This was my family's (me, my husband, and kids ages 16, 13, 11, and 10) third cruise. The first was on the Disney Wonder and the second was on the Holiday. Therefore, this was our second time on this ship. My family thoroughly enjoyed both ships, but actually we have to say we preferred Carnival. Disney was very nice, but it revolved around Mickey. This line was more well-balanced.

NEW ORLEANS- We decided to spend two nights in New Orleans before we left for our cruise. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Chateau La Moyne in the French Quarter. The hotel was fabulous! It had a quaint courtyard which included a pool. Also, the location couldn't be beat. We were within walking distance from all of the major tourist sites. So on our siteseeing day we hit the cathedral, aquarium, shopping mall, above-ground cemetery, and a few restaurants. New Orleans is such an amazing city that we enjoyed this part of our trip greatly.

EMBARKATION- Although we knew that the official embarkation time was 1:30, we arrived at the port by car (we are from northern Alabama) about 11:45. We stood in the line for about 15 minutes, and were issued out Sail and Sign cards and directed to sit in the infamous yellow chairs. We sat there for about thirty minutes and in record time, were having our welcome aboard picture made. We timed it and actually boarded the boat about 12:45. We were thrilled to get on ahead of schedule. The entire process was extremely easy and virtually hassel free. We were told to wait until about 2 to go to our rooms, so we went to the Lido Deck for lunch. When we did go to our room, the majority of our luggage was already there, and within half an hour the rest arrived.