NOLA parking during a saints weekend.

[Disfan5]

I'm trying to guess how much of an issue we will have parking.

 

We are cruising out of NOLA Sunday, Nov 17 on NCL Jewel. The Carnival Sunshine is supposed to arrive from their trans-Atlantic sailing that Sunday, staying over one night and will then be boarding on Monday for their 6 day cruise. The Saints are playing that Sunday at 3:25.

 

We could not get our usual hotel close to the port, that has a park and cruise option. It looks right now that we are going to stay overnight on Saturday a little further out and then drive over in the morning.

 

I've been thinking about parking at the Fulton Street parking garage. What time should I plan on arriving there? I don't mind getting there early, but I just don't want to get caught up in a big traffic mess from people coming in for the game.

 

If I pre-pay for my parking, do they guarantee a parking spot for me? I was thinking of doing the $8 rooftop parking. I know there were be some spots opening up from the previous Jewel passengers leaving. I don't know if very many carnival passengers will have cars at the port, since the cruise started in Europe.

 

Will it be an issue to drop my 78 year old dad and 10 year old son off first, give the porters my bags and have them wait for me to go park, or would I be better off pulling up, dropping our bags off and then just taking them with me to park? When we've sailed from there before, my husband dropped us off and then went back to the hotel to park and another time, we were able to have the hotel shuttle drop us off.

 

What time do they usually start letting people go through the line to get on the ship. I don't mind getting there really early rather than having to fight a bunch of traffic.

 

Any help and advice for a worried mom would be greatly appreciated.