Drove 6 hours to get to New Orleans, so didn't see the city. We arrived at the Cruise building at about 12:30 p.m., which turned out to be an excellent time to go through the embarkation processing because those who had gotten there earlier (we heard some folks were there around 11:00 a.m.) had to wait until loading began and there was apparently a bit of a back up. It was all clear for us and it took longer at the customs processing than anything and that simply because we had a very old (I'm 53) lady handling our paper work. Another couple was traveling with us and they were through much faster. Still, from entrance to the cruise embarkation building to stepping foot in the ship took no more than 15 minutes.
I've been on about 5 cruises in my life, including this one. I must say everything was fine, but only fine. The cabin was clean overall, though there were dust bunnies in the emergency fire sprinkler head in our cabin. I understand this ship was redone after the "Poop Ship" incident where they were stuck at sea and things backed up. There was no sign of any of that, but if they redid the bathroom fixtures I don't understand who chose the décor. It's a 1950's pink bathroom color and just looks old.
As for dining, the food from the dining room was very nice. I was hoping lobster would be available as part of the regular menu, but it was only, but always, available in the section that would cost an additional $20 per entrée. However, the general buffet seemed a little below standards to me. The food felt like it was between a Golden Corral buffet and Luby's. Perhaps I'm jaded, but it felt like they were cutting costs and getting inferior quality food. The burger shack was amazing (who can go wrong with bacon?!), the Pirate Pizza shop was disappointing (extremely thin crust, almost no sauce, and very light on the toppings--also the server I encountered didn't seem happy at all and a bit short with me when I simply asked how long before we should come back for it), and the free drinks (lemonade, tea, water, and orange juice) were generally not tasty at all--very much out of containers for commercial kitchens. The cold (not really iced) tea in their dispenser was not brewed and tasted, well, just bad.
Fine. Bed was okay, bathroom seems totally dated and was supposedly redone not too long ago. I liked the interior room so I could take a nap at any time of day if I had stayed up late and it would be dark.
Not as clean as it should have been and just not quite up to par.
Did nothing in New Orleans, only embarked.