Driving to port: How long would you plan to drive on the morning of departure?

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

We're cruising out of New Orleans.  Trying to decide where to spend the night before the cruise. We'll have about a 16 hour drive, total, but looking to leave after work on Friday for a Sunday departure (not sure we can get that Friday off). With dinner and traffic on Friday evening, we plan on stopping Friday night with about 12.5 hours left to drive on Saturday/Sunday morning.

 

Coming down I-59, our choices look like:

 

Meridian, MS: leaving 3 hours Sunday morning

Laurel, MS: leaving 2 hours Sunday morning

Hattiesburg, MS: leaving 1.5 hours Sunday morning

Slidell, LA: leaving 0.5 hours Sunday morning

Drive all 12.5 hours on Saturday

Edited December 13, 2022 by PrincessArlena'sDad

[RocketMan275]

32 minutes ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

We're cruising out of New Orleans.  Trying to decide where to spend the night before the cruise. We'll have about a 16 hour drive, total, but looking to leave after work on Friday for a Sunday departure (not sure we can get that Friday off). With dinner and traffic on Friday evening, we plan on stopping Friday night with about 12.5 hours left to drive on Saturday/Sunday morning.

 

Coming down I-59, our choices look like:

 

Meridian, MS: leaving 3 hours Sunday morning

Laurel, MS: leaving 2 hours Sunday morning

Hattiesburg, MS: leaving 1.5 hours Sunday morning

Slidell, LA: leaving 0.5 hours Sunday morning

Drive all 12.5 hours on Saturday

On our last NOLA departure, we spent the night in Hattiesburg.  We were travelling with another couple so we had a late departure.  We stayed at a very nice Hampton Inn with good places to eat within walking distance.

On our cruise this March, we're driving into NOLA.  We live in North Alabama so it's an easy six/seven hour drive.  We still plan on arriving the night before.

Just personal but Meridian has always struck me as 'kinda dirty'.  I wouldn't choose to stay there.

Driving all the way on saturday is easily doable.  The issues is, hotels are sky high in NOLA.  The Hampton Inn in Hattiesburg is less than $200 per night.  I've seen the Hampton Inn in NOLA priced at almost twice that.  Some are not even available on Friday nights.

We've driven sixteen hours to Fort Lauderdale with an overnight stay enroute.  We found a three/four hour drive into the port on embarkation day very doable.

Here's a link you might find useful:

https://www.saintgregtravel.com/new-orleans-parking/

Don't know if you like HGTV but the show Home Town is filmed/produced in Laurel.  A bit of luck, you might run into the stars.

I think all in all, I would do Hattiesburg but that could because I spent many days at Camp Shelby for national guard summer camps.

 

Question is this: how soon do you wish to get to the port.  NOLA is notorious for being a poor port for embarkation.  The waiting areas are small.  Everyone has to go through security before checking in.  One long line that maybe a couple of blocks long.  Once the waiting area fills, they stop the security line.  Either you get there NLT 0900 or you will stand in along line until they start processing security again.  We arrived at 0945 and we stood in line till after 1100. Once through security, boarding was a breeze. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by RocketMan275

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Thanks, this is really helpful.  I'll definitely scratch Meridian off the list, as I wasn't too keen on 3 hours Sunday morning anyway.

 

Should have mentioned, we depart Aug 13, so hotels are less expensive, anyway. But, if we drive all the way to NOLA, we wouldn't be able to see much before the cruise anyway. Maybe walk around in the morning, but we'd be pretty tired from all that driving.

 

We plan on picking our arrival time at midnight 14 days out (Carnival Glory). The plan is to shoot for an 11 am arrival time, which would translate to driving into the port around 10:30ish.

[RocketMan275]

30 minutes ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

We plan on picking our arrival time at midnight 14 days out (Carnival Glory). The plan is to shoot for an 11 am arrival time, which would translate to driving into the port around 10:30ish.

Glad to have helped.  Hattiesburg would work very well.

[Tiger100]

I highly recommend staying in Slidell the night before the cruise.  Also, avoid staying in New Orleans east at all cost. 

[RocketMan275]

Slidel would be a good choice too.  lots of places to stay and several restaurants. 

