My husband and I chose to honeymoon in New Orleans flanked by a 4 day jaunt out of New Orleans on the Carnival Elation. For the first part of our trip, we had a ball eating yummy food and enjoying delicious libations throughout the city. This was my second cruise and my husband's first. I had cruised with RCCL on the Freedom of the Seas and enjoyed it very much. Friends recommended that we tried Carnival and you couldn't beat the price or convenient.

We stayed in the Omni Royal - French Quarter and were very impressed by the value as well as the proximity to the fun things to see and do in the French Quarter - we were close enough to the party without living in the party.

Embarkation - On our embarkation morning, we had a 15 minute cab ride to the port with a flat rate of $14 which we thought was reasonable. After exiting the cab, we gave our luggage to a porter and were on our way to the terminal. I had heard (read on CC) that embarkation in New Orleans would be a little bit of a process so I prepared myself in advance for a lot of "hurry up and wait". However, I was very pleasantly surprised that we were on the ship in about 30 minutes from when we arrived at the terminal (11:15 AM). Read more