luggage arrived about an hour later.
Room was advertised as partially obstructed. That was a laugh as the only obstruction was that you saw the top of a life boat when you looked straight down. The rest of the view was fine.