Our vacation began with three adults and five teenage kids (14, 14, 14, 16, 17) flying from Boston on 2/26 at 6am to New Orleans arriving at 1:30pm. We rented cars and drove to our hotel (Crowne Plaza on corner of Canal & Bourbon). We spent the day on the balcony watching parades and collecting beads. It was around 80 degrees F outside and a little humid. We had dinner at Huck Finns and walked around a bit with the parades coming through almost every 2 hours. It was a lot of fun considering we had the kids. Can't wait to go back without the kids and cross the barrier on Bourbon St.!!!

On Sunday we had breakfast and attached the cruise tags to our bags and brought the rental cars to the Canal St location for drop-off. We were shuttled from their to the port. We used Avis for the rentals but to be honest they were lack-luster at best. The woman who shuttled us both ways was fantastic however.

Getting on the ship was the quickest we've ever experienced (barely faster than Pride of America). We immediately went up for lunch and sat outside of Raffles to enjoy the view while we ate. The food was about what we expected for the buffet. No complaints but certainly not going to say it was amazing... Read more