Day One: Leaving New Orleans

We arrived at the cruse ship dock about 1 PM Saturday and it probable took an hour to go thru all the lines and check points before we got onto the ship.

We had lots of time to visit with our friends Lorne and Gail Booth as we were waiting in line.

As well as meet many new people, like this lady who had bought a lot of necklaces at the Mardi Gras for her family.

By the time we finally got to board our ship we were pretty hungry... so as soon as we could drop out things into our rooms we headed up to the smorg bar for a delightful lunch.

This watermelon carving greeted us at the Smorg.  The internet is working better her than I expected, so it looks like we will be able to post photos and blog here just fine... jiust have to pay .30 a minute for internet time.

We have adjoining rooms with Lorne and Gail... and our ship is moored on the Mississippi just short of this huge double bridge.

Just after 4 PM we had to muster at our life boat.  Could you imagine if all 3200 of us had to get into lifeboats?

In the center of the ship is a promanade which is five stories high and has rooms that face into it.

There are stairs at each end of the promenade.

Lorne is looking from a viewpoint into the promenade.

Our room has a balcony and looks out to the ocean... but these inside rooms on four floors above the shops look into the promenade. 

It was after 5 PM when our ship left the dock and started on the 18 mile trip down the Mississippi to open waters... a trip that took approximately 8 hours.

It was fun to see the sights along the river until it got too dark and cold.  It was actually pretty chilly here as we left.

Our first day Shirley took about 190 photos on the D300 and I took 109 on the iPhone.

We took some pictures of 5 Canadian kids... and one of the boys offered to take our picture... 

We will likely take turns posting... me one day Shirley the next.

Sunday has been really pleasant.  Prefect sunny and warm weather. 

Tomorrow morning we will dock at Cozumel and spend the day exploring on land.

Love to your all.