My husband and I just returned from the 11/14/04 sailing of Carnival Conquest. This was our 8th cruise, and our 7th on Carnival (the other was on Princess). It was one of our best cruises yet.

We started by arriving at New Orleans two days early and stayed at Ashton's B&B on Esplanade. This was a very nice B&B and the food was excellent. Karma and Patrick were wonderful hosts. We stayed in the Charpantier room, which was quaint and had a beautiful bathroom with a whirlpool tub. After two days of running around New Orleans and marvelling at how many people are drunk by noon, we headed off to our cruise.

At 10:30 am, we took a taxi to the cruise terminal and were stuck in traffic for about 1/2 an hour (thankful that we were being charged a flat fee). We finally arrived at the cruise terminal and check-in was very easy. We then sat in the yellow chairs for about 45 minutes before boarding the ship. Read more