My husband and I decided to take a little trip before I head back to school this week. We debated between Vegas and other types of trips, and ultimately decided the value of a cruise was difficult to beat. We have sailed two previous times with Carnival and decided to embark from a different port other than Galveston just for fun.

HOTEL AND DRIVING

It was about a 10 hour drive from DFW to Mobile. We had bad weather predicted for the date of travel (01/09/11), so we cut south and stayed the night in Biloxi at the IP Casino, Resort and Spa. We got a great rate on the room, which was very nice and had a beautiful view of the bay. There was a small charge to use the "wet" facilities in the spa, which we did and enjoyed very much. However, the whole place stank of cigarette smoke and the food prices were outrageous. The gambling was uninspiring with a lot of tired, extremely elderly patrons. We skipped spending any time in the casino, got a good night sleep in our very comfortable room and headed to Mobile at a decent hour, which was less than a one hour drive away. The drive from DFW to Mobile all in all was very relaxing other than some questionable threat of ice in the initial leg. Once we got out of that, it was easy going with good roads. Read more