Seven Days on the Dawn and Christmas in New Orleans: A Review

Greetings, Cruise Critic friends. My wife and I have just returned from a fantastic cruise on the Dawn and, as I've done a couple times now, I'm writing a review/log of our trip. I hope it's informative and fun, and I will do my best to answer any questions along the way.

A little background info before I get rolling. My wife and I are in our mid thirties (and I just now realized that in my first CC review I wrote early thirties--ah, mortality). This was our fourth cruise and second on NCL (we cruised on Getaway last October). We absolutely loved the Dawn; this was probably our favorite cruise yet. We also did four nights in New Orleans after the cruise, and I'll also share our experiences on those days for those of you who might be traveling to New Orleans and may be looking for ideas on where to go and what to eat.

This review will go day-by-day, in what I guess you'd call a longread. I'll try not to be too wordy. I'll also have some photos along the way, though if I'm being completely honest, they're probably 90% photos of food (we ate a lot).

So...onward. Coming up: pre-cruise in New Orleans.

Day 1: The Flight from Hell

For whatever reason, it seems like I—a reticent flier at best, a white-knuckling ball of panic at worst—am always destined for weather-related anxiety and a rough flight every time I set out on vacation. Last year it was a hurricane off the coast of Virginia, this year bone-freezing cold and thirty plus MPH winds.

I’m not sure what the parameters are for flying in windy conditions, but it truly felt like we were pushing the limits of safety as we took off from National Airport. It was, without doubt, the most terrifying climb out I can recall. I’m just glad this happened on our way out, because the only thing that got me through it was thinking about the amazing vacation ahead of me, and convincing myself that I was glad that the plane felt like an out of control racecar because that meant I’d be in New Orleans that much sooner.

Landing was also more exciting than one would hope, but we managed to arrive in New Orleans in (mostly) sound mind and body. We picked up our bags and set up our airport shuttle in short order, and soon we were heading to our hotel for our first night of New Orleans fun.

We stayed at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, which is a monster of a hotel a little outside the French Quarter. After checking in and walking what felt like a mile to our room in a far-off tower, we decided to immediately strike out in search of an afternoon snack.

One thing we absolutely fell in love with on our last journey to New Orleans was char-grilled oysters. They are typically cooked over an open flame, with a topping of garlic-butter and parmesan or Romano cheese, sometimes with breadcrumbs. To this day, they’re probably my single favorite bite of food in the world.

Now, there’s a bit of a debate about which restaurant serves the best char-grilled oysters, and we made it our mission to try as many versions as we could squeeze in during this trip. The two top contenders, people seem to agree, are Acme (where we’d eaten these amazing treats on our last visit) and Drago’s (which we were hoping to sample this time around). It just so happens that there’s a Drago’s location in the Hilton, so we worked our way back through the maze of multiple buildings and placed our first oyster order of the trip.

Unfortunately, this hotel Drago’s kind of sucked. I can’t speak to the original Drago’s, located in Metairie, but we were very underwhelmed by the food at this location. The gumbo was decent, but the oysters—for which Drago’s is famous—did not come out hot, were overwhelmingly loaded with breadcrumbs, and tasted vaguely like rubber in both flavor and texture. If you end up staying at this hotel on your trip, I strongly suggest you take a short walk to the French Quarter and order oysters just about anywhere else, and you’ll likely have a better experience.

After our quick afternoon bite, we took a walk down to the Quarter to enjoy our first vacation drinks. My first stop in New Orleans is always Pat O’Brien’s for a Hurricane. If you spend any time in New Orleans, you will hear everyone express some form of the following opinion: “Go to (fill in the blank restaurant) instead of Pat O’Brien’s, they have a much better Hurricane.” I am here to tell you this is utter crap. You can get good hurricanes at plenty of bars, but no place makes a drink that tastes like the one at Pat O’s. It’s my favorite cocktail, probably ever, and I had more than my fair share on this trip.

After grabbing my favorite drink, we walked across the street to one of our other favorite bars, Maison Bourbon. While this bar is on Bourbon Street, it is always very quiet (comparatively speaking) and has excellent live jazz music and no cover. They ask that you purchase one drink during each set of music, which is not really burdensome for us. My wife was able to grab her favorite New Orleans cocktail, the Pimm’s Cup, and we enjoyed a set of excellent jazz.

Following and anxiously waiting for more.... :)

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Great start. Following.

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Following! My husband and I have been considering this for 2019.

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Following, have been to NOLA and have sailed the Dawn and will be again in the distant future, so would like to hear how both are doing.

Following! My husband and I have been considering this for 2019.

 

 

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I am confident that if you choose the Dawn you will have a great time.

Me with my favorite drink.

We took a short walk through Jackson Square before we headed over to K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen (by famed New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme), where we had a late dinner reservation. We have one of Paul Prudhomme’s cookbooks, so we were very excited to finally try his flagship restaurant. I’m happy to say that, unlike Drago’s, this meal did not disappoint.

We each tried the gumbo, which was delicious, but for us the highlight was probably the pan-fried rabbit coated in barbeque shrimp sauce (an amazing spicy garlic and butter sauce). We also loved the complimentary jalapeno bread, which was both ridiculously soft and deliciously spicy. This was definitely one of our favorite meals, in a trip full of culinary delights.

Table at K-Paul's.

Enjoying your review! This will get us ready for our March cruise on the Dawn:D

Amazing jalapeno bread.

K-Paul's gumbo, some of the best in town.

The fried rabbit in barbeque shrimp sauce, absolutely not to be missed.

On the go for most of the day, and with the excitement of starting a cruise the following morning, we decided to make it an early night and headed back to our hotel, full of wonderful food and ready to really get this vacation underway.

Up next: our first day on the Dawn.

Following. My sister and I are on the Dawn departing January 29. We are spending the Saturday night prior to cruise at the Crowne Astor. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences!

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Can't wait to read the rest. Thinking of doing this cruise next year.

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Following. My sister and I are on the Dawn departing January 29. We are spending the Saturday night prior to cruise at the Crowne Astor. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences!

 

 

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I'm sure you'll have a great time! Even though I just got home I already wish I was going back.

Can't wait to read the rest. Thinking of doing this cruise next year.

 

 

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Thank you. I plan to try to get at least one day posted each day, so we'll see how that goes.

Your review absolutely makes me want to take a cruise out of New Orleans! Great looking cocktail that Hurricane.

Reading and daydreaming whilst at work!:cool:

Following happily along.

23 days until we board the Sun so a bit of an NCL junkie at the moment. :D

Your review absolutely makes me want to take a cruise out of New Orleans! Great looking cocktail that Hurricane.

Reading and daydreaming whilst at work!:cool:

I've now cruised out of New Orleans (twice), Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale, and New Orleans is by far my favorite. As long as there are ships there, I will cruise on whatever's available because I love New Orleans so much.

Cruising out of New Orleans is great!! We have done it 3 times!!