As back round we flew into Hobby Airport the day before the cruise and stayed at the Comfort Suites. Nothing special but they had a good rate so it was good enough. We took 24hourairport taxi to the terminal the next day and arrived there about 10:30 and was on the ship in an hour. Very easy process with no chaos at all that has been described in other postings.
The ship itself is very nice. I can't say it looks brand new from the refurb it went through earlier this year but it didn't appear old either. We hung around the pool after changing into bathing suites and went to our cabin when we thought our luggage would be there. Sure enough by 3pm we were good to go.
The activities were plentiful. My wife did the Zumba class poolside the kids did the rock climbing wall and had an absolute blast on the Flowrider. We stayed on the ship on the day the ship was in Jamaica and the kids had the Flowrider almost to themselves. Otherwise count on some pretty long wait periods when you are using it.