Having been on a cruise before with Royal Caribbean, we knew what to expect but this was our first time traveling with Norwegian. Living in Texas, we like to go out of Galveston, but the rates were so high, we decided to drive to New Orleans. The drive was probably the worst part -- at eight hours one way, but the trip more than made up for this inconvenience.

We drove over to Lafayette on Saturday to break the trip up, and plan to get to New Orleans earlier than we actually did. I think if we had arrived before noon, we would not have had to wait as long as we did to board the ship. We drove straight to the Julia Street terminal, parked our car and unloaded bags with a bag handler, and then the kids and I went into the terminal, while my husband took the car to go find parking. At $16 a day, parking is quite steep at the terminal, and next time I will look for cheaper options close by. Once may have been got back to the terminal, we started the process to board, which took about an hour due to long lines. Just when you would think aligned with over, there would be a new line. After that, we went straight on to the boat and found our room, and then began to explore the ship. Our bags were delivered shortly. We did have a safety drill at the very beginning, which was very calm and relaxed. We had to go to the theater, so we just walked down there, sat in our seats, heard the drill, and were released. When we went on well Caribbean, we had to put on our lifejackets and stand around like cattle outside, which was not very fun. However, after leaving the drill, we still weren't very sure on where to go in an emergency. LOL the theater seems like an awkward place to go if the ship is sinking.

We explored this ship, bought a beverage, and the kids had a snack. I tried to wait to eat, because I had heard that there would be a barbecue by the pool, so we waited for that, then got a plate and went up to the front of the ship to watch us take off from the dock. We hung out on deck for a while watching us go down the Mississippi River, and then went back to the room to unpack and eventually got ready for dinner. Most evenings we ate in the main dining room Versailles which we enjoyed. The first night was surf and turf, and although good, I wasn't very impressed in the lobster. Previously, we traveled with Royal Caribbean, and the food was very good and asking for seconds was encouraged. Here on Norwegian, it didn't seem as encouraged, and when my husband asked for more lobster, he was brought back to pieces, and one was mushy and smell very fishy. I like to get my lobster and melted butter, and they did not have this option, they would come by and drizzle the butter on the lobster. This did not make the experience extremely pleasing. The variety on the menu, was not bad, and like I said most nights we ate at the main dining room and one night we chose to eat at Aqua which was very nice. Most mornings we would each at the market Cafe for convenience, but it was usually so crowded with tons of people, that he felt rushed. One morning we did eat of the main dining room and it was lovely. Read more