We are a family of three from Connecticut, my wife and I are mid-40's and our son Brian is 16 years old. This was our fifth cruise, second with Carnival. We had never sailed on a newer ship and we were not disappointed.
Embarkation day - We flew into New Orleans the morning of the cruise, which meant we had to get up at three in the morning eastern time to get to the airport for our 6:30 a.m. flight. We arrived in New Orleans at 10:30 a.m. and took a cab to the pier. The cab fare was $12 per person flat rate and the ride only took a half hour. We were dropped off at the pier by 11:30 a.m. and as we walked into the building they were just opening up the counters to sign in. There was no line and we were able to sign in at the counter and then walk over to pick up our sign and sail card within a few minutes. Since we had arrived so early, we decided to let the porters take all of our luggage including our carry-on (big mistake). After waiting about twenty minutes they started to let groups on board. We were the second group and we were on board the ship shortly after noon. They told us that the room would not be ready until 2:00, so we went to grab a bite to eat and then explored the ship.
The ship is laid out in such a way, that you don't get the feeling that there are over 2,500 passengers on board. We went to see if our room was ready and if the luggage had arrived. With our four previous cruises, the luggage arrived within two hours of boarding the ship, so we never thought there would be a problem waiting for our bags to arrive. Exhausted, we went to the cabin and ended up taking a nap while waiting for the luggage which did not arrive until we returned from our early seating dinner (8 hours after boarding). Now we know that we will bring our carry-on with a change of dining clothes on board with us. For dinner, we were assigned to the Renoir early sitting at a table for 12 people. We met our dining companions, a family of three from Louisiana and a family of six from California.