This was my wife and I's second cruise with Carnival. First was on the Magic in 2012 when she was in her inaugural season. We had high expectations going into this cruise since it was the newest in the fleet. This was also our kids first cruise, girl 11 and boy 9.
Embarkation was pretty easy considering we showed up about an hour before our boarding time of 11:00am. We drove in from Tampa the morning of the cruise to Miami. We ended up getting boarding group 1, so we were the first on after Priority, Suites and FTTF. I would say once they started to let people in to getting on the ship was 35-40 minutes.
Ship overall was in good condition, but I do miss the older style atrium's. The LED thing in the middle was cool, but underwhelming.
For a tender port it is easy access to shopping. Felt safe the whole time.
Only downside is getting to and from the pier you have to walk through a long narrow shop with hundreds of other people.