We (my daughter and I) started our cruise by spending 2 nights in New Orleans so that she could do some sightseeing. We stayed at the Holiday Inn-Superdome and received free parking for the entire cruise which was great! We had no problems during embarkation, actually took about an hour, as we arrived at the port a little early, but was on board before noon. We were supposed to sail at 4 pm, but it was delayed until 9 pm due to the oil spill. We were told that they needed to navigate around it during "daylight" hours, which was fine, except for the fact that of course the casino or shops was not open until apprx. 9:30, not to mention that the pools were not filled either. Therefore, there wasn't much to do until about 10 pm that night. One complaint that we had was that they did not do the safety drill until 10:30 am the next morning! This was not a good choice, as most people were at the pool and it took a lot longer for everyone to show up! The ship was nice and clean. The staff was very friendly, but we only seen our room steward maybe 3 times during the whole cruise. This really not being a problem, as he did do his job and our cabin was always cleaned. I have to admit that there didn't seem to be as many activities during sea days as on our previous cruises. Our ports of call were Progreso, which we were not fond of, and Cozumel, which we LOVED. This was our first time staying on the Lido deck and absolutely loved it! Disembarkation went ok, we were off the ship by about 8:15, which wasn't too bad. Overall, I will have to admit that this wasn't one of my favorite cruises but we still had fun.