What can I say about the Elation? Well, I have a few things to say! Mostly good, some not so good, so let's just get on with it.

My husband and I traveled to NOLA the Sunday before our Monday embarkation. We booked a room at the Holiday Inn Express across from the Superdome on Loyola. We then took a short 5 minute walk to canal street and visited the French quarter from there. This was our second time in NOLA but our first in the Quarter. We grabbed supper at the Hard Rock Cafe' on Bourbon, while a Saint's game was in full swing. It was noisy and crowded on the street, but what can you expect? It's Bourbon street!! Once we finished supper, I had enough of Bourbon. We then took a leisurely stroll over to the adjacent streets, and enjoyed ourselves from then on out. We walked through to Jackson's square, and then we grabbed some Beignet's and a coffee at Cafe' Du Monde. By that time it was getting late so we started heading back to the hotel. Just don't walk by yourself at night and you should be fine. The Holiday Inn offers a cruise and park option for $243 you can stay the night plus leave your car there up to 8 days in the covered and secure parking garage. We took a taxi the next morning at 10 am to the port.

Embarkation: Easy. No lines, but we did have about a 45 minute wait before we were able to board. We were up eating in the Lido by 11:30. Read more