Sunday, Jan 2, 2005
New Orleans, LA; Mississippi River:
The crew got up without too much hang-over drama, mostly because we gave up on getting a New Orleans brunch, and slept in instead. Glen finished up his packing, while the rest of us screwed around and finished up odds-n-ends like adding some songs to June's iPod.
Since Glen's apartment is like 9 blocks from the port, we grabed out stuff and walked across the street to the port's long term parking lot, where we pretened that we had just parked, and hopped on the bus that takes you diretly to the port. The bus became affectionately known as the "Ho Tard" for obvious reasons.
Embarkation wasn't too bad. A little waiting in line, a little prank phone calling the Louisiana Tourism Board to order gumbo. Then we were on board!
The ship we took is the Carinval Conquest, one of their largest ships. This thing was friggen *massive*. Pictures don't do it justice... it's like a huge hotel... think Peppermill, except that it moves under it's own power!
This is a picture of the Conquest's sister ship the Victory that I took when it was anchored next to us at Grand Cayman.
The interior is like a 4 or 5 star hotel... inlayed wood accents, grand piano in the lobby, bars everywhere, restaurants everywhere, swimming pools, casino (that rivals the size of a smaller casino in Reno), piano bar, dance club, and on and on...
The boat has 13 public decks, 0 through 12. We had 3 rooms for the 6 of us on deck 9, aka "Lido Deck". Lido doesn't have many rooms on it, because it's also got 2 swimming pools, 4 spas, a restaurant, several sun-deck areas, a 24-hour pizza counter, 3 bars, a BBQ counter, and the fore-most observation area that's right on top of the bridge. It's basically the pimpest deck on the boat.
Normally for the price we paid, we'd have a room on deck 1 or 2 (which is below the main public decks 3-5), but our travel agent hooked us up and booked us on Lido! In addition, the room that June and I shared was a handicapped room which meant we had a double sized bathroom with a dope-ass shower.
We embarked at about 2 pm and had lunch in the deck 9 restaurant. Then spent the next few hours moving into our new homes (which included hanging the pirate flag in Glen and Courtney's room), and exploring the ship.
Then we went to the manditory safety meeting where we donned our life jackets and acted like asses in the faces of all the people that were scared from watching Titanic too many times.
Afterwards, instead of returning to our cabins, we got drinks with our vests still on in one of the lounges on deck 5.
At about 8 pm, the ship left the docks and we sailed down the Mississippi headed for the Gulf. We got to see some of the river from our table in the main dining restaurant where everyone has a reserved table at their dining time. At dinner we also met our waitress for the cruise, Christina from Romania.
Day 2 Cliff notes:
We snuck through the parking lot to gank a ride on the Ho Tard. Then got on the boat and explored for the afternoon. The boat sailed that evening down the Mississippi River towards the Gulf.