This was a last minute booking, hubby decided we should go on a cruise for my bday. L.A. was sold out, Alaska was too cold, but New Orleans was promising and there was one to Belize and Roatan, yay! So we fly to Nola, get a hotel Sat. night for Sunday departure. We have been in CA a long time but are originally from LA, so we know and enjoy Nola. Then I learn we will be delayed until Monday. Bummer. The next day we learn we are delayed until Tuesday. Double bummer. Called our travel agent and NCL to see what we get for being delayed. Credit for 2 days' sailing. That's it? No future upgrade? No free drink or something? Oh well. The Intercontinental Hotel was nice and located well, so we ate like pigs at great restaurants and made the most of it. Embarking was crazy. I've never seen lines so long. But, we made it through. Then there was another huge line. Embarkation photo? OK. Wait, wait, wait. Never mind, we don't need no stinking photo. Wait, that's for that table for buying coke cards and stuff, we can go on through to take a picture. Then comes the washy-washy assaults (hand sanitizer sprayers). We find our room, it's all good. Bathroom is roomier than all other 6 cruises I've been on. There is a sliding door to the pot and another to the shower, with the sink in the middle. Not bad. Cute tile with fish on it, but some cracking and rusting, ew. Balcony is nice, 2 chairs, lil table.

We then proceed to have a nice lunch, and discover the food is perhaps the worst I've ever had. Nothing very good, nothing interesting. The top of my cruise itinerary is always lobster night. Turns out, the first night onboard there was an entree of lobster and snapper. It was a half lobster tail and some snapper. Not bad. Surely there would be a whole lobster tail night? Noooo. Desserts were really bad. I have nightmares of their horrible mousse concoctions that aren't good. I've never been exposed to such dry, nasty pancakes each morning. Scrambled eggs are like government eggs, made from a bag of powder. Nothing for breakfast was palatable. I'm not normally a complainer; this was just pretty bad. There wasn't one meal, appetizer, entree, salad, or dessert I would rave about. First time for everything.

The shows... we went to On Broadway, a sampler of scenes from Broadway shows. It wasn't so good, but then, if these performers were really good maybe they would be on Broadway, so whatever. The last night included an act from comedian Sam Griesbaum, whom I remembered loving from my first cruise in about 2000. He was funny, but much milder than I remembered but I was glad to see him again. Patti & Jose do some funny covers. He on guitar and she the backup voice and accessories like "Psshhhhh" in one song, LOL! That was hilarious. Read more