It would depend upon how long you want to drive the day before.

And how soon you want to be at the port.

Staying at Slidelll would cut about an hour and a half drive time over Hattiesburg.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

We're going to stay in Hattiesburg.  We'll be too excited for the cruise to sleep late, so we might as well drive the hour in the morning, and make it easier the night before.

 

Restaurants won't really matter.  We'll plan on stopping on the road about an hour or so before reaching our hotel, and morning of, we'll just have the hotel breakfast before heading out.

 

We did find a brand new Holiday Inn Express in Hattiesburg that didn't even open yet... grand opening is this coming Feb.  So, I think we'll stay there!

[RocketMan275]

13 hours ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

We're going to stay in Hattiesburg.  We'll be too excited for the cruise to sleep late, so we might as well drive the hour in the morning, and make it easier the night before.

 

Restaurants won't really matter.  We'll plan on stopping on the road about an hour or so before reaching our hotel, and morning of, we'll just have the hotel breakfast before heading out.

 

We did find a brand new Holiday Inn Express in Hattiesburg that didn't even open yet... grand opening is this coming Feb.  So, I think we'll stay there!

An hour before reaching Hattiesburg is in the area of Laurel.  On our last trip through Laurel we had lunch at 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Texas+PitMaster+BBQ/@31.6873308,-89.1303676,15.5z/data=!4m9!1m2!2m1!1sBBQ!3m5!1s0x88833513ea67afad:0xf29362a63955008c!8m2!3d31.6943302!4d-89.1287689!15sCgNCQlFaBSIDYmJxkgETYmFyYmVjdWVfcmVzdGF1cmFudJoBJENoZERTVWhOTUc5blMwVkpRMEZuU1VOSE9VMWxRelpCUlJBQuABAA

 

Food was excellent and reasonably priced.  

It's maybe a mile off the interstate but it isn't difficult to get there.

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

On 12/13/2022 at 11:14 AM, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

Coming down I-59, our choices look like:

 

Laurel, MS: leaving 2 hours Sunday morning

 

Did a little road trip last year and DW is a big fan of Hometown on HGTV so we spent two nights in Laurel.  It's a cute town with not much to do except go to Ben & Erin's  store and visit Ben's workshop.  BTW: reason we spent two night is because the store was closed on the day after New Year's day (2nd) so we hung around to the 3rd to see the store and workshop.  We also had lunch at Pit Master BBQ and it was excellent, but closes early some days so check the hours.       

Edited December 19, 2022 by ATSEAMYLIFE

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

On 12/18/2022 at 9:32 AM, RocketMan275 said:

An hour before reaching Hattiesburg is in the area of Laurel.  On our last trip through Laurel we had lunch at pit master

 

 

On 12/18/2022 at 8:33 PM, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

We also had lunch at Pit Master BBQ and it was excellent, but closes early some days so check the hours.       

I have it in my road trip map planner! Looks great. 

 

Question is.... will we still want ol' fashioned bbq for lunch the next day for embarkation lunch? Or, after pit Master the night before, we should do guys and blue iguana instead? 

Edited December 20, 2022 by PrincessArlena'sDad

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

 

I have it in my road trip map planner! Looks great. 

 

Question is.... will we still want ol' fashioned bbq for lunch the next day for embarkation lunch? Or, after pit Master the night before, we should do guys and blue iguana instead? 

They have more than BBQ.  The BBQ here is better than anything you'll get on board.  I had the catfish and it was great.

Can't speak about the other two.

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

On 12/20/2022 at 7:15 AM, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

Question is.... will we still want ol' fashioned bbq for lunch the next day for embarkation lunch? Or, after pit Master the night before, we should do guys and blue iguana instead? 

Are you really asking if there's to MUCH BBQ?  

[RocketMan275]

44 minutes ago, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

Are you really asking if there's to MUCH BBQ?  

That depends.  If it is real Texas BBQ, the answer is no.  I like beef BBQ which is a Texas specialty.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

On 12/21/2022 at 5:38 PM, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

Are you really asking if there's to MUCH BBQ?  

Not too much BBQ....

