We had previously sailed on the Carnival Destiny 3 years ago, and that ship needed a good refurbishment in 2010. This time, the ship was refurbished, and its name was changed to the Carnival Sunshine. I considered taking a land-based, week-long vacation on a Caribbean island this December, but I got the ‘cruise itch’ again, 8 months after sailing on the Breeze, so we booked this cruise. I liked the itinerary of the Sunshine cruise we just took, plus the ship was upgraded with the 2.0 upgrades that I really like; otherwise, I wouldn’t have booked a cruise on this ship without it being refurbished and those 2.0 upgrades being added.

We had originally planned on flying into New Orleans and staying in a hotel a day before the cruise, but due to a marathon going on in the city, most of the hotels in New Orleans were booked. The only place to find hotels/motels that would be satisfactory to me, would be near the airport (15 miles from New Orleans) or some of the other neighboring cities. That wouldn’t sit well with us, since we didn’t have car…so we decided to catch a red eye flight at 12:30am, the same day as the cruise, and pray that there were no delays. Thankfully, it all went perfectly, getting us into New Orleans on time, at 8:30am, on cruise day, and to the cruise terminal by 10am.

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