Sara,
The wife and I just got off the Conquest yestersday. We went down early the Sunday before, to be the firsts on the ship. When you get there early, you see the porters bringing luggage off the ship for the departees. You can ask them to help you, but they'll tell you like they told me, that, "Everyone has to be unloaded before anyone can be loaded." Somewhere around 11 one of the porters will say they were taking luggage. They check that your tags that are on all your luggage and that you have your boarding pass. After you kiss your luggage goodbye, go on inside, where someone will direct you to a counter., They'll check your documents, tear a few out, give some of them back to you, and send you to another room. You wait there until Custorms clears the ship. Then they take you by rows to another room. After sitting there for about five minutes, you start up the gangway. They'll xray your carry-ons. and check your ids. When you get to the door of the ship. You'll put your sail-and-sign card in a slot, smile for the camera and go on board. When I looked at my watch it was 12:10 and I was the 21st person onboard. From then on, everytime you get on or off the ship, you will put your card in the slot, and your picture, taken the first day, will appear on a screen for the Officer of the Day. It all goes smoothly and doesn't seem to take long. Our luggage arrived about 4:30, but some people got theirs earlier, and some later.
Hope you have as good of time as we had. Bon Voyage
Turkeyman