This was my second cruise ever (first was also on Carnival-the Sensation) and both my boyfriend and grandmother's first. My parents are avid cruisers and Bermuda is a favorite port of call for them-it was their honeymoon destination.
Embarkation: We booked through a airline-employees travel agency (my father is employed at an airline) so we received our confirmation information and such a little differently. As a result, my boyfriend and I were unable to book a room together, however, during embarkation and check-in, the staff happily switched our rooms around so we were able to be registered in the same room (We were going to stay together anyways, but at least this way the information would match up.) It was fast, polite, and within a matter of a half an hour we were onboard the boat.
The Ship: Amazing. I read some reviews before I left, and a couple people mentioned the decor being somewhat cheesy. I thought otherwise, it was new and exciting (so much better than the "outdated" Sensation) and to the person who thought there were one too many urns throughout the ship-Get over it and enjoy your vacation, there are too many fun things to do to even notice such things. When we took our trip, the ship was practically brand new, all the surfaces were impeccable (nothing was ever dirty). My boyfriend and I ran around like little kids, exploring everything from the arcade to the casino (and hitting a few of the really fun bars in between). As far as stability goes, my boyfriend Josh, is not a huge fan of water, and a lot of times he'd forget we were hundreds of miles away from land, the boat seldom rocked. The rooms were more spacious and modern then I could've imagined, it was a hotel room, not a cramped claustrophobic compartment.