I Have a Dream: Embarkation Day
Embarkation Morning: 6:30am
I love this bed. I wish I could take it on the cruise with me. I don’t deserve it for the price I paid for this hotel. I don’t have to look. I know when I’m sleeping on a beauty rest.
Breakfast
It’s 7a.m. Let’s see what they have for breakfast.
We have waffles, breads, muffins, cereals, yogurt, instant grits and oatmeal, juice and coffee
My bright shine breakfast of choice
Let’s talk New Orleans cruise parking over breakfast.
When it comes to park and cruise hotels there are none that take you to the port, pick you up from port and give you parking included. I’ve heard it has something to do with the taxi cab union. Here on some p&c hotels know of:
Country inn and suites in Metairie. They let you park there and shuttle you to the port but you have to find your own way back. It’s about a $15 Uber/lyft.
Holiday inn Downtown Superdome. Parking included but no port transportation. I think it’s about an $8 Uber/lyft.
Hampton inn and suites New Orleans convention center. Shuttle to the port included..not sure if they have a return shuttle. The big catch is they charge $14/day for parking which at that price you could’ve picked maybe a cheaper hotel and parked in Fulton garage.
Prytania Park I haven’t heard about this garden district hotel in awhile but as of a couple years ago they let you park there if you stay two nights. I don’t think any transportation is included.
I’ve recently heard you can get parking included at the holiday inn West Bank..which is the round hotel across the river. But transportation is not included.
Port parking is $140 for a 7-night cruise. But you’re right there in the building. Just have to go down the elevator. I’ve heard that porters may even meet you at your car but I’ve never done it so I can’t confirm. The only other port I have to compare with is Galveston where your port parking is in a garage across the street.
Another option is what I do which is park at an offsite garage that shuttles you to/from the port. I use Fulton garage which comes to $106 covered and $83 rooftop. It’s manned 24/7 and has 64 security cameras. Shuttle to and from the port. This is the option I’ll be showing you today. It will be my sixth time using them.
The other one I’m aware of is Machu Picchu Tours. This is a smaller place. Single floor garage. They shuttle you to and from the port and charge $110 for the week.
New Orleans
I made it to the Fulton parking garage in New Orleans at 11am. I have an 11:30am-12pm arrival appointment. I have to take a shuttle to the port from here. Here is a look from the rooftop parking at Fulton.
Embarkation
I’m taking the shuttle over to the port. A porter always meets the shuttle and collects our bags. From there we can go in through security and board.
When we get on the ship there’s going to be a huge line for all of the forward elevators. My plan is to take the stairs to deck 4, walk to the aft elevators which nobody should be using, and take those up to deck 11 where I hope to find a relatively quiet lunch at Pasta Bella.
Lunch
I made it from the rooftop of Fulton garage to lunch at Pasta Bella in under an hour. Not bad.
In case anyone wants to workout on this cruise.
Beverages
While everyone else is eating on lido deck, I managed to snag a coveted seat at the atrium bar as well as my first drink–A funship of course. I had to get my own straw.
Stateroom
I book inside rooms which are more affordable for the solo cruiser. I don’t spend much time in the room anyway. Outside of sleeping maybe an hour in the morning and an hour before dinner. I think I’d get bored on the balcony. The two upgrades I do make is I don’t do the upper/lower. I go for the regular inside so I can get a king bed. And I book on lido deck. Those upgrades are around $150 for the week. Where a balcony upgrade seems to be $500-600.
I disinfected the entire room–bathroom twice. I can live here now. I have a slight germ issue. Not that I don’t think the stewards do a fabulous job cleaning this place.
View of the water from an inside cabin
I just came back from the safety briefing and my luggage has arrived. This is the first time I’ve had a steward put the luggage in my room. Normally I have to collect it from the hallway.
Going back to embarkation, I had another run-in with security where they went through my bag looking for a weapon. What were they looking for this time? A grenade.
This is the hard case wallet they thought was a magazine for a gun on my last cruise out of New Orleans.
