What is the best option for Cruising out of New Orleans, Galveston, or Mobile? It will be our first cruise.?

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Southern Apostolic

I would choose Galveston. The Carnival Conquest. I was on the Glory, which is basically the same ship. It was an incredible ship and an awesome vacation.

Julie T

We have sailed out of the Port of Galveston 3 times with trip #4 planned for June 2008.

**Avoid March for departures out of Galveston. Most Texas schools have Spring Break in March and the cruises are full of kids. Not the experience you are looking for...**

Carnival and Royal Caribbean offer 5 and 7 day cruises departing from Galveston.

Carnival offers a 5-day cruise on the Ecstasy and a 7-day cruise on the Conquest.

The Ecstasy is a smaller 70-ton ship. She visits Cozumel and Progresso. Cozumel is a tourist port with tons of things to do. Progresso is a developing port with less to do and more street vendors. The smaller ships are more bumpy than the larger ships. The Fantasy out of New Orleans is a sister ship to the Ecstasy. However, I don't know how well the port of New Orleans has recovered since the hurricane.

The Carnival Holiday out of Mobile is probably the oldest and smallest ship in the Carnival fleet.

We love the Carnival Conquest. She is 110 tons and very smooth. She is a very nice ship with a great staff. We are taking her again in the summer.

Royal Caribbean also offers a 7-day cruise out of Galveston. We took the Rhapsody of the Seas in 2005 but she has been moved to the Asian market. Thank goodness! She was the worst ship I have ever been on and the staff was horrible. We will never cruise RC again because of this experience. The plumbing on the Voyager of the Seas probably works but we won't take the chance on another ruined vacation by sailing RC.

Notable...the teaser rates you see on the web don't include port fees, taxes or the new fuel surcharge. These fees can add $150-200 per person to the price of your ticket. Make sure your travel agent includes these fees with any quote you get upfront.

Some of our friends are cruising the Conquest in Feb and they got a great deal! Check out www.vacationstogo.com to compare pricing.

Also, you should be in tune with the new passport requirements for sea travel. The Feds have been trying to get this requirement in place for nearly a year and they keep changing it. Details at:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html

emtp911

I like the Conquest out of Galveston. Have sailed on it twice. I like the 7 day cruise because you don't seem so rushed. Had time to just lay in bed all day and not do anything! room service for meals if you want.
Your Cruise can get expensive if you drink alcohol. I know alot of people that bring a bottle of alcohol in their suitcases. I don't drink so not a big issue for me. Pre pay your tips is the best route to go with the tips. And less hassle.
Carnival seems to have more to do, activity wise on the ship, than Royal Caribbean. Food is about the same on both. Very good!
You can choose to stay busy or not
Only bad experience I had was on RC, the plumbing lines broke and everything got all wet in our room.
Was given a 15% OFF coupon for next cruise on RC.
I prefer Carnival anyway

NOLA guy

I can't address the actual cruise part of your trip, though my family (parents & siblings) left from New Orleans yesterday on the Norwegian Spirit.

However, New Orleans would be a much more interesting city to leave from an return to than Mobile or Galveston. NOLA also has a larger airport and convenient transportation to the city center (the cruise terminal is on the Mississippi River).

http://www.neworleanstophotels.com/cruise.html

nikki s

Ok...just got back from our cruise yesterday from galveston, we went to progresso and cozumel..the ship was carnival ectasy and it was ok..kids were running around drinking and smoking..no parents around to be seen a 16 yr old nearly died on our cruise, found him past out drunk onm top deck...on the ship they try to sell you everything under the sun, drinks cost like 7 dollars a piece..and u have to hunt down the non alcoholic drinks like tea, ater, lemonade..etc..We really enjoyed port in cozumel..Dont book an excusrsion in cozumel, you will only be disapointed..we rented a jeep for 50 bucks and had it the whole time we were in port, like 7 hours..and drove all around the island...very very very pretty...We wont be taking another cruise, we want to take a plane next time to either cozumel or belize..it was not worth the money we spent on it...but it was an experience

Rottenmutts

Mobile is a dump with a crummy ship

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