Our family of 4 (2 teen sons) booked this cruise because of the price. Period. Went to vacationstogo.com around August and searched for Christmas time cruises for less than $500 pp and this was the only one. We had done this itinerary before on NCL and loved it. Loved the ports, loved the weather, and loved the Free Style dining. This time around we were cruising with Brother, Sister-in-law and 2 teens. We got a phone call at home a couple days prior to sailing from Carnival telling us to be at the New Orleans port between 12:30 and 2:30. I had done lots of Cruise Critic research leading up to this cruise so we did not heed their advice. The 8 of us had flown in the night before, so we headed right to the port after a leisurely breakfast, arriving around 11. Was a crazy cab ride from the airport area -- I swear our cab driver's name must be Helen because she was "Hell-on" wheels! She proceeded to form a 3rd lane of traffic into the port drop-off area barely sqeezing in between the 2 lanes already formed. It was chaotic once we finally got to the unloading zone as passengers were still coming off the ship. We breezed through security and check-in and were on the ship by 11:45. We were within the first 50 people on the ship. Did some exploring, snacked from the Lido deck buffet and had no lines to deal with. Did not get our luggage until about 5:30 that evening, which was no big deal. Had access to our cabins by about 1:30. We had 2 cabins, side by side with the boys sharing a cabin. Realized quickly that I should have asked for a key to their room at check in, but was able to do that at the Information Desk the next morning in just a minute or 2.

Got our Coke stickers right away and were glad we did as wee saw long lines later that day and the next. Should have signed the kids up for their Teen Clubs then but did not and experienced a line too long to bear the next eve. What did we expect with 1100 kids onboard? Ended up not officially enrolling the 14 year olds in their group, which did not seem to be a problem for their hit and miss participation. Evidently, the 17 year olds did not need a parent to enroll them and they came away with a couple gifts by attending the club on their own. Found the boys in the club area several times, which I liked -- seemed like a positive environment.

Muster Drill was painless as we were not required to bring life vests along. Is a good time and place to mingle with people that will will run into over and over during the week. Read more