My Plan...now what hotel to choose?

[ajenali]

In February  we are arriving late afternoon on a Saturday for a concert at the Smoothie King. Will spend Sunday touring French Quarter area. Cruise on Monday. 

 

1. i dont want to spend a ton on hotels, but need a safe area. what hotels/area of town are best? i am not opposed to staying at one hotel saturday night, then going to a different one on sunday night. 

2. will have my car, so something with free/inexpensive parking. 

3. free breakfast is great, but not a dealbreaker. 

4. parking at port, so no need for a park and stay hotel. 

5. i am not opposed to taking a streetcar from the hotel to french quarter area on sunday. 

 

give me some hotel options? 

[beaucajun]

You may want to try the Drury Inn on Poydras.  Easy walk to the Smoothie King Center.  I think parking is $25 per night.  No free parking in downtown New Orleans.  Not a bad walk to get to the French Quarter.  The St. Charles streetcar line passes right next to the hotel.  10 minute drive to the port.  Avoid road construction on Convention Center Blvd.

[shaneandpamela]

Park with Machu Picchu.  Drive right to them and they will van you to your hotel, and then from hotel to port, and then from port to the car.  Locked covered parking.  They don't wait for full vans to get you moving.

If you aren't picky on the hotel, then Priceline a hotel.  We just spent three nights at the Marriott on Canal for $80.00 a night.  Pretty hard to beat.

[Saint Greg]

I may be able to help with a Hotwire hotel if you give me the dates. All of the hotels down there charge a bunch for parking. I paid $30 to park myself at the holiday inn last night. I paid $40 for valet a few weeks ago. If you get a good deal on the hotel, it makes the parking more tolerable. Depending on which hotel you get there may be a nearby lot you can park yourself in to save a few bucks. 

[ajenali]

I ended up getting convinced to fly, so no parking is needed now. lol. I have booked the Drury Inn, but if I can get a better rate, that is always a plus! Dates are Feb 9-11. 

[Saint Greg]

5 hours ago, ajenali said:

I ended up getting convinced to fly, so no parking is needed now. lol. I have booked the Drury Inn, but if I can get a better rate, that is always a plus! Dates are Feb 9-11. 

 

I specialize in hotwire bookings. Here are some of the better options I see on there for your nights:

 

best price

$116 - 3.5* downtown/superdome 90% recommendation - Hyatt House

The 4* for $10 more is Hyatt Regency right next door. If you pick one of those get a streetcar pass for $3/day. The streetcar stop is right out in front of the hotel. Take the loyola streetcar and it'll take you to all of the canal street stops for the french quarter.

 

closest to the port

$127 - 3.5* warehouse district 80% recommendation - Hilton Garden inn Convention Center

 

cheapest french quarter 

$158 - 3.5* french quarter - bourbon street 75% recommendation - Maison Dupuy

 

want to walk through the mall to the port?

$166 - 4* french quarter/mississippi river - 85% recommendation - Hilton Riverside

[ugobon59]

Saint Greg....  Can you help us out?  We are having trouble finding a place to stay Saturday night, February 16th.  Plus do you know how much it costs to park at the Cruise terminal as opposed to parking at a hotel??  Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.  

Bonnie  

[Saint Greg]

33 minutes ago, ugobon59 said:

Saint Greg....  Can you help us out?  We are having trouble finding a place to stay Saturday night, February 16th.  Plus do you know how much it costs to park at the Cruise terminal as opposed to parking at a hotel??  Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.  

Bonnie  

 

Man that's an expensive night for some reason! Few rooms available in the downtown/french quarter area and the ones out there are $300-1000. Are you wanting to stay in that area or are you good with staying a few miles from the port?

[ugobon59]

Yes, I am a ok with staying a few miles away as long as they have parking there.  I'm very behind in taking care of things for the cruise and now i am in scramble mode.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  Any suggestions would be so appreciated.

 

[loanshark]

Feb 16 is first weekend of Mardi Gras, mainly celebrated by locals, whereas the following weekend is much crazier.  Also, there is a Fleetwood Mac concert in New Orleans on 2/16.

[Saint Greg]

On 1/15/2019 at 4:07 PM, ugobon59 said:

Saint Greg....  Can you help us out?  We are having trouble finding a place to stay Saturday night, February 16th.  Plus do you know how much it costs to park at the Cruise terminal as opposed to parking at a hotel??  Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.  

Bonnie  

 

Parking at the terminal is $20/day or $140 for the week. If you want to save a little you can park at Machu Picchu for $110 and they will shuttle you to and from the port. Normally I would recommend Fulton garage where you can park for $83 rooftop or 106 covered but they’ve seasonally raised the prices to 122/132. 

 

Last month i used the country inn and suites Metairie park n cruise package. They have that package starting at $259 for your night. It includes a hot breakfast, parking, and a shuttle to the port. You have to get your own transportation back but the shuttle driver was signing people up with another company that does it at $10 per person. Lyft/uber is $15-20 for that ride.

