Pre-Embarkation: Our family arrived in NOLA on Saturday, March 28th and stayed at the Queen and Crescent hotel a short distance from the Port of New Orleans. It was 79.99 a night and was well worth it. It really captured the heart of New Orleans and the rooms were very comfy and cozy. The beds were amazingly soft. Reading and researching on CruiseCritic.com, I contacted Angel from nocruiseshipparking.com and he was absolutely fabulous. He called the day we arrived in NOLA to make sure we found our way into town and weren't lost. He told us to meet him at his parking garage (which happens to be locked and covered) and he then took us to our hotel. The entire cost to park our car there (plus shuttle to and from hotel - and to and from the port) was about $100.00. In the van on the way to the hotel, we asked Angel if he knew of anyone that could give us a tour of New Orleans, especially the Katrina areas, and he said, as a matter of fact- he did. He gave us a WONDERFUL 4 1/2 hour tour of the entire city. We saw the good parts, and the bad parts of New Orleans and were impressed with how lively and beautiful the city was. Angel was fantastic and took us on a walk through the Garden District. This area had GORGEOUS mansions and we got see where Ann Rice, John Goodman and Eli and Payton Manning's father lives. The houses were magnificent! We got back to the hotel and had time to walk down to Bourbon Street and ate a nice meal before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Embarkation Day: We got up on Sunday morning and had breakfast at the hotel before calling Angel to come and pick us up around 11:30 or so. We had packed overnight bags for the hotel and Angel kept all of our heavy luggage in the van so we wouldn't have to lug it up unnecessarily. He had us to the port by 11:45 and we were on the ship by 1. The lines were a little long, but moved quickly. The Latitudes line moved by more quickly than I expected. Everyone we encountered this day was friendly and welcoming us to the ship. Once we got on board, we spent the first two hours walking around familiarizing ourselves with the layout. Our rooms were not ready until 2, but that was fine as we were still walking around at that time.

The Ship: The ship was beautiful. It is an older ship, but the pro's definitely outweigh the con's. I didn't notice any trouble areas except a few cloudy windows but we just didn't sit next to those as there were only a few. The ship was always clean and there were always crew members sprucing it up even more every day. Our cabin was located in the 'cheap seats' on Deck 4, with a porthole. I was NOT excited about this room beforehand, but was very satisfied with where we were. The room was homey, and very efficient for the three of us staying in one room. It was quiet and at night, the sounds of the water put me to sleep quickly. I did not hear an engine noise except for the night we got stuck in Belize (more on that later). Our favorite hang out place was in the Galaxy of the Stars, the outer rim closest to the water. This is a NICE, quiet area and is positioned at the front of the ship. We spent many hours here reading, talking, or just looking out to the water. Our room steward, Manuel, was amazing and very friendly. He got to know our names, and how we liked our cabin fixed (a towel on the floor for showers for example...) and he made sure to do these little things for us every day. He was always around somewhere if we needed anything. Read more