We wanted to do something special for our 25 anniversary (on Valentines Day) so we booked this cruise. Our oldest just finished college and our youngest has 2 years left, the "budget" entered into our choice. You can't beat the value of a cruise when you compare it to a land based vacation.
We live in central Illinois and plane fares were high so we made it into a road trip too. We stayed in the Hammond LaQuinta on Friday night so we could drive the causeway on Sat. morning. We knew to not drive the causeway on a business day. This is a new hotel and it was a great place to stay. I highly recommend it. Very friendly staff, very clean and it had a nice breakfast that was included. It came to a total of $80.00. AARP rate.
On Sat. morning we parked at the pier early and dropped off our luggage. We walked through the Riverwalk Mall and went to the French Market. We love this area and it was good to be back there again even though it was a cool and windy day. The line at Cafe Du Monde was very long which was no problem for us as we knew we could buy the same thing in the Riverside Mall if we wanted to. The French Market was a busy and fun place to be!!
Room R3, Elation. Very large porthole room. Very clean and serviced well. The porthole windows are set back about 1 1/2 ft limiting the view out of them. For the price of an inside room this is a great value. Very quiet area of the ship.