Monday, August 26, 2013

Exotic Western Caribbean Cruise–Day 1 New Orleans–August 17, 2013

Today has been a long day.  It started at 3:45 a.m. so that we could be at the airport for an early flight.  It was a pretty uneventful trip down.  But it was a great start to an exiting family cruise on the Carnival Conquest.

Once in New Orleans, we checked into our hotel, the Springhill Suites before heading out to wander the French Quarter and Bourbon Street.  It’s a lot of bars, tourist shops, and street entertainment.  Had we more time, it would have been a great place to people watch.

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We walked along the Riverfront on the way back to the hotel.  Then we headed out for dinner at Mulate’s for some great local cuisine.  I had a great crawfish platter.  My husband had a gumbo and most of my family tried some alligator.  All was very good.

Now, it’s time for some relaxation and getting to bed early.  Tomorrow we board the ship.

Exotic Western Caribbean Cruise–Day 2–New Orleans–August 18, 2013

Today we leave for our 7 day cruise on the Carnival Conquest with stops in Belize; Cozumel, Mexico; and Isla Roatan, Honduras.

We had a great continental breakfast at the Springhill Suites complete with scrambled eggs, sausages, original and strawberry Belgium waffles, and your typical cold breakfast items.

Then we headed to the Port to figure out how we could walk there and get our first glimpse at the port.
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The hotel recommended walking around the Convention Center to the north but you end up doubling back because the convention center is so huge.  We decided we will walk there via Julia street.  We were told by a security guard that although it says no pedestrian traffic on the port road, they make exceptions for cruise travelers.

Our walk to the port went well even with two young children.  We arrived at the port around 10:45 a.m.  My parents had a suite and so they had priority boarding and we were allowed to join them in the check in and boarding process.  After checking in and going through the scanners, we only sat for a couple of minutes before they made the announcement that the ship was ready for passengers.  Again, as we were part of the priority boarding, we were one of the first ones on the ship.  The regular lines didn’t look that bad either though.  By 11:30 a.m., we were in the Restaurant Cezanne enjoying some lunch.  It couldn’t have gone smoother. 

Rooms were ready by 12:30 p.m. and so we dropped off our stuff, did a little unpacking and headed out to explore.  Here are some pictures of our first walk around the ship.
On deck:
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Impressionist Boulevard near the Alchemy Bar:
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The ship has a lot of really decorative glass throughout.  As you can see in the above picture, the lamp fixtures are are these beautiful flowers that remind me of trumpets.  Below you can see the sun in the atrium in front of our dining room.
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At 3:30 p.m. before we could sail, we had the muster station drill where they pack the entire ship of people on to the perimeter of one deck.  I have to say this is probably the first time I saw so many people bring drinks to this drill.

These pictures were taken when probably 1/3 of the people had arrived.
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When we got back to the room they were delivering our suitcases so we finished unpacking and on the balcony watched as the shipped sailed down the Mississippi.  This first picture shows the dock.  There are two cruise docks here.  The Carnival dock is the one closest to the bridge.
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There were several car ferries.
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We saw two different refineries and several cranes in operation transferring what looked like coal and sand (separate cranes and barges).
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We then headed down for a drink at the Alchemy Bar.  This is by far the best bar on the ship with interesting drinks that are really good.  Here are a few pictures of the Impressionist Boulevard as well.
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We dined in the lower level of the Monet Dining Room at table 303.  It was a great table for 8 (which included only our party) right next to a window and kind of in a corner so the kids didn’t disturb too many people. 

The food was delicious.

Here are a few sunset pictures:
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As our room wasn’t quite done shortly after 9:00 p.m. we headed down to check out photos and listen to some music in the Lobby.  Travis was singing and playing guitar and harmonica all with a country twang.  He was alright and it was humorous when he stopped playing his guitar yet the guitar music continued.  We think he was using a foot petal to record and play to make up for the fact he was a one man band. 

More interesting though was probably the people watching we did.  We sat right near where one of the photographers had set up so we got to watch everyone get their pictures taken.  We also had our pictures taken.  This is where we ended our day.  As we drifted off to sleep we were just getting to the end of the Mississippi.  By morning we would be in the open sea.

Click HERE for tonight’s dinner menu.
Click HERE for tonight’s dessert menu.
Click HERE for today’s Fun Times.

Exotic Western Caribbean Cruise–Day 3–At Sea–August 19, 2013

We were up early so thought we would try walking on the Promenade Deck.  Unfortunately, much of it was roped off so we really couldn’t do any walking.  So we wandered the ship a little instead before heading to breakfast.  The ship was so quiet.  The only people we ran into were staff trying to get everything cleaned before the start of the day.

Here is the promenade deck where we wanted to walk.
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Photos from the main Lobby:
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The Toulouse Lautrec theater:
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We had breakfast at the buffet at Restaurant Cezanne.
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We spent the rest of the day relaxing around the ship, swimming in the pool and checking out the waterslide. 

Here are a few pictures of our room 7344:
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Tonight was cruise elegant night and so we dressed up and went out for pictures before dinner.  They had 12 backdrops set up with photographers.  As we were first we had little waiting as we moved from photographer to photographer.

Dinner was again excellent although service was less than ideal.

After dinner we went to the Latin Nights show which was horrible.  There was little to no actually Latin dancing and they butchered just about every song.  Their Spanish pronunciation was so horrible it hurt my ears to listen.  They should NOT have attempted a Latin show without mastering the Spanish pronunciation and learning a few Latin dances.

Afterwards, we stopped in the Piano Bar to listen to Larry.  Unfortunately there as a group of very drunk individuals who were so loud we couldn’t even listen to the music.  So we headed to the Adult’s Only Punchliner Comedy Show and listened to Michael Macy who wasn’t bad.  My husband really seemed to enjoy it.  As early people we then headed to bed.

Click HERE for tonight’s dinner menu.
Click HERE for tonight’s dessert menu.
Click HERE for today’s Fun Times.