We traveled to New Orleans a Day early to enjoy some of the festivities going on there during Carnival/Mardi Gras. There were six people in our party and we hired a Limo Service to transport us from the airport to the Chateau Leymone in the French Quarter. Deluxe Limo serivce was awesome. $100 to hotel for all six people. Also used them for transport back to the airport from the French Quarter after getting off the ship. $100 for that too. Great service and the car was awesome. Worked out really great! Much better than getting on a bus at the airport and sitting there for 2 hours before going to the cruise ship terminal.

Embarkation in New Orleans was very quick and we were on the Ship around 11:30. We went directly to Windows for lunch as we prefer the service over the buffet. The restaurant was virtually empty and the service was great. We did get to go to our rooms at about 2:00 and our luggage was delivered around 3:30. The rooms were clean and there were no issues.

The Spirit is an older ship and therefore there are some areas that show the age. It is well maintained though and we did not encounter any issues with the cleaniness. I am a germaphobe, so I can really be picky. I did not have any issues with anything in our rooms not being clean and well kept. We have always booked an inside cabin and feel that there is adequate room for the two of us. I try to book a room that is labeled for 3 people because there is one pull down bunk that can be used as extra storage. There is room to pull down the bunk and lay out your clothes as a makeshift dresser. This works excellent for me since I tend to overpack anyway. And I'm not fond of putting all my stuff in the drawers anyway. Everyone in our party was very pleased with the food on the Spirit. We went to Windows for Breakfast and Dinner everyday. We felt the food was excellent and more than ample. We were able to pick our waiter every night and we had an awesome one. Edgar was more than accomodating and did a fantastic job. I love my veggies and every night he brought me a platter of steamed veggies. We could not have asked for better service. We would pop in the buffet occasionally for a quick bite at lunch but that was about all we had there. I mostly had the pasta bar, but my husband tried alot of the other items. The food was always fresh and plentiful. We were always pleased with the selection and loved the "everyday" choices. The Cheese Tortollini was awesome! We all shared some of that every night! Read more