Earliest time to book a flight out of Spirit/NOLA

[igo2travel]

My choices are 10:55 a.m. or 5 p.m. We will be spending four days prior to the cruise so we can go to Jazz Fest. After the cruise, I'm thinking we'll want to get back home. I need to book Delta and their choices are above. Is 10:55 too early to hope for or doable?

 

If not, what do we do with our luggage if we book the 5 p.m. flight? Thanks for some advice.

[World Gallery]

You may want to look into "self disembark". Not sure if I am calling it by the correct name but it is where you leave the ship with yhour luggage instead of putting out the night before. You are the first ones off of the ship.

I am not sure I would take the chance with the 10:55 flight. We have sailed many times out of New Orleans (3 times on the Spirit) and it is unpredictable in regards to how long it takes to get off. Sometimes they run on time and sometimes they do not. It really isn't always about the ship but about customs/clearing the ship. If you have to be at the airport at least by 9:30 that would mean you would have to leave the ship by at least 9:00 (I would count on 30 min. to get to the airport). I am not sure that can happen with you have to collect your bags. Peronsally, I would not do it unless I did self disembark and not everyone can handle all of their bags by themselves.

[Sargent_Schultz]

Advance Checkin is one option

http://www.advancecheckin.com/

[Budget Queen]

You can make it, IF your ship clears on time, you self disembark, and just as important, have no mobility limitations and move quickly to a cab.

 

Have you gone to the Jazz Fest before?? IF not, there is excellent cheap transportation via the city buses available, and discounted advance tickets. I go every year.

[Abear2]

The ship usually arrives between 7:00am and 8:00am, so if you do self embark and not leave your luggage in the hall for them to pick up, you can definitely make the 10:55 flight. It's about a 25 minute drive from the port to the airport.

[dchang]

We are on the Spirit returning to New Orleans on 11/6/11. We are in a suite and will have priority disembark. I'm not sure how this works and need to find out what the earliest flight I should book would be. Does the priority disembark for suite passengers start after the self disembark? If we have priority disembark with the luggage left in the hall the night before, what time do we disembark from the ship. Also if we were to take our own luggage off do we leave even earlier? Thank you in advance for your assistance.

[NW Pacific]

Our experience on the Star and Gem for priority disembarking: We were given a notice by the Concierge to meet in a certain area, you can choose to meet there at the earliest time the ship clears, from that point we were escorted off the ship and taken to the area where our bags were waiting. If everything goes right you can be off the Ship by 8:30am