Anyone cruised to NO during Mardi Gras? Feedback please-Good & Bad

[suefrankw]

Hi

just out are 2024 February Celebrity Constellation r/t Tampa 12 night cruise including 2 overnights in NO for Mardi Gras....would love some feedback on being there during Mardi Gras please. Wondering how the experience was....

Thank you

[Chippytoes]

I've not been but can tell you we were on a cruise during Mardi Gras one year and we were about the only ones on board NOT from New Orleans getting out of town. 

 

Have you been to New Orleans? Because if not, I would not suggest your first time going to be during Mardi Gras. I love New Orleans and have been loads of times but never, nor any desire, to go during Mardi Gras. However, that is my opinion and everyone will have various ones 🙂

Edited February 18, 2022 by Chippytoes

[suefrankw]

thanks appreciate the feedback

[RollWave]

3 minutes ago, Chippytoes said:

Have you been to New Orleans? Because if not, I would not suggest your first time going to be during Mardi Gras. I love New Orleans and have been loads of times but never, nor any desire, to go during Mardi Gras. However, that is my opinion and everyone will have various ones 🙂

Absolutely Agree!

I lived in New Orleans. If you want to visit New Orleans do not go during Mardi Gras. I would highly encourage a New Orleans trip to experience the city and then do another trip to experience Mardi Gras. They are two distinctly different experiences. 

 

That being said having a cruise ship as your home base during Mardi Gras might not be a bad way to go if you want to go to Mardi Gras.

 

 

[mafig]

We were on Reflection on Xs last Mardi Gras cruise....probably in 2019.  We had been to NOLA before, but really enjoyed this cruise a lot.  We had the schedule of Mardi Gras events.  We saw one parade, but spent most of the time away from the events.  Got to see the WWII museum which I highly recommend.

 

It was cold.  And going up the Mississippi, it turned foggy, so we could hardly see land, nevermind a Carnival ship that passed leaving NOLA as we were arriving.

 

Would do it again.  Prefer Reflection to Connie, though.

[Bellfree Bat]

We did the Mardi Gras cruise in 2017 on the Equinox. We loved it. Saw parades and went in on a balcony rental at the top of Bourbon Street with food and open bar. They did not do much on the ship for Mardi Gras, though. Thinking about the Constellation one...

 

[Jeremiah1212]

Although it is technically possible to see the city outside of Mardi Gras activities, it may not be easy to do. It's probably safe to say you are either someone who enjoys Mardi Gras or you are not. I doubt there is much middle ground. If you've never been and don't know what to expect, YouTube may provide some content that you find interesting. Or it may shock you. 

[awhfy]

We also did the MardiGras cruise on Reflection  in 2019. We had a blast. Be advised that the WWII museum is closed on Fat Tuesday & closes early on Monday. The double decker bus tour is also closed on Fat Tuesday & closes at 1pm on Monday. When we arrived on Sunday we literally walked down the street & watched a parade in front of convention center. Monday we took a double decker bus tour in the morning (including a stop at DuMonde for beignets & coffee). Tuesday we spent walking from parade to parade. Lots of people, lots of drunk people, ended up with 15 lbs of beads & coconuts. We didn’t have any fog going up the Mississippi (spent whole day in our aft balcony) our trip down the river on Tuesday night was a little foggy. It was quite cold, we were glad to have our Colorado parkas. 

[Baron Barracuda]

We were on the inaugural X Mardi Gras cruise, Equinox back in '17.  Sadly X didn't bring much Mardi Gras spirit to the sailing but we had over 600 cc members on board who came up with a wide range of activities.  The Julia St. terminal adjoins an outlet center which even contains a cafe Du Monde.  Be aware though that the mall along with most of the city is closed on fat tuesday.  It's not too bad a walk up Julia St to the parade route.  Found the crowd to be family oriented and very welcoming.   To see the parades we skipped dinner all three nights.  By the time we returned to the ship after midnight the only available food was pizza.  The ship offered a tour that included a bus to the parade and grandstand seating for over $100.  We walked and bought similar seats right across from the reviewing stand online for around $10.  Strongly recommend them.  Overall enjoyed the sailing tremendously, a real bucket list event.

[Vagabond Knight]

I have not done Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but a warning from a former co-worker of mine who used to go every year... she said pickpockets are absolutely rampant, so plan your personal security accordingly.  I figure that's probably good advice in any crowded city anywhere in the world, but at a fest like this with crowds pressed up against each other I guess it makes it even easier for the bad guys to prey on people.

