This was our 2nd cruise on the Ecstasy (last time was in Dec. '04) and my 5th cruise overall and 3rd sailing out of Galveston.

First of all, let me start by saying it was difficult to get excited about the cruise in light of all the horror going on in Katrina's aftermath. I finally decided that, since there was no chance of a refund, the best thing we could do is to contribute to the economy. Then..when we arrived in port, we couldn't find parking due to the unexpected arrival of the Sensation and the extra traffic that brought. To make matters much, much worse, my car broke down. The alternator went out as we were searching for a parking lot that would let us in. So, with 2 hours to go before the last call for boarding, we were broken down in the heat, a block and 1/2 from the ship, with all our luggage, in a private parking lot. I have roadside assistance and we got a tow to Galveston Auto Professionals, who were absolutely wonderful. We actually arrived at the terminal via tow truck, very stylish of us.

I was starting to think the whole vacation was going to be horrible. The officials at the terminal were grouchy as usual, but the lines moved fairly quickly and the Carnival staff was friendly and helpful. Once on board, we got to our room and our luggage had gotten there ahead of us. Our room was 2 doors down from the atrium area which was very convenient, there was some noise but not to bad except when a group of 30 or so decided to sing in the atrium area until very late one night, I bought some .99 earplugs in the gift shop and fixed that problem. Read more