Live Blogging - Serenade of the Seas Feb 22nd, 2014

[JimAOk1945]

I'm following right along with everyone else. You are off to a great start. I'm eagerly waiting for the next entry. :D

[Keith Rita]

We have made it to New Orleans!

 

 

Now you need to head to Café du Monde for those Beignets!

 

 

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Edited February 21, 2014 by Keith Rita

[happytulips]

We are out and about on he town. We are trying a new place in New Orleans called peche, menu looks very good.

 

 

 

 

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Edited February 22, 2014 by happytulips

[Coralc]

We have made it to New Orleans!

 

Laissez les bons temps rouler

 

 

 

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The airport still has a Christmas tree up in February? :D:rolleyes:

[Scrappinbec]

I will be following this as we are on this same itinerary and ship this coming December. We are looking forward to it.

 

What hotel are you staying at in NOLA? (if you don't mind me asking).

 

Thank you for doing this blog!! :-)

[PCWalton1]

Thank you for taking the time and effort to do a live report. Really looking forward to living through your eyes for the next week. :)

[dezertcruzer]

The airport still has a Christmas tree up in February? :D:rolleyes:

 

When we got off the Serenade on January 11, our NOLA hotel still had their tree up. I said something about it coming down soon, and they said, oh, no, it doesn't come down! It is decorated all year 'round for Mardi Gras. So I looked closer, and, sure enough, it was all gold, purple, and green!

[Coralc]

Thanks! We were just there in December...so we expected to see trees. And the MSY tree is decorated for Mardi Gras. :D

[happytulips]

I will be following this as we are on this same itinerary and ship this coming December. We are looking forward to it.

 

 

 

What hotel are you staying at in NOLA? (if you don't mind me asking).

 

 

 

Thank you for doing this blog!! :-)

 

 

We are staying at the Country Inn on Magazine just off of Canal street

 

 

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[happytulips]

So we have ventured out into the night and we have had a blast. After dinner we caught the Krewe of Oshun parade and then worked out way onto Bourbon street. This place is amazing, people everywhere and we are still a week and a half from Fat Tuesday.

 

We are now sitting at Pat O'Brien's having a Hurricane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[cruzinlady1947]

Looking forward to your blog. Only way to see and hear about the other ships in the fleet. We only cruise locally and the choices are limited.

 

Great start. Have been to New Orleans once, many years ago. Was there in late July. Interesting city, but hot, hot, hot and humid.

 

Interesting when you mentioned about the birds at Coco Cay. I was walking back to our picnic table after getting my food at the BBQ, when this huge seagull flew over my shoulder from behind me and grabbed my hot dog right out of the bun. :eek: Scared the heck out of me. Had my husband get me another one. Hated to try it again.

 

Enjoy your cruise and keep up the great job at blogging.

 

Gwen :)

[happytulips]

Looking forward to your blog. Only way to see and hear about the other ships in the fleet. We only cruise locally and the choices are limited.

 

Great start. Have been to New Orleans once, many years ago. Was there in late July. Interesting city, but hot, hot, hot and humid.

 

Interesting when you mentioned about the birds at Coco Cay. I was walking back to our picnic table after getting my food at the BBQ, when this huge seagull flew over my shoulder from behind me and grabbed my hot dog right out of the bun. :eek: Scared the heck out of me. Had my husband get me another one. Hated to try it again.

 

Enjoy your cruise and keep up the great job at blogging.

 

Gwen :)

 

 

This was my first time in New Orleans and I was unsure about being in the French Quarter for the start of Mardi Gras but we had an absolute blast. I am paying for it this morning but hey, I'm on vacation :)

 

I hate that happened to you at Coco Cay but those birds there are something else. We saw a lady get her entire plate taken from her. We also saw a little boy so scared he had to have help to get paste the birds. It can be like a Steven King movie there!

 

 

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[PaulInPGH]

I will be following this as we are on this same itinerary and ship this coming December. We are looking forward to it.

 

What hotel are you staying at in NOLA? (if you don't mind me asking).

 

Thank you for doing this blog!! :-)

 

Looks like you will be arriving the day we're flying home. We're on the Western Caribbean cruise that leaves on Dec. 6. We just bought the flights a couple days ago! It's a pretty great feeling when you go from putting a deposit down to yes, this is definitely happening.