Sailaway
Sail away drink: Red’s Rum Treasure
Wet Dream
Dinner
After sail away I returned to the room to unpack, shower, and get ready for dinner. I like to eat right when they open Your Time Dining so I can be done in time for the 7pm entertainment. Unfortunately it looks like there isn’t anything going on until 10pm. I hate that they have the comedy shows squeezed together at 10:45 and 11:30. That means 15 mins between shows which means if you leave your seat after the 10:45 you may not see the 11:30. On my last few cruises it seemed like they had an hour between shows and the place cleared out naturally. Then come back 15mins before the next show and you’re good. Since I have a free evening it will likely be Alchemy, blackjack, or both.
I went to the alchemy for a pre-dinner drink. To my dismay every seat at alchemy was taken. I’m way down on the end in no mans land thinking I’m never going to get a drink. But actually it was less than a minute before bartender Jennifer (odd name for a carnival bartender) was down to take my order.
Pre-dinner drink: Spicy Chipotle Pineapple Martini
Clam Chowder
Beef Brisket, Broccoli, Baked Potato
Chocolate Melting Cake
Serving team was good. Food came out super fast. The head waiter, Jose tells the older couple at the next table “if you don’t finish your wine, leave it and I finish it for you.” A lady at another table laughs and says to Jose “I love you.” Jose replies “I love you too. What’s your cabin number?”
After dinner drinks
After dinner drink: The Perfect Storm
After dinner drink drink: Cucumber Sunrise with no straw
Main Theater
This is where I like to sit in the main theater
Most people probably don’t pay attention to this seating but it’s one of the first things i look at since it’s where I like to sit. There are three ways I’ve seen these bar style seats setup and this is one of the ways I don’t like.
You have to turn to see the show and whoever is in front is blocking everyone else. Another way I’ve seen it setup is just like that but with the bar rotated. That’s great for the ones facing the stage but then a bunch of people come in right before the show and sit on the other side–totally blocking your view. Breeze has it right with one row of bar stools facing the stage.
I didn’t like the show in the main lounge, which is a knockoff of the “minute to win it” TV show, So I went back to the Alchemy bar.
I was able to get a spot at the end of Alchemy bar. Band in ocean plaza is playing good 80’s music. Now playing: Bryan Adams’ Summer of ‘69.
Basil Drop
No towel animal on embarkation night. I wonder if that’s standard here or if they think I’m too old for them.
I have a monkey on my lanyard for Pete sake
Here is the entertainment schedule for the week.
Here is the Day 1 Fun Times.
Here’s an issue. This is my sixth cruise on this river. I have never gone out on deck for the moment when Dream and Triumph pass each other on the river. I planned to do that this time. I’ve been watching and they seem to pass around 11-11:30. I pretty much never miss a unique adult comedy show. The shows tonight are at 10:45 and 11:30. If I thread the needle and it happens between 11:15 and 11:30, am I going to even be able to get back into the comedy club. Maybe a lot of people will be tired from the trip and in bed but I want to say the first night is one of the busiest for comedy.
Back at the Alchemy for another drink: The deal closer
This is my first time on Dream. My last cruise was on the Breeze. The ships are similar but have their differences. I wrote a haiku on the topic.
The sadness of the Dream
On the Dream
There is an art gallery
Where the red frog pub should be
Deli
Let’s talk deli. On breeze they had two lines with two people making sammiches this time of night. Here they still have the two lines.. but they have one person working both lines.
Here is the Cuban. I know it’s not popular because it’s toasted instead of pressed or something. But I like the crispiness of the toastiness. This one isn’t as crispy as I remember the one on breeze being
There’s a crew member in line at the deli with purple coconut socks on.
Comedy Club
20 minutes till showtime.
Sam Adams Boston Lager
I’m going
It turns out that the app I was using is about 30 minutes behind real-time and I actually missed the ships passing. I’ll have one more chance on the last night of the cruise. I also lost my seat in the comedy club.
Alright I’m done for the night. Normally I might grab pizza but that sammich earlier kind of messed that up.
I’ve been putting my junk mail in my neighbor’s box. Almost did it again but I noticed this one has my name and room number on it.
