This was most definitely not our first cruise, in fact, I turned platinum on this cruise, and DH will turn platinum in April. But last year after a great cruise in December to the Bahamas, I said to my DH, I really miss true Mexican food, so when we got home from dinner, we went on line and booked the Fantasy. We had cruised to Mexico from New Orleans, but we wanted to try sailing from Mobile, as we had never been to Mobile.
We drove from Atlanta to Saraland, where we had booked the Microtel. A small hotel chain owned by Wyndom (sp) hotels. We had the park and cruise option, which was fantastic, our room was a mini suite, with a partition between the bedroom (a queen) and a living room, and the window actually opened, and we listened to the rain that night. We had dinner at the Oyster restaurant right next door.
The next morning, we got up, went downstairs to our breakfast, repacked, and were on the van at 11:30 to our cruise!