Wrigley80's Carnival Elation Photo Review with the KREWE

SenatorsFan · January 2, 2016

Hi Brianna, I've been thinking about you and am looking forward to hearing about your cruise. I know it can't have been easy going without your dad and I'm glad that you had the friendship and support of your "Krewe" on this cruise. It's times like these when good friends are worth their weight in gold.

Heather

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

So glad to see you starting this review...please tell me the chicken hat will make its appearance...lol. yes I believe you could say that even thought lots of us never met your dad personally he was still a father figure to us. I sent you an email earlier.

Oh yes the chicken hat will be making an appearance. And my hat got an upgrade and now has a name [emoji6][emoji23] just wait till ya see it.

I may have been an only child but had so many close friends who looked to my dad as a father figure as well. My friends called him Papa Butz

I just saw your email. I'll reply in the morning when I get to work.

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

Hi Brianna, I've been thinking about you and am looking forward to hearing about your cruise. I know it can't have been easy going without your dad and I'm glad that you had the friendship and support of your "Krewe" on this cruise. It's times like these when good friends are worth their weight in gold.
Heather

Yeah if this would have been a cruise that would have been for just my dad and I...there is no way that I would have gone. But I knew that I had the full support from my friends who would be cruising with me. My friends have been so supportive through it all....I have been so blessed to have friends like I do.

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

OK so now back to our regularly scheduled programming....

After lunch at Port of Call I took a drive up Esplanade Ave and without even realizing where I was I ended up at City Park. For anyone who has been to New Orleans and not visited City Park you are truly missing out. You would never think that this huge park is in the middle of such a busy city.

Confederate monument as you enter City Park

The lake where you can rent paddle boats and kayaks

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

So you know where you're going because I know that I definitely got lost a few times.

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

I love the Mossy Oak trees in Louisiana

Gator Santa??? :p

http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u372/wrigley80/Facebook/Carnival%20Elation%20%20Album%202/12471552_10153777888346031_2414194687031886767_o_zpsypbjmusf.jpg

City Park is beautiful. It also has the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Botanical Gardens, and a Sculpture Garden. I truly enjoyed the relaxing afternoon that I spent there

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

After I left City Park I decided to head back downtown to do some shopping. I hit up the Nike Store....uh oh I may not have brought enough empty bags with me.....hehe

I decided to cruise back down Bourbon Street to see if any of the crazies were out yet....I saw a few that make ya go :eek: but its all a part of the Bourbon Street experience

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

After shopping I decided to give my friend a call who lives in New Orleans to see if they wanted to go for dinner but they already had plans. She asked me if I had ever been to Celebration in the Oaks at City Park. She knew that I had just went there during the daytime hours but she said it is really something to see at night with all the Christmas Lights on.

I didn't have any other plans so I decided to go check it out. One word can be used to describe all of the Christmas Lights......WOW

These were really cool. They were like huge slinkys in the tree with lights inside

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

So that concludes day #4 of my vacation. Tomorrow would be a busy day because 4 of my friends would be arriving into town....one by bus and three by plane. I was getting pretty excited to see my friends

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

So Friday night I stayed out by the airport at a Comfort Inn because the Sleep Inn was booked up. I had to get up early around 5:30 am because my first friend would be arriving by Megabus from San Antonio, Texas. I picked Octavia up downtown and then we headed back out to the hotel to wait for my next two friends to arrive at 8:30 am from Orlando, Florida. Laura and her son Marky would be flying in.

Everyone arrived on-time. We were all pretty hungry and we all agreed pretty quickly where we wanted to go for breakfast.

Beignets from Café DuMonde

I had powdered sugar everywhere

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

After breakfast we had a couple hours before we were meeting up with Laura's BIL for lunch. We did a driving tour around New Orleans. Laura's son, Marky, wanted to go to this place that is on the Animal Planet that is a Pitbull rescue. Once we finally found it he took a tour of the place. It was pretty cool to see all of these injured and abused animals were now being well cared for

After lunch and some more sightseeing we headed to our hotel to get checked in and get cleaned up to decide where we wanted to go for dinner. We were staying at the Sleep Inn in Metairie. I had reserved this room months in advance but when I checked in they gave me a 2 Queen Accessible room. This wasn't what I requested so because they didn't have a room of what I requested they gave me one night for free....sounds good to me. Just another reason why I like to stay here

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

So for dinner Octavia wanted Oysters and she had the perfect place in mind. She wanted to go to Pier 424 Seafood Market on Bourbon Street. I didn't want to drive downtown from our hotel in case we all got downtown to Bourbon Street and had too much to drink so we decided to use UBER. That was a great idea. For 4 people from Our hotel to Pier 424 was $12.00 with an UBER coupon

My first drink of the night at Pier 424

My second drink at Pier 424. I can't remember what it was that I ordered but I know it had rum in it

My dinner at Pier 424. I ordered a fried chicken with red beans and rice. It was very good. The food and drinks at Pier 424 were good....I highly recommend this place

Josh and Octavia. Josh is from Tennessee and he arrived Saturday night around 6:00 pm

Octavia's oysters :eek:

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

Gotta represent the Tigers in Louisiana

Pier 424 Seafood Market

After dinner we decided to walk down Bourbon Street for awhile until we either got drunk or got tired....whichever happened first

Me and my bestie Josh

Bourbon Street was busy

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

A trip to Bourbon Street wouldn't be complete without a Hand Grenade.

