Kinda last minute, we decided to have a getaway (for our October anniversary) and just because we can! Andy found a reasonably priced cruise going out of New Orleans, and I found inexpensive round-trip tickets out of St George, so we just said - Let's do this!
We flew into New Orleans on Saturday. We took a taxi to our hotel, the Embassy Suites. When we arrived, there were officers blocking the streets. We wondered if there was something sinister going on...but no! It was in preparation for the white linen festival. An annual art show. And our hotel was right on the edge of it! Saturday, we walked around downtown (it was really hot and humid!) and then ordered room service and had a New Orleans dish - with beans and some beignets.
When evening arrived we went down to the festival and walked around and enjoyed the noise and commotion of the city. There was lots of drinking and dancing and happiness out there!
The party ended fairly early but all night long, about once each hour, we heard what sounded like a car revving really loud and then a backfire. The first time it happened, a lady screamed really loud. It woke me up! I was like...what in the world is going on out there?! But there was no way I was going to go look! Needless to say, it was an interesting night!
Sunday morning we had to be out of our hotel by 11 a.m. but couldn't board the ship until 1:30 p.m. We were 2 blocks from the cruise port (this hotel was the perfect choice as far as location goes and it was decent inside too). There is a strip mall attached the the cruise port. We were able to walk the mall for a couple hours until it was time to board the ship.
The week was super fun. Our ship was pretty crowded - and kinda party. A little ghetto! But fun. We had delicious meals (buffet, guy's burgers, BBQ, a mexican place, sandwich deli shop, pizza, unlimited ice cream, fancy brunch and fancy dining). We mixed it up and had a bit of everything throughout the week. We sometimes ate at weird times. Loved the variety and choices available!
We enjoyed comedy club (early hour...stayed away from the later nasty comedy), deal or no deal game show, piano bar, live music/dance shows and we watched bingo.
There was an adults only pool and some hot tubs. We enjoyed them but they were really crowded...more than I've seen on previous trips. So that was a little disappointing.
We went to a class on how to massage. Two ladies from the spa took some time to teach us how to give a nice back massage to each other. We even each got to be on the table while they demonstrated for the other. We recieved some oil to take home and use in the future.
We stopped in Key West - took public transit for $2 total around the island and got to see lots of the island. We then walked through the streets/stores for awhile until we got back to the ship.
Our next stop was Celebration Key (Carnival's exclusive Island). We were able to take a little train around the island. We brought a floatie and spent lots of time in their giant lagoon. We enjoyed their a picnic style lunch. They had a parade. It would be a really fun place to take kids.
Our last island was Nassau Bahamas. We went to a private resort. We spent the day with unlimited fancy pina coladas (or whatever you wanted), sun bathed, talked to people in the pools, swam. Lunch was a snack shak type set up and we got jerk chicken and fries. The birds enjoyed our leftovers there.
When we got back to New Orleans we took the hop-on-hop-off bus around the city and stopped at a couple locations before returning to the airport.
Our flight was delayed and we missed our connecting flight so we got an unexpected overnight stay in Dallas TX. Sadly they had taken our carry-on luggage at the gate (telling us we would get it back, when in fact we did not). We had pretty much nothing. No medications, no clothing, makeup. We were hot and sweaty by the time we got to our hotel around midnight. They booked us for an early morning flight through phoenix so we had to be back on the shuttle at 5 a.m. And sit in the airport for several hours before we found out that once again delays would prohibit us making a connection in Phoenix. So we elected to stay in Dallas until 4 p.m. when we could just get to St. George.
We texted Kim and Steve Richards (Andy's friends from high school) about 7:30 am. They took the day off and visited with us. We went out to lunch together and then they drove us back to the airport. It was a really fun twist to our vacation and a nice ending! They want to go on some trips with us in the future!!!
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