We drove down to New Orleans from St. Louis, MO. We decided to split the drive in half even though it is only a 10 hour drive, I hate being in the car. We spent Friday night in South Haven Mississippi and drove the rest of the way on Saturday. We stayed outside of New Orleans in Covington at the Courtyard. It was our family (husband, self and 2 daughters 14 and 9) This was my husband and I's 11th cruise and girls 9th. We have been on most of the major cruise lines. This was our 3rd on NCL.

Embarkation: We arrived at the cruise port at about 10:30AM. Our check in was very easy. We were on board the ship by 12:30. I think they had some kind of inspection that morning that delayed things a bit. I have never been on a NCL ship that had such a welcome when you stepped foot on the ship. The crew was cheering and clapping as you boarded saying welcome!

We immediately went and had lunch in Versailles. The service was slow with our waiter but others were getting their food and gone way before us. It didn't bother us though because we had time to kill before we could go to our cabin. Read more