My husband and I have previously sailed on Celebrity and Carnival and were excited to take our first Royal Caribbean Cruise. We anxiously waited for a whole year for our trip. Back home in New Hampshire the weather was below 0 and we had a lot of snow. We arrived in a rainy New Orleans where we stayed 2 nights. Not enough time and we would like to return at some points in our life.

On Saturday morning, after a harrowing cab ride we arrived at the pier around 10:15am where a porter took our luggage and asked our room number. He said everyone was supposed to get an e-mail stating not to arrive until Noon because some rooms were damaged and to go to the Riverwalk Mall and return at Noon. We went back downstairs around 12:30 only to be informed that there were 299 rooms that would not be sailing but they did not know which ones. A short time later, they said that there were another 117 rooms that would not be sailing. We stood in the cold in line for over 3 hours before being let into the cruise terminal. After another 2 1/2 hours, we found out we were one of the lucky ones to sail. We could not go home, we were having whiteout conditions.

By the time we boarded the ship, it was very late. We found our stateroom and headed off to get something to eat. After dinner, I unpacked while my husband went to explore. By the time he got back and I was done it was almost 11pm. We still had not moved. The next day, we found out that the Coast Guard had cleared us and we were finally going to sail. It has not been more than 24 hours with little communication, we were still in port, the theater did not work and neither did our television. It did not feel like the relaxing vacation we were looking forward to. Read more