Our family group of 6 [daughter, g'son & stepfather & son and girlfriend and m e] arrived in New Orleans day before the cruise; stayed at the Best Western French Qtr Hotel. Made reservations thru Expedia for $152.52/rm (3 rms total, the only hangup was that my daughter's party arrived earlier than us and couldn't get into their room until I got there even tho the rooms were paid for and listed under individual names because I made the reservations long ago and confirmed them a day before leaving home. If this an Expedia rule it will need to be explored before I use them again. They called a cab for us about noon the day of the cruise and we headed for the pier. CC had warned us about no early boarding because the ship just relocated from Barcelona, Spain.

Our taxi had a difficult time getting to the terminal with all the traffic tieups in the area. Learned later that customs held up the debark process a long time and New Orleans seemed unprepared for the traffic trying to go both ways at once along with all the semitrucks trying to unload at the ship. Inside the terminal was also rather chaotic with computers not scanning well and what appeared to be people not familiar with their jobs but we got on without much trouble, each carrying our carry-on bag with essentials for overnite. Our rooms were ready when we got aboard (2:00 pm?). Ship was late leaving probably due to the confusion at the pier but we were enjoying our early dining experience. All our bags were at our door after supper except for mine which puzzled me because they were all loaded together in the same forklift cage.

About an hour later I got a call to come to deck two to pick up my bag; my DD & S-in-L went down to 2 with me, got off the elevator, saw a big line, got into it and asked what it was for. A couple told me they were waiting because they all had liquid (i.e. booze?) in their luggage. Knowing that didn't include me I went to the other side of the elevator where the x-ray machine was and saw my bag with a few others against the wall behind the machine. I told one of the workers that was my bag, he said they needed to x-ray it while I was there so I put it on the conveyor and looked at the display with him. His interest was centered on a bottle opener with a fold out corkscrew. I've carried it for many cruises since local beer needs an opener and was surprised he was so concerned about it. My DD was having such a good time laughing at me (seems like everyone is always trying to kick me out of everywhere for no reason!) and the guys seemed to enjoy joining in on the kidding because everyone else down there was so upset about being there. They then pointed to a pair of cowboy's spurs I bought on sale and brought for my grandson (he's a jr rodeo participant) and in their broken English began asking me if I got those at "Victoria's Secret". I couldn't find the bottle opener in all the pockets and by then they didn't care about it anyway so I left with my bag. My DD loved it and I'm sure its in my grandson's required (by me) journal of each day on his trip. Read more