Mother/Daughter Cruise: The Carnival Elation

Saturday after spending the morning in New Orleans we headed to the port to board our beautiful ship, The Carnival Elation. We were at the port, checked in, luggage picked up and sitting on the pool deck in an hour's time! It was a fast check-in!

We hung out on the pool deck until our room was ready!

Our room was really nice and actually very roomy!

After checking out our room, we grabbed some lunch and explored the ship.

Our ship had a mini-golf course on the top deck!

After our safety briefing that day, the ship was showing The Saints playoff game in the main show lounge (yes, I know but it was New Orleans). Those Saints fans are die hard and my mom is one of them.

Then we were off to the beautiful Caribbean! 

The food on ship was so good, we tried a few things that were out of our comfort zone like frog legs.

Carnival is famous for their Chocolate melting cake and it did not disappoint! 

We had the best waiter! His name was Arman from the Philippines. We actually didn't have an assigned waiter since we choose "my time dining" but after the first night we liked him so much we requested him the rest of the cruise! Carnival certainly lived up to their "fun cruise" motto, we were entertained every night by dances such as "Gangham Style" and songs like "Leaving On A Fun Ship" Did I mention there was dancing?

Every night we saw the featured show on the main stage. They were really fun Broadway style shows.

We played Bingo a few times!

The ship was beautiful at night.

views of the atrium at night

the pool deck at night

They had a midnight buffet every night but we only made it to one, and only because we made ourselves stay awake just so we could say we went to the midnight buffet!

The midnight buffet was decorated with carved fruit and ice sculptures. 

We saw two awesome shows at The comedy club the night before we came back to the states.

                                      
Every day we were at sea we had brunch in the main dining room and lunch at the buffet. We saw lots of game shows such as "minute it to win it", "pop trivia" and "whats in the bag" They were all a lot of fun! We shopped in the stores some on board too and everyday we napped!!

                                   

views of the ship during the day

This really isn't a bad lunch time view!

We spent a lot of time lounging on the pool deck and reading. It was so restful and peaceful!

Our last day on ship, we participated in "Groove for St. Jude" you pay $10.00 and you get a t-shirt and armband and all of the money goes to that great children's hospital!

 One afternoon, there was a chocolate buffet, that's right, a chocolate buffet!

Carnival is famous for their towel animals and our room attendant did not disappoint!

 You can even take a towel animal creation class and they have a towel animal parade!

Our favorite night on ship was Formal Night. There is just something fun about getting all dressed up and feasting on prime rib and lobster. That was a great night!

*As a disclaimer, I know food is mentioned a lot in this blog but no weight was gained on this cruise!

Mother/Daughter Cruise: New Orleans

I was beyond blessed last week to take my mom on a cruise, just the two of us! It was a once in a lifetime trip! After her husband passed away last year, I really wanted to do something special for her after the holidays because I knew they would be hard. I am so lucky to have a husband that was completely on board with it.

I flew out of Amarillo on Friday to meet my mom in New Orleans.

saying good-bye to my sweet mamma's boy

I knew New Orleans would be wonderful when this was the first thing I saw when I got off my flight.

My mom drove down and picked me up from the airport, we spent Friday evening checking into our hotel and eating a yummy dinner in The French Quarter. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. was so good and a really neat place!

 We woke up early Saturday morning and our first stop was the famous Cafe Du Monde! The beignets were wonderful!

                                   We then walked down to the water to check out the view.

I was able to tour the beautiful St Louis Cathedral, it was so breathtaking.

Jackson Square is a cool place to walk around and take in the sights.

picture perfect, postcard view

We did some shopping in the French Market and walked up and down the streets and went into little stores.

New Orleans is a beautiful magical place!

 All around New Orleans are street musicians, magic shows and this guy who I thought was a statue until he reached out and grabbed the lady in front of us.

                                               

We were hungry from all the shopping so we stopped at this yummy eatery and had the best omelet ever!

 It rained all Friday night so Saturday morning was a bit overcast and wet but by mid-day the sun came up to make a beautiful day.

 It was a great morning in The Big Easy but by lunch time it was time to head to our cruise ship!