A bit of background: this was my 24th sailing (hub's 22nd), and 13th on Royal, now as Diamond level. We've also done Carnival, Holland America, and Celebrity. It was our third time out of Port Canaveral, but our first on an Oasis-class ship.
Pre/Embarkation: we drove up the day before and stayed at a well-located motel near the beach, restaurants, and other amenities. (Urgent Care clinic and CVS Pharmacy . . . nothing too dire, but it was convenient, nonetheless.)
After a small hiccup thanks to the pier's website about when you needed to pay for parking, we joined a lengthy line to get into the processing building . . . to discover that the Diamond express line was hidden by the other lines, and then sped through.