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NCL Cruise our of NOLA


BoozinCroozin
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I posted this on the Gulf Departures forum, but suggested to look here too. We are contemplating a cruise out of NOLA over Easter. We would embark the Sunday before Easter and disembark on Easter Sunday. I wanted to get other peoples thoughts on this that are more in the know. A few things that we are concerned about are ...

  • Flights: The number of flights from where we are to NOLA is not large, but not small either. Cruising out of POM, there are 3 airports in case something happened weather wise or mechanical. Easier to manage in that case. We would fly in Friday for a Sunday cruise out of NOLA. The hope would be to get my family out of school for a day to fly out Friday morning, get Friday day and night there as well.
  • Hotels: I am not sure what the hotel prices are at this time, but not looking to break the bank. I know it is 2 nights, but my points don't work there often. Out of MIA, I can get free hotel for 1 night. This is not the biggest factor by any means though. I did a quick glance at hotel prices this year for the same weekend before Easter and they are in line with price I am willing to pay. 
  • Cost: We would be saving $600 on the cruise that would translate over to "free" flights into NOLA. Maybe about an extra $150 for the flights for 3 people. 
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Cruises out of New Orleans have grown tremendously over the past several years, mainly because they are out of New Orleans. It is a very compact city, easy to get around by foot, Uber, pedicab, etc. Lots of great restaurants in the French Quarter, lots of things to do and see. The City is gradually coming out of the COVID shutdown. By Spring of 2022 it should be back to close to normal. The music clubs are still mostly closed, but restrictions are gradually being lifted and they will be back in time. My wife and I spent last Saturday in the Quarter, and there were lots of people out and about. April is usually a pretty month. Everything is in bloom.

 

The port is about a $10 ride from any hotel in the area. After departure you can sit on the deck with a cold drink and enjoy the trip down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

 

All the usual Spring festivals (Jazzfest, French Quarter Fest, etc.) were canceled this  year because of COVID, and hard to predict what will be scheduled for April 2022. A good source is:

 

www.bestofneworleans.com

 

 

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We just moved our cruise from Joy to Breakaway. We wanted to try "new" things under the hope this is not our first cruise. We felt a visit to NOLA for 2 nights, cruising down the Mighty Mississippi, and trying NCL will be all good. The cost savings for the cruise was part of it as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Welcome @BoozinCroozin! I have never sailed on NCL but you can really get up close and personal with the Breakaway when she's in NOLA and she looks like a beautiful ship. If you need any help feel free to ask me. I have over 100 NOLA hotel stays under my belt. I'll be sailing out of NOLA on the Glory in March. I always do a live review on the Carnival board so you may want to check that out. There's a thread on this page called "Hotels" where I've mostly helped people get good hotel deals on hotwire. That's not something I'd recommend doing far in advance right now with covid. I'm only booking refundable rooms right now. The main thing is to see what is going on in New Orleans the weekend you are cruising. A hotel search will tell you. If prices are sky high there could be a major sporting event or a doctors convention or something.

 

Oh one unique thing you could potentially experience is I know the two carnival ships pass each other on the Mississippi River. I'm not sure if Breakaway passes one of them or not but you may check the schedule. If you're leaving on Sunday you very well could pass Glory on the Mississippi River that night.

 

You may want to check out the New Orleans page on my blog site. I have a lot of hotel reviews and trip reports. I'll be adding Hyatt Regency on Monday and Hyatt House two weeks from Monday.

 

https://saintgregtravel.com/category/port-of-departure/new-orleans/

 

 

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Thanks @Saint Greg! I have looked at several of your posts on the NO forum. This one is a long way out and I am many months from looking for a hotel. We will cross that bridge about when we head out over Thanksgiving on the Carnival Magic. 

 

We chose NCL over CCL because we want to experience different lines before we kind of commit to one. This will give us a good idea between CCL and NCL. Then we will see if we want to add RCL to the mix as well.

Edited by BoozinCroozin
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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

We just re-booked our Breakaway cruise. Saved $600 and received an additional $100 OBC. This will help greatly because flight prices are on the high side at the moment. We are still 8 months out and Southwest is several months before releasing their flights.

 

One question I have is what is the earliest time you would book a return flight? I am just gauging ahead of time before we start to plan flights. The ship is listed to port at 7AM. I am thinking 11AM may be the absolute earliest, but noon or later would be better.

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On 8/10/2021 at 4:06 AM, BoozinCroozin said:

We just re-booked our Breakaway cruise. Saved $600 and received an additional $100 OBC. This will help greatly because flight prices are on the high side at the moment. We are still 8 months out and Southwest is several months before releasing their flights.

 

One question I have is what is the earliest time you would book a return flight? I am just gauging ahead of time before we start to plan flights. The ship is listed to port at 7AM. I am thinking 11AM may be the absolute earliest, but noon or later would be better.

The airport is a good drive away. 

Have had rides take from 25 minutes on a good day to 40 minutes on a very rainy day with no traffic. Not including wait time if ordering. 

11 will work if everything goes right, don't think I'd try it without precheck. If one or more things go wrong... 

 

 

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