Hilton in New Orleans

[Gingee]

We have reservations at the Hilton Riverside in New Orleans for the night before our cruise. Can anyone tell me if it is too far to walk with our luggage to the cruise port? (Three females and one male) Our daughters are teenage.

[selucrey]

Gingee; A lot of people do just that.It is quite a walk (few hundred yards)but you go through the Riverwalk Mall so you can stop and shop if you get tired.:D Some send a male w/luggage in a cab to the terminal and the rest walk.;) BTW, We are staying at the Hilton pre-cruise in October.

[cruisinqt]

I hope you got the deal we did. We booked the Hilton's "cruise special." For just $99.00 we got a deluxe room with 2 queen beds and 7 days free parking. If anyone wants to book that special, just call Hilton at 1-504-561-0500 and ask for the "cruise special." And if you find a better deal you can cancel up to 3 days prior to your cruise without any penalties.

 

The distance from the Hilton to the pier is only 3 blocks. But they are long blocks. And there are stairs and lots of people and walking that distance with luggage is not advised. You might want to do what we are going to do. We plan on dropping off our luggage with the ships porters and then going back to the hotel and leaving the car there. Since parking is limited, very hard to find, and expensive in New Orleans, we plan on taking a trolley from the hotel and having some fun in the French Quarters before we leave. There will be plenty of time to check out the ship while we are at sea. So why not enjoy a few extra hours in New Orleans? The trolley is only $1.50 and it is a lot of fun too.

 

When you drop your luggage off earlier in the day, the lines to get on board are usually about 2 hours long. If you go explore around town and come back later that afternoon, the lines to board the ship are usually only about 15-30 minutes long. And since the ship doesn't leave till 6:00 p.m., you've got plenty of time to get back before it leaves. Anyway, that's what we plan on doing. I hope the info. helps. Enjoy your cruise!

[phinfan63]

We are staying at the Hilton in August (and got the deal) and had planned to walk to the pier. But at the mention of the trolley, does anyone know if you can take your luggage on the trolley?

[mexicobob]

As some of the above posters have said, walking to the ship with luggage is possible but would be difficult. If you had a good bit of luggage it would be impossible. I would not consider doing it and I call myself in pretty good shape.

Have never seen people with luggage on the trolley but would guess it is not allowed. Not sure though. Probably would depend on how much luggage you had. You would still have a good walk from the trolley stop if they let you on.

Best bet in my opinion is to drop your luggage off either via taxi or car. That is what I do.

 

MexicoBob

[cruisinqt]

It sounds like you may not have a car to take the luggage to the pier. If that's the case, you might just send your husband in a $7.00 taxi with the luggage to drop it off. He could then walk back to the hotel (which would be easy without luggage - only 3 blocks) and you could all hang out in New Orleans. Or walk to the ship, whichever you prefer. If there are a few carry ons to worry about, the baggage guys ( can't think of their name ) at the Hilton will hold your carry- ons in the back for you. Just be sure to give them a good tip. We have done this before at many hotels and never had a problem. The baggage guys love to store the bags for you and get a little extra tip.

[bigmacfan]

Until I checked it out! It was a good little jaunt will all of our luggage. The biggest issue, though, was the amount of stairs. Maybe I just wasn't smart enough to figure out a route that didn't contain stairs, but WOW..lots of them. We fully intended to walk until we did a "dry run" without luggage on Saturday evening...we quickly decided that the $14 taxi ride was worth it for the 2 of us. Hey, you are going to spend TONS of money on vacation...what's $14 for your convenience??

 

I would absolutely suggest that you walk it first without luggage, keeping in mind that you will be hauling luggage (stairs are BAD :) ) while you make your decision.

 

We didn't need parking and got the room for $45 through priceline.

[phinfan63]

We will be driving to NO so have access to a car. Does anyone know how early you can drop your bags off at the pier? It would certainly be easier to drive the bags there - hauling luggage up and down stairs doesn't sound like any fun at all.

 

I will be sure to do a dry run on Sunday night too and at that point, I'm sure everyone will agree that we don't want to walk :D

[love it cruisin]

Thanks for the heads up on the distance from hotel and port. We are getting in to NO on Fri. so I guess we will have a trial run. Our daughter is getting married on the ship 7/25 so we will have alot of stuff to get on the ship. Thank u again for the info.

[Cinderelli]

Hello, everyone. Since we are not driving (going from New Jersey would be a bit too long for us,) we are flying into New Orleans, and took some advice we got on these boards to try priceline.com for hotel room savings.

 

For our night before the cruise, we entered a 4 star hotel and got the Hilton for $45 per night. Woo-hoo!

 

On the return, the Hilton was unavailable, but we got another 4 star hotel -- the Renaissance Arts Hotel in the French Quarter for $58. Regular published rate was over $200. As long as it was in the French Quarter, and they had a pool for my kids -- that was all that mattered.

 

I would try PriceLine!

 

And don't forget to stop for beniets at the Riverwalk on the way to the pier -- they have a small Cafe Du Monde spot there. Yummy!

 

:o

[cruisinqt]

A word of caution. If you book the priceline deal, it is cheaper but does not include free parking. The Hilton charges for their parking and I was told by Hilton personnel that you need the "cruise special" to get the free parking. I read a post where this guy got the Hilton for just $50.00 through priceline and was pissed off because he still had to pay for parking. He said " you guys kept posting that the Hilton had free parking, well it doesn't!" The Hilton does have free parking if you get the right deal. I felt sorry for him. So if you need parking, get the "cruise deal." If you don't, do the priceline thing. It's a good deal if you don't need parking.

 

As for dropping off your bags, I've heard a lot of people say they check out of the hotel and drop their bags off at 11:00 to 11:30 at the pier. Many have said the pier is too congested with passengers disembarking to get there before 11:00. The Conquest doesn't leave until 6:00 pm, so 11:00 is fine with us.

 

And if you can't get the Hilton "cruise special" or the priceline deals mentioned, you might check out this other deal I've heard about. The Maison St. Charles has a "bon voyage" package for $85.00. It includes transportation to the pier and a few other goodies. It's a really nice hotel in the heart of the french quarters and walking distance to everything. They don't advertise this deal on their website, you have to call them directly and ask for the "bon voyage" special.