[vanman]

We were on the Reflection in Feb 2020. Fortunate because Covid had not yet hit New Orleans. It was one of our best experiences off of a cruise ship. The trip up the Mississippi was sunny and warm. The first evening we booked grandstand seats privately and enjoyed the parade even though we had light rain. The next two days we watched the parade from ground level. Lots of families and everyone was polite, well behaved and having a good time. Went to a few bars on Bourbon St to listen to music. It was nice to go back to the ship to unwind, rest and then head back out. If you don’t mind crowds, you should definitely book the cruise.

[LuvCruzn4Evr]

We were on the Equinox in 2017 for Mardi Gras. LOVED it and would do it again.  Had never been to NO for Mardi Gras but grew up attending many parades in Mobile (original birthplace of Mardi Gras!).  Had no problems walking about NO during the day, enjoyed beignets at Cafe DuMonde, drinks at Pat O'Briens and watched the Crew of Zulu parade and caught one of their prized posessions, a black coconut.  It was an easy walk for us from the port to Bourbon St. We wore packs around our neck and under our shirts to keep money and credit cards safe from pick pockets.  We never encountered large crowds enough nor did we walk about at night to be really concerned. At night, we could see part of the parades from our veranda and the floats were so pretty all lit up. 

 

I do recall it being utter chaos when we first arrived in NO.  Everyone had to go through Customs/Immigration before being allowed off the ship.  We were assigned times to do that, but seemed very few abided by their assigned time, creating a major backlog and chaos.  Perhaps this process has been streamlined/improved.

[dkjretired]

During Mardi Gras, crowded and absolutely crazy.

[Cruise Raider]

22 hours ago, Bellfree Bat said:

We did the Mardi Gras cruise in 2017 on the Equinox. We loved it. Saw parades and went in on a balcony rental at the top of Bourbon Street with food and open bar. They did not do much on the ship for Mardi Gras, though. Thinking about the Constellation one...

 

We were also on that cruise and absolutely loved it.  We also got parade tickets and choose Lafayette Square B for Lundi Gras for $30 pp... not through the cruiseline but through the official site.  What great seats!   The people that booked through the cruiselines were upset because I think their tickets for much of the same as what we got were over $200 pp.  
We also were at place with a balcony on Bourbon Street for Fat Tuesday.  It seems to me that someone named Anne set it up for people on the roll call.  I wonder if we were on the same balcony … it was a smoking deal for what we got.  The balcony was kind of small but think everyone that booked it got their turns at going out there to throw beads.  I understand we were only supposed to get a couple or few hours but we were allowed to stay all day.  They even had a most delicious king cake.  
Anyway, I’d highly recommend it if Mardi Gras is on your bucket list.  We had an absolute blast!  
Our roll call was huge and so many helpful people on there to help set up group activities.  
 

The only issue we had, and I think we were on the first cruise for celebrity cruises, was that their disembarkation procedures when we got into NOLA and for getting back onto the ship at night we’re a pretty scattered.  I think we waited for nearly 6 or 7 hours to get off the ship when first arriving and others were all cutting in line ahead of us.  Getting back on the ship after a couple of long days out also had two hour lines … something to do with the clearance not being high enough so you almost had to limbo through the entryway.  I’m sure those issues have been resolved by now.  
BTW, Mario V was the hotel director of the Equinox at the time and did have a couple of talks about New Orleans and Mardi Gras in the theater before we arrived.  
Being a resident of NOLA, he was very knowledgeable and helpful.  
 

 

 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

We were booked for the 2021 Mardi Gras cruise that got cancelled so we booked this cruise this morning. See you on the ship!

[suefrankw]

Thanks so much for the feedback.. great advice..if Sox fan cruiser is going I think we will to.  GO Sox!,,,

[sandancer]

On 2/18/2022 at 10:00 PM, awhfy said:

We also did the MardiGras cruise on Reflection  in 2019. We had a blast. Be advised that the WWII museum is closed on Fat Tuesday & closes early on Monday. The double decker bus tour is also closed on Fat Tuesday & closes at 1pm on Monday. When we arrived on Sunday we literally walked down the street & watched a parade in front of convention center. Monday we took a double decker bus tour in the morning (including a stop at DuMonde for beignets & coffee). Tuesday we spent walking from parade to parade. Lots of people, lots of drunk people, ended up with 15 lbs of beads & coconuts. We didn’t have any fog going up the Mississippi (spent whole day in our aft balcony) our trip down the river on Tuesday night was a little foggy. It was quite cold, we were glad to have our Colorado parkas. 

