We arrived in New Orleans the day before & stayed at the Courtyard Marriott on Julia Street. Great rates here for 4 in a room in New Orleans. No cruise parking deals. Parking at the terminal is $98/week prepaid with credit card.

Embarkation: No problems, slight delay due to having 2 passengers with same first/last name and a confused clerk. We got there early around Noon in New Orleans and had a mid-size line to get through security. Once through security (estimating 15 min) we went directly to the Latitudes line and were checked in and then went right on board.

Cabin: We had 4 people in our party & this limited our cabin choices to either oceanview or inside. We picked JJ category inside and lucked into getting cabin 9051. 9051 is slightly larger than the standard inside cabin & with 4 adults we needed every square foot we could get. We had plenty of draw/shelf space, but had to double/triple hang clothes due to small number of hangers. All but one of our suitcases fit under the bed -in the quad inside cabin there is a trundle pull out bed under one of the bed so you lose that space typically used for suitcase storage. 2 lower twin beds, 1 upper twin bed, and the trundle which basically sits on the ground - all were very comfortable. Bathroom was much larger than previous cruise on NCL & Carnival especially the shower. We did have water pressure issues on lower temp water setting - we reported and they fixed that day. Cabin service was efficient & we had no problems with our cabin service. Read more