New Orleans Cruise - Cruising

    On Sunday morning we had planned to attend mass at St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. We were warned by the hotel staff that a Mardi Gras parade was planned to come down the street in front of our hotel and all the streets would be blocked to traffic after 10:00. Since we had to get to the cruise ship we had no choice but to leave early and head right to the dock. Too bad because it would have been fun to watch the parade from our hotel room.

Our cabins were quite cozy

    Arriving so early we had to wait a while before we could board the ship but thankfully there was a waiting room (I was picturing us sitting on the sidewalk in front of the port). Everyone made it on board and we were soon trying to figure out where to put all our stuff in our cabin.

Some of us had already managed to find the "Drink of the Day".

The rooms are small but they give you a lot of nooks and crannies in which to put things. My sisters and I managed to get everything tucked away. It was taking Mom and her sisters longer to figure things out. I was wondering at the wisdom of putting a group of 80ish women together in their own room but they figured it all out (even the safe eventually). All of our cabins were close to each other so we were already popping our heads in and out of each other's rooms.

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    That evening (after our life boat drill) we left our dock on the Mississippi River and started heading down to the Gulf of Mexico. It takes several hours to make it out of the river and into the gulf. Along the way we saw the New Orleans waterfront, oil refineries, sugar factories and many cargo ships.
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At the slots tournement

    Over the week we had lots of fun taking part in the shipboard activities. We attended every trivia contest we could, managing to win more than one game allowing several of us to take home the prized Norwegian Cruise Line key chain flashlight (woooo!). My cousin Bridgette has a beautiful singing voice and we became regulars at karaoke to hear her sing. My cousin Margaret and my sister Terre performed duets with Bridgette. Margaret and her sister Karen joined the pub crawl visiting every bar on the ship. The casino was a popular destination for many of our group especially my cousins Erin and Mary and my sister Kathy. At least we always knew where to find them when we needed them. We still managed to squeeze in a few games of Scrabble here and there.
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Eating was a favorite activity

   The shows on the ship were outstanding. Several lounges featured performers including a singing couple and a wonderful guitarist. The ship's orchestra performed Big Band music in the nightclub. A troupe from the Second City improvisation group was on board and performed at several different venues including a Murder Mystery lunch. Every night there was a big show in the ship theatre featuring magicians, singers and dancers, comics and acrobats. The grand finale show included elements of all of the other shows in a Cirque d'Soleil type extravaganza. It was the best show I have seen on a ship.