This was our family's first cruise. We had two cabins. The first had a balcony on the port side, aft on deck seven, which was for my wife and I (both in our late 30's) and the other was an interior cabin directly across the hall for our two children and our baby sitter.(son age 7 and daughter age 1 1/2). We really liked the balcony because it was a quiet and comfortable place to sit and read and have a drink. Also, being on the port side of the ship, you had a front row view everytime we pulled into or out of a port. The size of the cabins was fine. There is plenty of closet and drawer space with additional storage space under the bed and in the large drawers under the couch.
Since we live an hour's drive from Miami, we were able to have family members drop us off at the port on the morning we set sail (Sat, June 7, 2008). This saved the cost of paying for parking all week.
Embarkation went smoothly. We arrived near the start time for boarding and the dock was already very crowded. But, we went from being dropped off at the dock to our cabins within approximately 45 minutes to an hour.