We also did this (actually next door to awhfy). We really did have a ball. We did our own cruise critic Mardi Gras parade onboard the day before arrived in NOLA. We also saw many, many parades and collected beads etc. This was just before Covid made its presence felt. Would love to visit again but maybe not during Mardi Gras. 

[phoenix_dream]

We also did the Reflection 2019, one of my favorite cruises ever!  As seniors, we found it to be the absolute best way to experience Mardi Gras.  We could walk around during the day and enjoy the activities, take in one or two of the parades in the early evening, and then head back to the ship before the town went totally crazy.   If your goal is to collect a ton of beads and bauble, I'll warn you that the majority of that stuff gets thrown at all the young, scantily dressed women 🙂, but we came home with a bag full as well.  The weather wasn't the best (cold!) but we had a great time.  I agree that if your goal is to visit New Orleans, you won't get the total NO experience during Mardi Gras.  But if you want to have some Mardi Gras fun and have the option to avoid the high hotel prices and late night riff raff, then a cruise is the ideal way.  They also have some fun experiences onboard and many people dressed up.  We saw the 2024 cruise and are definitely considering booking that to go again!  

Edited February 19, 2022 by phoenix_dream

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We were also on the 2017 Equinox cruise that spent 2+ days at Mardi Gras.  It was an excellent experience.  We were booked for the cruise in 2021.  I am still bummed it was cancelled. 

 

However, I will say that most of the fun things on the ship were organized by the roll call.    We had a costume parade as we sailed up the Mississippi River.  The costumes were incredible. 

 

DH and I got lots of throws.. . .  and I can tell you I was not one of the hot young girls. These were all from one parade

 

 

 

We attended 4 parades.  It was about 3 blocks uphill to the parade route.  

 

 

 

I did a live thread of the cruise at the time.  I used Photobucket to load pictures.  They later changed to charging for hosting more than a certain number of pics.  So, all of my pics have a watermark across them.  But you can get a pretty good idea of what we did and Celebrity did and didn't do.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

We also did the Reflection 2019, one of my favorite cruises ever!  As seniors, we found it to be the absolute best way to experience Mardi Gras.  We could walk around during the day and enjoy the activities, take in one or two of the parades in the early evening, and then head back to the ship before the town went totally crazy.   If your goal is to collect a ton of beads and bauble, I'll warn you that the majority of that stuff gets thrown at all the young, scantily dressed women 🙂, but we came home with a bag full as well.  The weather wasn't the best (cold!) but we had a great time.  I agree that if your goal is to visit New Orleans, you won't get the total NO experience during Mardi Gras.  But if you want to have some Mardi Gras fun and have the option to avoid the high hotel prices and late night riff raff, then a cruise is the ideal way. 

 

I totally agree.

[markeb]

Haven't done a cruise, but have lived in NOLA. The two biggest advantages I see to the cruise are that your hotel is taken care of, and you won't have to get into the city by car! 

 

It  looks like the ship is in port for almost 3 days. As others have said, the city is pretty much shut down from Monday afternoon until Wednesday morning. Other than the bars. It's possible you can get into a restaurant on Monday evening. Of the "classic places" only Court of Two Sisters was listed as open on Tuesday on one blog I found. That was for 2020. A lot of the old school restaurants will do private parties only and rent out their balconies if they have one. If you have your heart set on Galatoire's, for instance, you'll need to do some checking as to whether they're open on Monday. The parades go along Saint Charles, so going uptown (Audubon Park, the zoo, Commander's Palace) is probably not doable, and they're probably closed. It's a very easy walk to Saint Charles from the pier, but at all times in the city take nothing with you that you don't absolutely need, and keep a close eye on purses and wallets. The downside to Mardi Gras is that New Orleans is a much more accessible city overall pretty much any other day of the year!

 

When we lived there, there were no "sanctioned" events in the French Quarter. It's illegal to throw beads and trinkets off the balconies (yes, it happens all the time) or up to them I believe. Flashing is illegal but tolerated to a degree at night parades in NOLA, not so much during the day or the suburbs (the suburbs all have their own parades). People will do almost anything for the same beads they can buy by pound. Some of the Krewes have beads with medallions identifying the Krewe. Zulu is known for coconuts; those are a prize, but they walk out and hand them to people. And moon pies at least used to be a thing.