[happytulips]

It's a pretty great feeling when you go from putting a deposit down to yes, this is definitely happening.

 

 

That is always a great feeling!

 

 

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[happytulips]

Its a beautiful day to board a boat! We are at the hotel and about to catch a few taxis to the pier.

 

For those keeping score, it's New Orleans 4, tourist 0. Hopefully my head will stop hurting when I see the ship :)

 

 

 

 

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[happytulips]

We have made it!

 

 

 

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[happytulips]

We made it through the boarding process. Everything was pretty painless and very well organized. This port is much better than Galveston.

 

After you get your Sea pass card, they have a little area to get information on the specialty restaurants.

 

 

 

 

 

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[happytulips]

Our room is ready and I am pleasantly surprised how nice the rooms are. I like the decor of the rooms better than the Voyager class ships. We are in room 9034 and we have a slightly obstructed view looking forward but not a big deal to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Keith Rita]

Enjoy your cruise! We are enjoying tagging along!;);)

[lhz3456]

Thank you so much for doing this! Love your pictures and commentary. My family and I are doing this cruise in 27 days and I am excited about your every post!!

[happytulips]

We have made it to Muster. Let's get this done and the boat moving down the Mississippi

 

 

 

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[happytulips]

Day 1 Cruise Compass

 

 

 

 

 

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[happytulips]

We are underway. The sailing out of New Orleans is not the most scenic at first, lots of industry and barges.

 

We have the early dinner seating in the main dinning room. Will be back later with menus.

 

The cruise compass did not come out to clear once I resized the image. I might just link directly to it and not resize it so it's more clear.

 

Off to dinner we go!

 

 

 

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[happytulips]

We ran out of range of a cell signal last night so I could not get my dinner pictures uploaded. We had the Mojo menu to start last night.

 

Link to the Menu: https://4c6xeq.dm2303.livefilestore.com/y2pRcan7m0gaxmYSsh9ia3BvaARo782l8xhKoiz35HIY4BjBe1hzVTCT32yeQCuwh7DnPOOgzEDndYp_987GANU7HLf1tHLRCNlzZv98TdRloo/20140222_234135742_iOS.jpg?psid=1

 

Llink to Dessert Menu: https://4c6xeq.dm2303.livefilestore.com/y2pToLTHERjw7EnjJWDc5k_ndwHEGQAI8LFqpzCQS4C7cpsi-z8HuJ9pSEO3JHU2o_zntyW8Hkk3L9mrerGZoNgQspp9IeBiM2-wzcInjlVkV4/20140223_003654621_iOS.jpg?psid=1

 

There are 6 of us at the table and we ordered:

 

Appetizer

Caesar Salad (x2)

Shrimp Cocktail (x2)

Coconut Seafood Shrimp Soup

Spinach Salad

Strawberry, Kiwi, Pineapple Medley

 

You counted correctly, someone ordered 2 appetizer :) Everyone liked what they ordered, the only complaint was the Fruit Medley had 7-8 pieces of fruit. Other than that, all was good.

 

Main Course

Pork Chop (x2)

Prime Rib (x2)

Seafood Spaghetti

Angus Beef Sliders

 

All main courses were excellent. No complaints by the family on this course either

 

Dessert

Carrot Cake (one with Strawberry Ice Cream and 1 with Vanilla)

Raspberry Sherbet

Blueberry Peach Crumble (x3)

 

Everyone really loved the Blueberry crumble.

 

After dinner we hung out in the Schooner bar for some trivia and then called it a night early. We stayed out a little late the night before enjoying all the Mardi Gras festivities and we just ran out of gas.

 

We took some pic around the boat as we boarded. I will be back later to post some pics of the sites on board.

 

Microsoft OneDrive is having issues so I can’t upload any photos currently. I will try later to see if I can get them uploaded.

Edited February 23, 2014 by happytulips

[happytulips]

Does it have the Big Coke Machines with all the flavors?

 

There does not appear to be any off these machines on board. I will continue to look but there were not in the Wind Jammer and I have not spotted them at the normal places.