 

Just if we will be able to enjoy Ol' Fashioned BBQ after having Texas Pit Master the night before.  If there's too much of a drop off, we might have to hold off on Glory's BBQ offerings.

[RocketMan275]

8 hours ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

Not too much BBQ....

 

Just if we will be able to enjoy Ol' Fashioned BBQ after having Texas Pit Master the night before.  If there's too much of a drop off, we might have to hold off on Glory's BBQ offerings.

I would be surprised if you're not disappointed at CCL BBQ.  

 

You should have good BBQ at least one night so stop at Texas Pit Masters.

A word of warning, it's not really Texas style BBQ because they only have pork ribs, no Beef ribs.

 

BTW, had family over for dinner last night.

BBQ Beef Short Ribs

BBQ Kielbassa.

BBQ Beans, Scalloped Potatoes, Mac n' Cheese.

Bread from our local German bakery.

Apple pie from Costco.

 

This morning we're having fresh baked sweet rolls and Mimosa's.

 

And, yes, I do all the cooking.

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

3 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

I would be surprised if you're not disappointed at CCL BBQ.  

 

You should have good BBQ at least one night so stop at Texas Pit Masters.

A word of warning, it's not really Texas style BBQ because they only have pork ribs, no Beef ribs.

 

BTW, had family over for dinner last night.

BBQ Beef Short Ribs

BBQ Kielbassa.

BBQ Beans, Scalloped Potatoes, Mac n' Cheese.

Bread from our local German bakery.

Apple pie from Costco.

 

This morning we're having fresh baked sweet rolls and Mimosa's.

 

And, yes, I do all the cooking.

Post address please. 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

4 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

I would be surprised if you're not disappointed at CCL BBQ.  

 

You should have good BBQ at least one night so stop at Texas Pit Masters.

A word of warning, it's not really Texas style BBQ because they only have pork ribs, no Beef ribs.

 

BTW, had family over for dinner last night.

BBQ Beef Short Ribs

BBQ Kielbassa.

BBQ Beans, Scalloped Potatoes, Mac n' Cheese.

Bread from our local German bakery.

Apple pie from Costco.

 

This morning we're having fresh baked sweet rolls and Mimosa's.

 

And, yes, I do all the cooking.

54 minutes ago, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

Post address please. 

 

Plus 1.

 

Or, rather, plus 5.  Whole family is coming.

[RocketMan275]

2 hours ago, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

Post address please. 

 

1 hour ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

 

Plus 1.

 

Or, rather, plus 5.  Whole family is coming.

Sorry to disappoint you guys but there's nothing left.  

My family went through that dinner like a pack of hungry wolves.

Maybe next year.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

1 hour ago, RocketMan275 said:

 

Sorry to disappoint you guys but there's nothing left.  

My family went through that dinner like a pack of hungry wolves.

Maybe next year.

You mean you're not BBQing for New Years Eve? 😁

 

So....

 

Coming home, we're thinking of spending the night around Knoxville.  Any dinner recommendations there?  

 

We're continuing on I-40 in the morning.  Probably will stay in a hotel after the city to avoid rush hour traffic in the morning (we'll probably want to sleep in a bit).  Of course, we may have to deal with rush hour traffic in the evening this way, but better that than in the morning.

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

You mean you're not BBQing for New Years Eve? 😁

 

So....

 

Coming home, we're thinking of spending the night around Knoxville.  Any dinner recommendations there?  

 

We're continuing on I-40 in the morning.  Probably will stay in a hotel after the city to avoid rush hour traffic in the morning (we'll probably want to sleep in a bit).  Of course, we may have to deal with rush hour traffic in the evening this way, but better that than in the morning.

Prime rib for NYE.  It's a tradition.

Asparagus or brussel sprouts.

Twice baked potato.

Wine from Caymus vineyards.

 

I love to cook.  I wish I could find the recipe in that coke commercial.

I'll probably do brisket and beef ribs for my birthday.

 

I think you have a good plan but Knoxville is a bit off my beaten track.

Try Tripadvisor for restaurants and hotels.

 

My son was through Chattanooga a couple of days ago.  He reports traffic was terrible.