 

I’ll give you a couple of hotels I’ve stayed in that I see for decent prices in case you want to book hotel and parking separately.  These are on Hotwire. That’s how i book my hotels. In the MSY airport area there’s a 3.5 star hotel for $115. That’s the crown plaza. Nice hotel. I stayed there post cruise a few years ago when I decided last minute to stay and get another night of sleep before making the drive home. Then in the Metairie area the 3* for $98. This is the Ramada. I stayed there precruse about four years ago. They had just bought it from days inn. You may want to look at some recent pictures and reviews on TripAdvisor. It was pretty outdated then..it looked like they were starting renovations...but I had good WiFi and a balcony. I was good with it for a night. There’s an ihop attached and they gave you a free continental breakfast . 

Edited January 18, 2019 by Saint Greg

[Saint Greg]

2 hours ago, ugobon59 said:

Yes, I am a ok with staying a few miles away as long as they have parking there.  I'm very behind in taking care of things for the cruise and now i am in scramble mode.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  Any suggestions would be so appreciated.

 

 

Are you coming from the north? Another option could be staying in Slidell. I’m seeing great prices on nice hotels there for that night. I come from the west and sometimes stay in Baton Rouge the night before. Every time I cruise out of Galveston i stay 30mins-hr away.

[ugobon59]

We're coming from Memphis down I-55 south into Nola.  I will have to look into cities north of there. We just don't wanna pay $160 to park at the cruise terminal. 

[Saint Greg]

8 minutes ago, ugobon59 said:

We're coming from Memphis down I-55 south into Nola.  I will have to look into cities north of there. We just don't wanna pay $160 to park at the cruise terminal. 

 

Okay. So you're coming into the Hammond area. Then the question is do you continue on I-55 to I-10 or are you going to take I-55 to I-12. I-55 to I-10, I'd look at stopping in Hammond. If you're going I55 to I-12 I'd go to Slidell and stop. If you were stopping in Hammond, I see a La Quinta on Hotwire that would be $92 after taxes. Then you park at Machu Picchu for $110. Right around $200 for hotel, parking, transportation to the port. If you're going to Slidell they have a Holiday Inn for $91 or a La Quinta for $60 so $170-200 total depending on which you pick there. The alternative would be the Country Inn and Suites package in Metairie which is up to $311 after taxes now.

[ugobon59]

Thank you so much for your help!  

[FreudianSlipper]

On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 5:21 AM, ajenali said:

In February  we are arriving late afternoon on a Saturday for a concert at the Smoothie King. Will spend Sunday touring French Quarter area. Cruise on Monday. 

 

1. i dont want to spend a ton on hotels, but need a safe area. what hotels/area of town are best? i am not opposed to staying at one hotel saturday night, then going to a different one on sunday night. 

2. will have my car, so something with free/inexpensive parking. 

3. free breakfast is great, but not a dealbreaker. 

4. parking at port, so no need for a park and stay hotel. 

5. i am not opposed to taking a streetcar from the hotel to french quarter area on sunday. 

 

give me some hotel options? 

I just stayed at The Drury Inn and Suites on Poydras. I really liked it and the location was perfect. It was pretty affordable.

[shrew]

On 1/17/2019 at 4:26 PM, loanshark said:

Feb 16 is first weekend of Mardi Gras, mainly celebrated by locals, whereas the following weekend is much crazier.  Also, there is a Fleetwood Mac concert in New Orleans on 2/16.

This explains why there was little availability last spring. Glad I booked ours (for 16 at the Drury) last March, which is an extremely rare super early book for me.

[ugobon59]

We found a place to stay!  Woohoo. 

[Vpender]

We are wanting park and cruise around the French quarter? May 19th. Options?

Much appreciated 

[ttb1980]

Are any of you on the Triumph Feb 11-16th by chance? We are!:)

[doxie2cruise]

Our cruise is Jan. 12, 2020 we are flying in Jan.10,2020 and looking for transportation from airport to hotel and I need help picking a hotel we'd like to be close to the cruise port and be able to enjoy New Orleans while there. What is a good time to book a hotel and prices are so high right now. I sure hope Saint Greg or someone can help me out. Thanks in advance for help. Doxie

 

[Saint Greg]

On 2/21/2019 at 6:42 PM, doxie2cruise said:

Our cruise is Jan. 12, 2020 we are flying in Jan.10,2020 and looking for transportation from airport to hotel and I need help picking a hotel we'd like to be close to the cruise port and be able to enjoy New Orleans while there. What is a good time to book a hotel and prices are so high right now. I sure hope Saint Greg or someone can help me out. Thanks in advance for help. Doxie

 

 

Sorry I missed your post. Have you booked? What’s your price range? You picked a really bad cruise if you want a room near the port. The college football national championship is in the Superdome the day after you leave. Depending on how the season goes I believe it’s also possible the Saints host a playoff game that weekend. It’s going to be a mess already. Worst if that happens.

 

The best deal down there right now for your dates on Hotwire seems to be the staybridge suites at $179....$460 total for your trip after taxes.