Background: This would be my third cruise and my fiancE's first cruise. He gave this vacation to me as a gift for my 21st birthday. We cruised on 3/8/08, during my spring break and his vacation time from work.
Embarkation: We arrived at the Port of New Orleans after a hectic and stressful night of driving through record breaking snowfall. We experienced snow from the Indiana-Kentucky state line all the way through Birmingham and Mississippi. Upon arrival, around 10:15 central time, we were directed to the parking garage where we paid $70 to park for the week. We were then pointed towards the porter's station upon entering the garage. We tipped the porter $5 for our 4 bags and made our way downstairs to the cruise terminal. We entered and were ushered toward a very short line (although there were many queues set up for later that day) to go through security. We followed the signage and made it to the check in line, where we waited approximately 3 minutes. We checked in using our passports, funpass and credit card for the Sail and Sign account. We received our Sail and Sign cards and room keys. From that point, we were told that the ship would not be ready to board until 11:30 and that we were to wait in the seating area they had provided. People were sat in rows in the order that they arrived, so that the first people seated were the first to board. We boarded the ship at exactly 11:30.
3/8 From past experience, I knew that we were to make our way up to the Lido Deck grill, as our stateroom (E80) would not be ready until 1:30. A gave my fiancE a brief tour of the boat, as the ships' I had been on previously were set up exactly the same, and we made our way to the Lido Deck. We ate lunch, consisting of burgers, hot dogs and fries, on one of the secluded back patios of Windows on the Sea. It was a chilly day, so we decided to sit inside to await entrance to our stateroom. At 1:30 we made our way to our stateroom, took a shower and a nap to help rid ourselves of the exhaustion from the previous night. During our nap, at about 3:00, our bags were delivered, so we got up to unpack. Around 3:30 we were called to attend the muster drill, which was quick and painless. We went back to the secluded patio, which was not so secluded anymore, to watch us set sail down the Mississippi river. After we set sail, we went back to our room to prepare for dinner. We went to dinner and met our server, Martin, and the two other young couples we would be dining with throughout the week. Both of our meals, the filet, were excellent, as was the warm chocolate melting cake. We went up on deck to see us sailing down the Mississippi and made a few last phone calls to family. We went back to our stateroom to nap until the Welcome Aboard show, but accidently fell asleep for the night.