my wife and i and another couple who Just Love to Cruise, Decided to Try a different Cruise Line for the first time in 2014. We were 5 time Cruisers on Carnival Out of New Orleans. Since my wife does not like to Fly we Choose to Leave out a port that is close to home. At first glance the terminal is a bit Cluttered when trying to get all of the luggage out of the car with so many people in one tight space, that was in my mind the start to a bad trip. But i keep a stiff upper lip and told my self this was not going to get me down. after having to park about half a mile away and waiting for 20 min for a transport back to the terminal decided to walk back to the boat. Now i have to tell you this is the End of my complaining. from the point of getting back to the Cruse terminal on I did not have any thing to complain about AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!! Going through the Security Checkpoint, and getting the Room Key was so fast i was almost scared. We were used to 45 min to get thought Security and then waiting in line for about 2 to 3 hrs to get room keys and then about 30 more min to get on the boat. Again that is what we were used to, so i made the decision to insure we would be at the terminal before noon as i figured it would take us 3 hrs to get on the boat just like Carnival. Boy was i WRONG!! i doped off the luggage at 11:30 and we were on the boat eating Lunch at 12:45!!!!

Now the Food was Unbelievable!!!!! we ate breakfast every day in the formal dining room instead of the Buffet. It is more laid back having the staff wait on you. and there are some things you cant get on the buffet that are available in the sit down Breakfast.Lunch and snacks were usual done at either the Sandwich shop or the buffet. I tried to keep Lunch some what light but with food being around all the time it is hard. then comes dinner, We did the my time dining all but 2 nights the food was FANTASTIC!!!!!!! the weight staff were fun and entertaining, always willing to help and give you anything you needed. after the first night our staff remembered what we were drinking and willing to insure as the glass was half empty there was another one waiting for you. And since i drink about 3 gallons of water a day, I keep him running till he made the connection to have 3 glasses waiting on the table for me, one i was half finished with one i was drinking next and one he was to refill on next round. The dinner started off with a bred Roll which we tried to eat a different one each time but half way through we found each of our favorites. and they staff were happy to insure we got as many of them as we desired. Now some New Cruisers may not know this but order as much as you want and as many of Off the menu and you want with out being wasteful. most nights i would order an appetizer, a soup, Salad, another appetizer, and at least 1 entree for me and one to share with my wife. We did this to taste something we could not each deiced on and wanted to try. the portions are not Very big so it sounds like a lot of food but it is not too big. then came time for desert and coffee. i think i did gained too much weight on the boat. now something some people do not know about this boat was the drink packages. They have several of them we chose to go with a drink package that was not the top of the line but the second one. this gave us unlimited sodas, Water bottles, Specialty Coffees cold and hot, and Non alcoholic Frozen drinks. now this might sound like it is not that big of a deal but it made a impression on us. We do not drink much but having the non alcoholic frozen and refreshing fruit drinks were a nice afternoon drink treat. then having different coffees in the morning and soft drinks daily. we did the math water bottles were $3 each, Soft Drinks were $1.72, Coffees were $5, and Frozen Non alcoholic drinks were $4, i know we had 3 cokes with dinner and say 2 more all day($15) one coffee in the morning and one after dinner ($10) 10 water bottles daily ($30) and then 2 or 3 Frozen Non alcoholic drinks ($12) so adding that up $62 daily is what i would have sent if we did not get the drink package of $150 per person for the week. so you can see that was worth it for us.

now we ate one night in Chops and that was the best $20 stake i have ever had Worth it I suggest do it on a night if yo are not the get formal for dinner person, that is when we did it, not too crowded. Read more