 

We were younger, but we wouldn't have even thought about getting seats for the parades! Might now, but half the fun is walking along the route and finding a place to stand. Do check the routes and understand them. The Tuesday parades appear to still go along Saint Charles, but they diverge around Canal, and several of them now go along the Quarter. The parades are over by early afternoon on Tuesday, at which point the locals mostly abandon ship, the tourists stay, and life gets weird. Until exactly 12:00 midnight Wednesday morning, when New Orleans finest very loudly and somewhat forcefully declare that Mardi Gras is over, and along with street maintenance folks, clear the streets of refuse...

 

Eventually you start pitching beads and trinkets in the trash or lose the boxes you put them in. But it's a fun time! Enjoy!  Laissez les bons temps rouler!

[5:00_Somewhere]

Thank you, @markeb and everyone else with experience who commented. I am fully aware that Mardi Gras will not be a "normal" New Orleans experience, but it's been on my "bucket list" for years. And, as markeb says, a cruise seemed the perfect way to do it. As my hubby said, we had this booked for 2021, but it was cancelled, so when we saw it was on again for 2024 we grabbed it. Even got the last aft Sunset Aqua Class cabin on deck 11, which we had and loved on the Connie during our Med cruise in 2019. Really looking forward to this! 👍

[Bellfree Bat]

18 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

We were also on that cruise and absolutely loved it.  We also got parade tickets and choose Lafayette Square B for Lundi Gras for $30 pp... not through the cruiseline but through the official site.  What great seats!   The people that booked through the cruiselines were upset because I think their tickets for much of the same as what we got were over $200 pp.  
We also were at place with a balcony on Bourbon Street for Fat Tuesday.  It seems to me that someone named Anne set it up for people on the roll call.  I wonder if we were on the same balcony … it was a smoking deal for what we got.  The balcony was kind of small but think everyone that booked it got their turns at going out there to throw beads.  I understand we were only supposed to get a couple or few hours but we were allowed to stay all day.  They even had a most delicious king cake.  
Anyway, I’d highly recommend it if Mardi Gras is on your bucket list.  We had an absolute blast!  
Our roll call was huge and so many helpful people on there to help set up group activities.  
 

The only issue we had, and I think we were on the first cruise for celebrity cruises, was that their disembarkation procedures when we got into NOLA and for getting back onto the ship at night we’re a pretty scattered.  I think we waited for nearly 6 or 7 hours to get off the ship when first arriving and others were all cutting in line ahead of us.  Getting back on the ship after a couple of long days out also had two hour lines … something to do with the clearance not being high enough so you almost had to limbo through the entryway.  I’m sure those issues have been resolved by now.  
BTW, Mario V was the hotel director of the Equinox at the time and did have a couple of talks about New Orleans and Mardi Gras in the theater before we arrived.  
Being a resident of NOLA, he was very knowledgeable and helpful.  
 

 

 

We might have been on the same balcony. The food was great and drinks were flowing with a really great bartender. We threw beads, went down and wandered and caught more bead to just go back up to throw them. We may have been the last to leave that afternoon! I forgot who arranged it...

The disembarkation was a mess that first day but we just went and had dinner and then left the ship and ran into our first parade. Great memories!

[mafig]

That first night we found ourselves in Harrah's casino, which is near the port.  

DH and I have a terrible sense of direction, especially after a few cocktails.  We left the casino and could not figure out which way was our ship!  (The casino has several exits.)

On our last visit to NO we stayed at Harrah's hotel (very nice, btw) so I went into the lobby and asked the Concierge which way to the cruise port.  He insisted on walking dh and I to the ship....it was a very cold night.  What a sweetheart he was.....he looked like Truman Capote.  I found the people of New Orleans very nice.

[RosieRoo]

2 hours ago, 5:00_Somewhere said:

Thank you, @markeb and everyone else with experience who commented. I am fully aware that Mardi Gras will not be a "normal" New Orleans experience, but it's been on my "bucket list" for years. And, as markeb says, a cruise seemed the perfect way to do it. As my hubby said, we had this booked for 2021, but it was cancelled, so when we saw it was on again for 2024 we grabbed it. Even got the last aft Sunset Aqua Class cabin on deck 11, which we had and loved on the Connie during our Med cruise in 2019. Really looking forward to this! 👍

Used to love those cabins, but there have been reports of noise ever since they added the movie screen to the deck above. Was the screen there when you were on the Constellation? We ended up choosing a different deck.