New Orleans
We had been looking forward to our day in New Orleans and it was one of the reasons we had booked this itinerary. But our enthusiasm was literally dampened by the weather forecast for the day that called for torrential rains. We decided to try to make the most of it anyway and enjoyed seeing our ship sail into the mouth of the Mississippi.
Beignets and Bourbon Street
We got the all clear sooner than expected so we decided to walk over to Cafe du Monde for some morning beignets and a cafe au lait for J. R. Then we walked past the square and up to Bourbon Street, trying to see if we could find the hotel where we had stayed on our first visit.
Aquarium
We walked back to the riverfront and headed to the New Orleans Aquarium, which we had loved on previous visits. We found ourselves disappointed this time as we managed to walk through the aquarium at a slow pace and still finished in just an hour. We knew we had spent more time there before but they have gotten rid of the IMAX theater which used to show great nature movies. The weather was starting to turn so we headed to the Riverwalk mall, remembering our last visit to New Orleans when we had left the mall just minutes before an ocean-going freighter had crashed into the side of it. By the time we got to the end of the mall, the rain was coming down very hard, but luckily there was an elevator and a covered walkway from the mall to the cruise port, so we stayed dry.
We returned to the ship and after some debate, cancelled our plans to dine at Commander's Palace in the evening as the rain was expected to continue to be heavy and we didn't want to go back out in dress clothes. We had been looking forward to that dinner and evening in New Orleans, so this was a major disappointment. J. R. found a reservation for Tuscan Grille on board so we dressed up anyway and headed there for an excellent meal. The entertainment for the night was the Magic of Gabriel. We enjoyed his show although some of it was fairly predictable.
