The Econolodge was just 4 miles from the Carnival cruise terminal, but, as I have mentioned, it is Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, so getting a taxi is more difficult – and more expensive – than usual. This became an issue when we checked out at 11am. We took our bags to the office and I immediately ordered an Uber. The price was $16.57 – about $20 with tip. But then Marlene informed me that she wanted to sit and enjoy her coffee, so I cancelled the Uber. We didn’t have to be on board until 1:30pm, so no rush.
Well, that “free” coffee ended up costing us. Because when I ordered the taxi again, around 11:30am the price was $32. Uber demand pricing. With tip it would be about $38. Marlene was outraged. I think the CEO of Uber almost got a call from her. She showed ’em, though… she called a regular taxi and they said they could get us there for $20 ($25 with tip). So she ordered the taxi. But when it arrived the driver said the price was $26 ($31 with tip). Again, Marlene was outraged. I didn’t care. We took the taxi and got to the terminal shortly before noon. We got our boarding passes and were told to go to the end of a very long line of “early arrival” passengers. We did as told, but when we got to the end Marlene asked if her Diamond status got her express boarding. Yes, it did. So we walked back past the long line of early arrivals, got in the Priority Boarding line and were on board in about 20 minutes.
Sometimes rank has its privilege.
Once on board we texted Sherman and Rose, our friends from Las Vegas, and met them in the casino bar. We ordered a drink and, by getting a paper bill rather than the expected computer slip, learned that the ship was having computer problems. Later we learned that it wasn’t just the Carnival Liberty; the entire 29-ship Carnival fleet was having major computer problems. The initial announcement was that they were making “good progress” on the problem but that departure would be delayed by a couple of hours.
The actual departure was around midnight, so the problem was more severe than first believed.
This was Super Bowl Sunday. I watched the game on the huge screen overlooking the pool. But my New England Patriots played miserably, losing 29-13. They didn’t look like one of the two best teams in the NFL. They didn’t even look like one of the better teams in the NFL. Bad, bad game.
With the ship in port, the casino closed and me completely bummed out, we went to bed early.