Earliest/Safest Departure time from New Orleans A/P

[Puffinater]

What would be the earliest/safest departure time from New Orleans A/P. Ship, Navigator, scheduled to arrive in port at 7am. Thanks.

[Puffinater]

Anyone have a guess? Thanks.

[VideoTech]

What would be the earliest/safest departure time from New Orleans A/P. Ship, Navigator, scheduled to arrive in port at 7am. Thanks.

 

I wouldn't book a flight much earlier than 10am, and personally I feel even that is pushing it.

 

Remember that the "arrival" time of the ship is not necessarily the time you'll be allowed to disembark. Your actual time to get off the ship depends on how quickly the ship clears with the port authorities, how soon they're ready down in the port building with your bags & Immigration staff, and how quickly and well-organized the ship is about getting people off.

 

Then it's about a 20 minute trip to the airport by taxi, longer if you're on a cruise line transfer (because you wait for the buses to fill up), and you've got airport check in and security to get through. You need to be at your airport gate at least an hour before your flight departs.

 

In my experiences with NCL at New Orleans, they are usually announcing the first wave of disembarkation around 8 to 8:30 am.

 

Personally, I'd rather avoid all the stress of worrying about a missed flight, and I don't like to rush, so I usually do not book a return flight earlier than 11:00 am from any port, and later than that if the airport is far from the port, as it is in Seattle.