One week ago today, Steve and I returned from our 40th Anniversary Cruise to Mexico, Belize and Honduras.  I am just now getting caught up and back into the routine of things around home.  We had a fabulous time and are anxious to go on another cruise in the next couple of years. But I am getting ahead of myself here.  I thought I would do a series of blogs to tell you about our trip, starting with the first leg of the trip to New Orleans.

We left Tucson on Saturday morning, January 26th, on a Southwest flight to New Orleans.  It was pouring down rain and cold when we left.  We had a short lay-over in Las Vegas and got into New Orleans about 330 pm EST.  Then we got a taxi ride to the Marriot Hotel in downtown New Orleans.  We drove right passed the Super Dome where the Super Bowl would be taking place the following Sunday.

New Orleans was crowded and wild!  It was the beginning of Mardi Gras and people were already arriving for the Superbowl.  Our taxi had to drop us off several blocks from the hotel because streets were blocked off for Mardi Gras parades that night.  We enjoyed seeing the old historic buildings and downtown.  Our taxi driver showed us places and streets that were flooded from Hurricane Katrina.  New Orleans has done a great job of rebuilding and improving the city.

Our room at the Marriot was located on the 11th floor.  We could see Canal Street and hear all the bands and hubbub going on in the street below.  Out a window at the end of the hall we could see the mighty Mississippi River where huge barges and oil tankers floated by.  We ate dinner at the hotel dining room.  Steve had a great gumbo soup for starters.  He also enjoyed a steak, garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus.  I had a salad and salmon.  It was delicious, of course, and it went on our hotel tab!

In the morning, we decided to order room service for breakfast.  Steve ordered eggs, hash browns and sausage for himself and yogurt and a fruit plate for me.  Weren't we surprised in the morning when our server showed up with a huge table with double the order!  OMG!  We each had a huge breakfast plus 2 huge fruit plates and 2 yogurts!  It was great until we got the bill.  It was also HUGE.  A whopping $88, which did not include a tip!  Amazing!  I was just hoping the rest of our meals would not top that!  After that we got our stuff together and went down to the hotel lobby to meet our bus that would take us to the ship.  I complained to my daughter via cell phone that Steve wasn't smiling yet.  She texted back, "That's because he paid $88 for sausage and eggs!" LOL!

We were with about 85 other people who were boarding buses to go on the cruise.  We were to get on the same bus as our luggage and got to the ship in about 5 minutes.  We could not go to our stateroom as soon as we got aboard.  We had to wait until they announced that our rooms were ready.  We wandered around the ship's decks and public areas until the announcement was made.  I took lots of pictures of New Orleans and the traffic on the Mississippi.  We sailed down the river at about dusk.

Our stateroom had everything we could possibly need, a queen sized bed, a bathroom, tv, chairs and tables, a sofa, a small refrigerator, completely stocked with wine, spirits and soft drinks, and a balcony.  We spent a lot of time on that balcony.  We stayed on the balcony as we sailed down the mighty muddy river until it got dark.  Then we went to our first shipboard restaurant, Le Bistro.  It had French cuisine.  Steve wanted to go there first because they offered escargot, something he enjoys much more than I do.  He also had duck for dinner.  I had a fancy portabella mushroom dish.  It looked like a Whopper but it had no meat.  Very interesting and good tasting.  We also had wine with dinner and purchased a bottle to take to our stateroom.  

After dinner we attended our first "Hollywood" show at the Stardust Theater.  It was an onstage live performance with singers and dancers performing a series of ABBA songs.  A spectacular extravaganza!  The crew was also introduced and raffle tickets were sold.  The theater was packed and all this was included as part of the cruise.  We were feeling pretty good by the time we returned to our cabin for the night.  Of course many people were just getting started.  There were other shows and several parties going on all night, not to mention the on board casino!  We probably could've partied 24/7 if we wanted to.  We preferred a more quiet, private atmosphere and ended our first night drinking fine wine on our balcony while listening to the ship glide thought the water.  

Day 2 was spent sailing across the Gulf of Mexico toward our first port of Costa Maya, Mexico.  I'll tell you about that in my next post.