Christmas Caribbean Cruise 2012….Part 5

The next morning I got up early to have breakfast, check out and start my cruise adventure.  I was told to be at the port by 12:30 pm to check in.

Checking in was quite a lengthy process and I am glad that I got there early.

Of course as you are boarding the ship you stop to have an official picture taken.  And no I did not buy the picture.

Luggage can take up to three hours after boarding to arrive to the state-room.  I was given an inside state–no port-hole, no window–oh this is going to be fun I thought–I am claustrophobic.  I highly recommend if you are taking a cruise to get a state-room preferably with a balcony but if not at least a port-hole.

This is what my room looked like but was not my actual room I took of off the cruise’s website.

(I think they used a lens with a long depth of field because this picture makes the room look bigger than it actually was.)

Those first three hours before the ship departed everyone was just running around like little ants discovering the in’s and out’s of the ship.  I was also waiting for my face painting schedule so that I could arrange the other activities that I wanted to do on the ship.  At some point an envelope arrived with my schedule and a meeting with my contact person on the ship.  I was to do five 2 hour face painting sessions while the ship was sailing.  When docked at port no face painting, however as I looked at the schedule I was set to work Christmas Morning.  Seriously, that was the day the ship docked in Jamaica and I had already booked my excursions via the T.V. hook-up in my room (seriously I was not about to stand in a long line to book anything).  I didn’t say anything at the meeting, since it was my first trip and did not want to make a fuss on the first day before the ship even left the dock.  Yes, Ivonne was displaying quite a bit of self-control here.

After that meeting it was dinner time.  I went back to the room to get dressed for dinner as I had the early seating at 6:00  PM and I was excited to see who my dinner companions would be for the next week.

Albert & his daugher                                      Josh & Sarah

 

Tom

The first night was  casual dress for dinner.  We all introduced ourselves. My dinner companions were a lovely young married couple, Josh and Sarah, Albert and daughter and yes there was one single man seated at my table.  His name was Tom.  Tom was a Catholic Priest but he was dressed normal.  The first words out of my mouth to him were, “I don’t know if you supposed to save me or if I am going to take you down the road to perdition”……………. to be continued……

Here are some pictures I took of the ship.

   

Related articles

• Christmas Caribbean Cruise 2012 part 3 (ivonnemontijo.wordpress.com)
• Christmas 2012 on a Caribbean Cruise…Part 1 (ivonnemontijo.wordpress.com)

Christmas Caribbean Cruise 2012 part 3

 

 

The plane landed at Louis Armstrong International airport somewhere around 9:00 am and boy was I so happy to be getting off of that plane.  Granted I was being a baby it was only like a five hour flight and compared to 24 hours flying into Malaysia or Europe really a piece of cake.

All of my pink luggage and my guitar had arrived safely I grabbed one of those luggage cart thingeys and headed straight for the taxi line. Hotel check in was technically at 3:00 pm in the afternoon but I had booked my reservation to start the previous night so I could just arrive in the morning and check in without a problem.  For the one night I was staying at the O’Keeffe Plaza Hotel. in downtown New Orleans.

When I arrive the front lobby is being remodeled.  There is no furniture and tiles on the floor are being torn up and replaced.  There are about three work guys making a lot of ruckus and noise.  There were no bellman, not sure why but I guess for only paying $115.00 for two nights I guess it was self-serve time.  I got a rickety bell cart upon which to put all my luggage and the guitar and the laptop computer and made my way to the room which was simple and looked clean.

I set-up the laptop checked emails and called my mom to let her know that I had made it to the hotel.  Then it was time for a short nap before I started exploring New Orleans.

After the nap the first thing on my priority list was to find an inexpensive bag of some sort that I could use for a carry on for the return flight home.  I scored!! I found a very large black duffel bag on sale for $12.99 in some souvenir shop on Canal St.  I was a happy camper.

I started exploring Canal st which goes all the way down to waterfront.

I almost did a dinner cruise on this riverboat but after spending a week on a boat opted not to.

I found myself at the Water Front Market Place in New Orleans.  Here are some of the pictures that I took on that day.  Enjoy!!!!

                  

   

 

 

 

Related articles

• Christmas 2012 on a Caribbean Cruise…Part 1 (ivonnemontijo.wordpress.com)
• Christmas Caribbean Cruise …Part 2 (ivonnemontijo.wordpress.com)
• New Orleans Vacations (orbitz.com)