My partner and I (both in our forties and well traveled) hail from the frozen tundra of Ontario and have never have considered a cruise until we saw a woman on the Wheel of Fortune win a trip to Belize City. After visiting the Norwegian Cruise Line website as referred by our travel agent, we booked our 7 day Exotic Western Caribbean cruise in conjunction with Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The following synopsis recounts some of our experiences and adventures which we hope are useful to other "virgin" cruisers who wish to make the most of a seemingly flawless vacation.

Early arrival to New Orleans proved to be in our favor as we successfully navigated our way through the many throngs of people and traffic diversions to the Riverwalk streetcar which whisked us to the pier in due time and for only $1.25 fare. After exiting the elevator from the streetcar platform, we were impressed with the magnitude of the Norwegian Spirit up close as it sat gracefully in port. Down the many steps to ground level, we entered the passenger drop off area laden with luggage in tow and I found it necessary to inquire with one of the baggage porters where we could check our luggage - perhaps we should have paid the $60.00 (normally a $15.00 fee from downtown) to snake through side streets around the parade routes just to emerge from a taxi to make it a little more obvious that we were indeed cruise passengers.

Being jovial by nature, I howled when the terminal agent asked if I was a crew member (honestly, Asians do not all look alike). I wonder what would have happened if I said yes. Our security check and registration should have been noted in the Guinness Book of Records for being under 30 minutes as the line up for non-US residents was 'non-existent' and we had our room key/charge card in hand ready to walk the gangplank. Once on board, and to my distaste having 20+ years in the Hospitality & Service Industry, we were greeted in such a robotic monotone obviously rehearsed week after week - at least in Hawaii you get 'leid' with sincerity. We were then quickly offered a frozen daiquiri of a sort with each refill saving $2.00, or we could enroll into the Blackjack or Slots tournament right then and there scheduled for the next day while we traveled to our first stop. We haven't even reached a scheduled port let alone seen our room and the sales pitches would make any sales manager proud. I just wanted to get to my stateroom and begin exploring. The clientele ranged in age from babies to the elderly. HOUSEKEEPING: - Joel was our room steward and addressed us by first names, created various animal shapes with towels each day - attend the workshop if you can - Jennifer was not our room steward but worked on the same level and was always happily singing and also greeted us by first names Read more