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Back to Back Cruises: March-April 2004
New Orleans, LA
The first cruise was to leave New Orleans in the evening of Sunday March 14. We decided to take an early flight on Saturday March 13 so we could see some of New Orleans. We hired an airport shuttle service which picked us up a little before 5:00 AM. They had two more pickups to make and the driver had a little trouble finding each, so we got to the airport a little more than a hour before the flight was scheduled to depart. We could not see the end of the line at the sidewalk check-in so we decide to go in and use the self check-in counter. There are about 6 self check-in counters and they each had a line almost back to the doors. The shortest line was for the regular check-in so we got in that line. Within 20 minutes we had our baggage checked and boarding passes in hand. We had a short lay-over in Atlanta, boarded another plane and arrived in New Orleans around noon after very pleasant flights.
In a short time we had our baggage and found the shuttle service we had read about on the internet. We had also found our hotel (Hotel LaSalle) on the internet for about ½ the next lowest price for a hotel in the French Quarter. When we told the driver the hotel name he said it is a nice little hotel, but he would drop us off last because he wanted to talk to us about where it is. He had 4 or 5 other stops so we got a tour of the city and especially the French Quarter as the drive did a great job of telling us about the area. The French Quarter is bounded by Rampart St on the north, the Mississippi River on the south, Canal St on the west, and Esplanade Avenue on the east. The rectangle that makes up the French Quarter is actually at an angle with Rampart as the Northwest side, but to make things easier we will just put it directly north. Burgundy St is the first east-west running street south of Rampart. There is a famous cemetery on the north side of Rampart. The driver told everyone that if they wanted to go to the cemetery to do it during the day with a large group of people. He said during the day it was OK to walk up to Rampart with a group of people, but at night when you come to Burgundy turn around and go back.
The map we had of where the hotel is showed it on Canal St just inside the French Quarter. It was on Canal St but it was just outside the French Quarter between Rampart & Basin Sts. This meant it was beyond where it is considered safe to go at night. This is what the driver wanted to talk to us about. He said that we wanted to be sure that when we left the hotel we headed toward Rampart St and not Basin St. We should walk quickly from the hotel to Burgundy or vice versa. Since it was on Canal St it was well lit at night and was much safer than it would have been on the east side of the block. We had no problems with anyone, but Dale was very nervous while we were north of Burgundy.
We got to the hotel around 1:00, checked in, put our luggage in the room, and headed out to the French Quarter. The driver told us about some places to eat, but the restaurant we were most interested in had a line outside that went about halfway up the block. We found another place (The Alpine Cajun Bistro) that was practically empty when we got there, but quickly filled after we were seated. The prices were very reasonable and the food was great.
After eating we wandered around making our way to Jackson Square. Jackson Square is a park bordered by Chartres, St Ann, Decatur, and St Peters Sts. Along the park all the streets except Decatur are closed to traffic making courtyards on three sides of the park. In the park are really well kept gardens, lawns & trees and a statue of Andrew Jackson. Across Chartres St is St Louis Cathedral. Close to the park walls in the courtyards are artist displaying their pictures with several offering to paint your picture. Further into the courtyards are fortune tellers (taro readers, palm readers, etc.). Across Decatur St is an amphitheater with the seats facing toward Decatur St and the park. Street performers entertain the people in the amphitheater, hoping for donations. When we first got there some acrobats were performing. On Decatur St in front of the park there are carriage tours available. We took one of the carriages and the driver brought us around the southern end of the French Quarter pointing out places we might want to visit later. We went back to some of the places and upon returning went up to the river walk. From the river walk you can look down on the amphitheater, across to Jackson Square & beyond to St Louis Cathedral. There was a really funny talented juggler/comedian performing in the amphitheater.
As it started to get dark we made our way through the courtyard on St Peters St and up St Peters St to Bourbon street. We went from bar to bar standing outside each listening to the music until the smell of old beer got too strong for us then moving on to the next. We stopped in the Jazz Funeral, a souvenir shop, to see the horse-drawn hearse with a skeleton driver. We heard there was to be an Italian-American parade so we found a place to watch it. It was mostly motorcycles, three wheelers, and converted VWs. After watching for a while we made our way back to the hotel.
Sunday morning we got up fairly early and went looking for a place to have breakfast and a church. New Orleans is not an early morning kind of place, except for a couple of bars nothing was open. We saw a few people who appeared as if they were still partying from the night before. We made our way over to the Cafe Du Monde and discovered they only have beignets and other pastries. We walked down Decatur to the French Marketplace and saw the Beignet Cafe across the street was open. We went in and had a very good breakfast for what in New Orleans was a reasonable price.
The few churches we found had such late services that we would not have been able to get back in time to check out from the hotel by noon, so we decided to go on the self-guided walking tour we found in a brochure. The tour takes you by: Cathedral Gardens, Pirates Alley, Place D’Armes Hotel, The Presbytery, 1850 House, Madame John’s Legacy, Ursulines Convent, Beauregard House, Clay House, Thierry House, The Haunted House, Gallier House, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, & Cornstalk Fence. Nothing was open yet when we walked by these places. When we finished the tour we had only a short time before we needed to get back to the hotel to check out so we decided to get tickets to go into two of the buildings, 1850 House & Madame John’s Legacy.
We got back to the hotel just in time to clean up a little and check out by noon. The desk clerk called a cab for us, when it arrived we did not know if it would hold all our luggage, we had a lot of luggage since we would be traveling for a little better than 3 weeks. With some ingenious packing and use of bungee cords the driver was able to get most everything into the trunk with one bag up front with him. A porter took our bags and we were checked in, through security, and on the ship in about 10 minutes.
When we went to check in a hostess named Dale directed us to the Latitudes line. Dale told the hostess she had the same name and the hostess told us that she had gotten named Dale because her sister who was 6-years old at the time was a Roy Rogers fan and she wanted to name the new baby Roy. Her mother told her that she was going to have a sister and she could not be named Roy, but they could name her Dale for Dale Evans. This is exactly how Dale got her name right down to the age of her sister. After hugs all around we went to the check-in line.
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may 01 2017