We drove down from the Atlanta area on Saturday, November 23 and checked into the Country Inn and Suites. We reserved the Cruise Park and Stay package, which I highly recommend if you drive in. We wanted a little down time before we sailed away on Monday for our Thanksgiving cruise. We played Putt-Putt, shopped, went to the beach, etc. Great hotel, great staff. I recommend going to Preacher Bar if you get the chance. It's a brief walk from the hotel. We reserved the Cruise Park and Stay package, which I highly recommend if you drive in.
We chose this particular cruise for the ports, the convenience of Port Canaveral, and, since we were bringing our adult children and grandchild - the price couldn't be beat! Plus, I didn't have to cook on Thanksgiving :) We are Platinum members with Carnival, having sailed with them on over 20 cruises, but this was our first sailing on a Fantasy Class ship. I will say, though it was smaller than most of the ships we've been on, we never felt cramped or too crowded, nor did we feel the movement/rocking that others have mentioned. We had perfect weather and perfect seas for the entire cruise.
Port Canaveral has embarkation down to a science. We've never boarded a ship in 15 minutes - EVER!