After our Hand Grenades...it was now time for a Hurricane

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

So we were all feeling a little tipsy so we decided to hail a cab instead of trying to find an UBER driver along Bourbon Street. The cab was considerably more than UBER but we were all ready to be back at the hotel. We got back to the hotel around 12:00 am.

Who needs Taco Bell as your late night drunk food when you have beignets.....hehe

Once we got back to the hotel we made a run to Café DuMonde for beignets. This Café DuMonde location was right up the street from our hotel.

I love this picture....Josh holding a bag of beignets in front of the Fitness Center....hahahahaha

Josh's new exfoliation secret.....powdered sugar

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

So that concludes day #5 of the vacation.....we have already had so much fun and we haven't even got onboard yet :) Feel free to ask any and all questions that you may have

Thanks Again for following along

bubba777 · January 2, 2016

Hello Again.....I am sure that most of you all know me by now and if you don't where have you been ;) My name is Brianna and I love to cruise. But most importantly I truly enjoy sharing my vacation with you all. If one person can benefit from one of my photo reviews then they were worth it.
Every December (first week of December) I cruise with the same group of people. There are about 40 of us and we call ourselves the KREWE of NOLA KRUISERS. We are like family. This is one cruise that I wouldn't miss but I nearly did this year :(

For anyone who has enjoyed one of my reviews in the past you will remember that I cruised with my dad. My dad loved cruising as much as I did (if not more). My dad went on peritoneal dialysis in April 2015. Peritoneal dialysis is where he would do his treatments at home. This allowed him the freedom to go on day trips with me. But most importantly it would still allow him to cruise. When we started the process of dialysis he told his doctors that he still wanted to be able to cruise with me. The dialysis treatments were going well until mid-September. My dad had some setbacks and was hospitalized. At this time they had to begin emergency hemodialysis in the hospital. While at the hospital my dad come down with a major infection in his legs. It was more than what his body could handle and he passed away on Wednesday, October 7th at 2:00 pm.

My dad was my entire life. We did everything together....cruises, Cubs games, day trips, road trips, and so much more. We were inseparable. I still feel so alone and empty without my dad here by my side. There are many days when I just cry and ask myself why something like this happened. There were still so many things that I wanted to do with my dad.

My dad was to be my cruising partner on this cruise. I did not want to go on this cruise with out him there with me. After much debate and a lot of convincing from friends who would be cruising with me I decided to go. And the KREWE made this cruise as a tribute to my dad. It was a great way to pay tribute to an awesome friend and father. He would have truly enjoyed it.

So for this review of the Carnival Elation I have decided to dedicate it to my dad....I hope you enjoy this one as much if not more than my other reviews. :)

So sorry for your loss. I looked forward to reading about your adventures together. In fact, it is because of you and your dad, that I am taking my Dad on our very first cruise. We will be leaving Jan 9 for 5 days on the Carnival Paradise.

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Praying for you and your family. My mom passed in July 2009, and not a day goes by that I don't think about here. Someone once old me you never get over losing a parent, you just learn to accept it.

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

So sorry for your loss. I looked forward to reading about your adventures together. In fact, it is because of you and your dad, that I am taking my Dad on our very first cruise. We will be leaving Jan 9 for 5 days on the Carnival Paradise.

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Praying for you and your family. My mom passed in July 2009, and not a day goes by that I don't think about here. Someone once old me you never get over losing a parent, you just learn to accept it.

Awwww now that makes me smile. So happy to read that you are taking your dad on a cruise. You will both love it. What a great way to make new memories together. I have never been on the Paradise so you will have to come back here and tell us all how much you enjoyed your first cruise.

I've had many people tell me that as well....I know that this is something that I will never get over. Especially when you are as close as my dad were.

Enjoy your cruise

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

Welcome to Sunday, December 6th. We all decided to sleep in a little this morning because we were pooped from the night before and my friends were still trying to recover from their travel day. Josh and I went to get breakfast for everyone.

Once everyone was up and we were ready to begin our day we headed down to the city. Our first stop was the ********* Cemetery. I am not a fan of cemeteries and this was one place where I didn't really want to be but my friends wanted to get a few pictures. You can't help but to be in awe of the architecture of these tombs

wrigley80 · January 2, 2016

One thing that I wanted to do today was go to City Park to have some group pictures taken with me and my friends. I couldn't think of a more beautiful setting to have photos taken