This was mine and my husband's first cruise. We booked it 7 months in advance through Carnival directly. We sailed from New Orleans on Jan. 6, 2005. We did not like sailing down the Mississippi River; it smelled bad and was foggy all that night and on the way back in to New Orleans.
We got to the cruise ship terminal around 10:00 a.m. People were still getting off the Sensation from its last trip. They let us start boarding around 11:30; we were the second couple on the ship. The people at the terminal were very nice. We were thankful that we left our car back at the hotel and took a taxi to the terminal; traffic was bad there.
We ate lunch on the ship and around 1:30 we went to our cabin. We liked our cabin. One of the best things about our cruise was our cabin; it was on Empress deck #125. We found it to be very charming. However, I wouldn't want to put more than two people in one; they aren't very big. The cabin steward was wonderful. Cabin was very clean everyday. The ship itself is beautiful. However, we found the ship rocked more than we thought it would. I got sick the night we sailed and was sick the whole next day. After we got back, we heard other passengers say that it was rocking and there was a lot of movement felt on the ship.