We booked a room at the Iberville Suites in New Orleans the day before we sailed thru 1800hotels.com. Two weeks prior they informed us they could not confirm our stay at the Iberville and had moved us to the New Orleans Sheraton. Upon arrival, we were told that our reservation had been canceled and the people at the Sheraton told us to watch that door knob on the way out. We called a friend in Austin to find us a room online and we stayed at the Crowne Plaza, an extremely nice hotel with outstanding staff who knew what we had just gone thru and did everything within their power to make our stay enjoyable. When we got home we found out 1800hotels.com had filed for bankruptcy.

After enjoying all we could in the French Quarter for 24 hours we boarded the Carnival Triumph. Embarkation was easy compared to what we experienced earlier. Once on board we had lunch on the Lido Deck and then went to our room, which was immaculate. There we discovered the ship would be delayed 12 hours leaving because of TD Bonnie which was due to hit the mouth of the Mississippi during the night. Once everyone boarded, the gangways were closed and the ship operated as though we were sailing. We noticed about 4am that we were moving and we got to see sunrise along the Southwest Pass, later we got to see the mouth of the Mississippi. Once the pilot got off the ship the captain "put the pedal to the metal" and we were off into the open sea.

For two days at sea they kept us busy with various activities, food and entertainment. The food was wonderful and the entertainment was outstanding, well except for the Mowtown night and Hypnotist but hey, there were movies on the big screen on the Lido Deck. Read more