This was my husband's first ocean cruise, and by the afternoon of embarkation day he said, "we HAVE to do another cruise soon!". I think he's hooked!
A little background info: My husband is 55 and I am 46. Our children are grown and out of the house, but we both work full-time outside of the home. About once/year we take a long vacation like this one, usually alternating every other year between an active vacation (bicycle ride across a state), and a more relaxing vacation (lying on a beach somewhere). I have only taken one other ocean cruise, and last year we took a river cruise (bike to barge tour) on the Danube together.
For this cruise, embarkation was a breeze...of course we couldn't sleep the night before so got up and arrived super-early to Port Everglades, pier 18. That place is a well-oiled machine. We were on board with the complimentary champagne in hand by 11:45am. After a quick trip around the ship to orient ourselves we found a spot in the Oceanview Bar for drink #2 and some lunch. There was a lot of pressure from the wait/bar staff to upgrade drink packages (always a big push for that day 1 & 2), but once they learned we had the premium package (yes, it's worth every penny!), they didn't ask again. The service was flawless that day and remained so the entire cruise.
This cabin was less expensive due to having an obstructed view because the lifeboats are being stored a little below and to the outside of the balcony. We were curious when booking the cabin about exactly HOW obstructed the view would be--this is your question too, I'm sure. The view was obstructed, although not completely. You could still see the ocean/views, although not as well when sitting in the chairs on the balcony. And the lifeboats definitely got in the way of taking unobstructed photos from the balcony (you could always see the tops of the lifeboats at the bottom of each photo). But for us, those things don't matter (just crop the photos!). The reason we get a cabin with a balcony is to escape...have time for ourselves....and this cabin/balcony provided exactly that, at a little less cost than some of the others. Absolutely worth it and we would get this cabin again!
The walk up the pier into town was long and fraught with those offering taxi rides. But it felt safe. We walked around town some and did a few "excursions" on our own: Barbados Cigar Factory and Agapey Chocolate Factory--both fascinating!
The port itself was efficient and clean. The hotels in the area seem a little worse for wear.