Continental Airlines - Tampa to Miami

I should start by stating that I prefer Southwest Airlines. They are what I consider the Gold Standard for airlines. They have friendly staff, reasonable pricing, and are easy to work with when changing flight times, destinations, etc. So, any other airline that I travel with has a high standard to meet.
On this particular trip, I was flying from Tampa to Miami to do some work that had to be done between 10pm on Sunday and 6am on Monday. Given the late hours and knowing that I would be traveling home extremely tired, I was looking for the quickest way into and out of Miami. I did not want to drive to Fort Lauderdale from Miami, while I was sleep deprived. So, Southwest was out of the question. Continental turned out to have the lowest fair.
The trip from Tampa was on a Beechcraft 1900. This is a very small passenger plane, with a capacity of 19 passengers. My first thought after sitting down on the flight was: Where is the cockpit door? It is so strange not to see these giant doors bolted shut at the front of the plane. While the crew was climbing into the cockpit, I inadvertently became nervous. I should start out by saying that I do not think that age is the primary determining factor, or even within the top three determining factors, on ability to operate an aircraft. But these guys were young. They could not have been more than 25 years old. They looked like they would be more in character operating a jet ski on spring break than a passenger plane. I could not help but feel a sense of envy towards and excitement for the two pilots. It was obvious that they were excited about flying and they felt like they were living their dream.
One great thing about an aircraft without bolted cockpit doors, is that you can watch the pilots and see the same view that the pilots have during the flight. The guys flying this plane were professionals. They were extremely focused on the task at hand and courteous, even if annoyingly excited, to the passengers when boarding and exiting.
Some small annoyances during the flight, which could be big annoyances if the flight were longer than the 1 hour gate-to-gate travel time, was the lack of a beverage service and the way the plane felt. Every slight bit of turbulence seemed exaggerated.