This is your four-week warning: that's how long we have until Fat Tuesday.
What's new this year in Carnival?
"Well it's late, for one thing," said Mardi Gras Guide publisher Arthur Hardy, and he says that does make a difference.
"It's more days to have the anticipation build up, the weather's better, more people come in," Hardy said. "Because it's a late carnival, Mardi Gras sometimes coincides with spring break, where we see hotel rooms fill up to a higher degree the later the Mardi Gras."
And when the parades roll, there will be a new king of largest krewes -- or should we say queen?
"The two women's clubs now have overtaken Endymion in membership. Iris leads the pack with almost 3,500," said Hardy. "Nyx a close second, and then Endymion, which has really kinds of capped its membership at about 3,200."
One of the most-talked about changes this carnival season is the Jefferson Parish parade routes. Starting on Bonnabel and then moving east-to-west down Veterans, ending at Clearview Mall. Hardy says he's interested to see how it turns out: "It's an experiment but I applaud the officials out there for at least trying to do something to improve the quality of parades."
