Intro: Br-r-r-r-r-r-r-r! We left upstate New York State with its umpteen feet of snow and 20-30 degree temps and arrived in New Orleans with its blistering upper 30 degree temps and cold wind. It's winter so we didn't expect tropical temps but this was The Big Chill. The scheduled itinerary was 1 sea day, Key West, Freeport, Nassau and then 2 sea days. The ports of call were very enjoyable and actually warm (70's in Keys West, 80's in Nassau).

Background: We're always on the lookout for the best deal so we booked an aft balcony cabin a deck below Lido (and the casual buffet eateries). That way we're close to the food but always use the stairs so we do get some exercise. We paid "Past Guest" rate for this cruise and I checked the Carnival web site for price changes multi times for weeks before departure but never found any price drops or upgrades.

Arrival: We arrived in New Orleans the day before the cruise. We stayed at the Comfort Suites and the shuttle from airport to the hotel was free as was the shuttle back to the airport the day of the cruise so we could meet the Carnival shuttle to the pier ($23 each). We arrived at the pier a bit before noon and the process seemed mostly orderly (NOTE: make sure you have all your paperwork ready (ID, boarding passes etc) to make things easier. You can fill out your CDC health form while in line so have a pen ready. We were on the Lido deck ready to eat by 1:00 (after dropping off our carry on bags in the cabin). By 3:00 our "big" bags were delivered. Relatively smooth - in my opinion. Read more