Our last cruise was back in 2012; a lot of Carnival procedures and policies have changed since then (FTTF, Sail & Sign Cards at room, Sea Day Brunch), so we weren't really sure what to expect this cruise. We chose this particular cruise because we were able to celebrate Christmas at home with the family, but allowed us to do a cruise while the kids were still out on break. This cruise, I was traveling with my DH, DD (16), and my DS (14).
We live about 3 1/2 hours away from New Orleans, so we decided to drive to port the morning of the cruise. Since the Saints had a 12 pm game, we got on the road around 3:40 am, hoping to get into the port area before the tailgaters arrived. We were engulfed in fog thick as pea soup as we drove. We arrived in the Crescent City by 8 am. After driving around a couple of side streets, we found some parking and ate breakfast at Mother's. There were some Saints fans out and walking about, festooned in fan garb. We exchanged some compulsary "Who Dat"s. Then, headed to the parking garage at the terminal. The cost is $140, but was worth the price for us. The garage opened around 9:30. We learned from one of the Carnival staff to wait until 10:30 am to go downstairs and get in line. Around 10:45 am, they started calling Priority boarding, wedding parties, and FTTF. Our boarding pass listed a boarding time of 12 pm - 12:30 pm, but we were on the ship before 11:30 am.
The hubs and I had 1:30 pm Couples Massages scheduled. There is no better way to kick off a vacation than spending 75 minutes de-stressing. Our cabin was located on the Spa Deck (12202), and we took advantage of the multiple times throughout the cruise. We'd head to the Thalassotherapy Pool after a long day of walking around in port or on the ship. We took advantage of the Thermal Suites. Between my DH and I, we had 5 massages, a pedicure, and a facial. We love the Spa!!