About a year ago, Jake's family started planning a family cruise and I can't believe it's already come and gone now. We had a great time!! Jake's Mom turned 60 last year so it was in celebration of that, but also just a fun time for the whole family. Our family of four, Jake's mom, our family friend Jim, Jake's middle brother John and his family, as well and our 2 nieces Kyleigh and Alexis all went and had a great time. There was a total of 13 of us!
The cruise left out of New Orleans on Saturday (January 19th) but we started our drive the day before, a little after noon. We drove through to Jackson, MS and spent the night there before driving the rest of the way to New Orleans the next morning. We all left Friday at different times, but met up at the same hotel that evening. Then we all caravanned to NOLA on Saturday morning.
We got to New Orleans at around 1:00. After a little while of trying to find where we were supposed to park for the week and get through all the security and everything, we were finally on the cruise ship. It was so funny because traveling in a new city and getting through security and all of that can be pretty stressful and so as we were walking the LONG hallway to our cabin, Jake said, "I think I need a drink" and Avery said "I think I need a stroller" Ha!! We started cracking up laughing. It was hilarious!!
After finding our cabin and dropping off our things, we headed straight to the bar and got our first drink of many that week. Ha. I feel like that's all we did the whole time... eat and drink! The kids all had Shirley Temples which they thought was pretty cool!!
Then we had to meet at our Muster Station for the little training session. Once that was finally over, we went and got a bite to eat and then headed up to the deck to watch as the ship left New Orleans. We had mentioned to Avery that there was ice-cream available 24/7 on the cruise ship and she would not let us forget it. So we had to get her some ice-cream before heading up to the deck. She probably had an ice-cream cone at least 3 times a day on the cruise. She says that was her favorite part! Ha.
On one of the upper decks up front, there were several of these little play houses, a giant chess board and several Cornhole games. The kids loved this area. :-)
When we left New Orleans at 5:00 p.m., we were in the Mississippi River and we didn't get out to the Gulf Of Mexico for around 8 hours. I had no idea it would take that long, but it does. So all evening and most of the night we were cruising down the Mississippi River. I took this picture of Avery looking over at the Domino Sugar Plant in New Orleans. Avery's nickname is Sugar so it was only fitting.
We ate dinner in the dining room every night. Our dinner was in the Paris Dining room at 6:00 p.m. There was only 1 dress up night and every other night was casual. Dinner consisted of a 3-course meal with a few different options to choose from each night. There were a couple staples on every menu, but the menu did change some each night. I tried all kinds of different things, but my favorite was probably the crab cakes for an appetizer, the beef tenderloin for my main course and the Carnival warm chocolate melting cake for dessert. Yum!! I could go for some of that cake right about now.
After dinner we hung out for a little while up on the back pool deck/bar area. They had 24 hour pizza back there too, which was very good. After that we all headed to bed. It was a great first day on the cruise.
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