Cruises - Industry Resources

Welcome to the Port of New Orleans and the Crescent City! We hope to make your cruising experience as memorable as possible.

New Orleans offers a myriad of opportunities for visitors from exciting nightlife and casino action to historical tours and world-class attractions. This resource aims to offer our cruise passengers a one-stop shop for planning shore-side itineraries. So come a little early or stay a little longer and enjoy all that New Orleans has to offer. 

Cruise Lines

Carnival Cruise Lines, the world’s largest cruise ship operator, currently homeports its Fantasy for year-round four- and five-day Western Caribbean cruises and its Carnival Triumph for year-round seven-day Western Caribbean cruises beginning in August of 2007.

Norwegian Cruise Lines homeports its Norwegian Sun from October through April in New Orleans for seven-day Western Caribbean cruises. NCL offers its free-style cruising experience to passengers worldwide.

River Cruises

Delta Queen Steamboat Co. offers Mississippi River cruises on three paddlewheel vessels, American Queen, Mississippi Queen and Delta Queen.

RiverBarge Excursion Lines Inc. offers Mississippi River Excursions from New Orleans on America's only floating hotel barge, the 196-guest R/B River Explorer.

New Orleans Paddlewheels operates the Creole Queen and the Cajun Queen, which offer dinner and jazz cruises on the Mississippi River.

The New Orleans Steamboat Company operates two riverboat cruises on the Mississippi River. The authentic Steamboat Natchez offers dinner, jazz and harbor cruises and the John James Audubon provides a seven-mile cruise between the Audubon Zoo and the Aquarium of the Americas.

Air Transportation 

Louis Armstrong International Airport has a helpful web site to plan your trip.

Hotels and Lodging 

The New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau web site offers a comprehensive listing of hotels, attractions and events.

 The New Orleans Marketing Corp. web site offers an extensive list of accommodations and events to plan your trip to the Big Easy. This is New Orleans’ official tourism site.

 If an intimate bed and breakfast is more your style, the Louisiana Bed and Breakfast Association web site offers a comprehensive list of members in the New Orleans area and throughout the state.

Tour Companies 

Destination Management Inc. can satisfy your needs, arrival to departure. DMI is part of a family of companies, which owns and operates an array of equipment and resources including Airport Shuttle, New Orleans Tours, New Orleans Paddlewheels and two swamp tour companies. DMI can also provide assistance with restaurant reservations and concierge service. 

Hotard Destination Services customizes tour programs to make a lasting impression. New Orleans offers European charm, southern hospitality, a colorful history, diverse cultural roots, serene landscapes, round-the-clock excitement and tantalizing cuisine. From downtown New Orleans or the French Quarter, your group will be less than an hour away from alligators and antebellum plantations. 

Gray Line Tours offers everything from tours of antebellum homes and Louisiana swamps to haunted history jaunts and paddlewheel cruises.  

New Orleans is filled with history, some happy, some haunted. Haunted History Tours offers a wide variety of tours focusing on local lore. 

Louisiana Swamp Tours and High-Speed Airboat Adventures offers a unique perspective of Bayou Country.

Casino Action 

Harrah’s New Orleans offers 24-hour casino action and 115,000 square feet of gaming space. It also features nightly comedy shows at The Improv at Harrah’s and world-class dining at Besh Steakhouse and Riche by Todd English. Harrah’s opened its new hotel in September of 2006 offering 450 oversized rooms and suites.

Treasure Chest Casino offers Las Vegas action New Orleans style. Located in Kenner, La., just 20 minutes from downtown New Orleans, Treasure Chest is a favorite of local gamblers. It offers more than 950 slots and all your favorite table games with fine dining and entertainment. 

Boomtown Casino is the largest riverboat casino in south Louisiana, located just across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans. It’s three floors offer 1,500 slots and video poker machines and more than 50 table games, including a 24-hour live-action poker room.

Attractions

Audubon Zoo is one of the country’s top-ranked zoos. It blends the exotic excitement of animals from around the globe with the serenity of its lush gardens. With innovative natural habitat exhibits and an animal collection ranging from the unique white alligators to the extraordinary white tigers, Audubon Zoo has become one of the Gulf South’s favorite family gathering spots.

The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas is located just minutes away from the Port of New Orleans cruise terminal along the Mississippi River. It offers an underwater look at sea life from the Gulf of Mexico, an exotic penguin exhibit and numerous other attractions.

The Entergy IMAX Theater offers exciting year-round entertainment for the entire family. Located adjacent to Aquarium of the Americas the IMAX Theater’s programs takes visitors from the depths of the world’s oceans to the eye of approaching hurricanes. 

The New Orleans Museum of Art, located in City Park, is the city's oldest fine arts institution and has a magnificent permanent collection of more than 40,000 objects, valued in excess of $200 million. The collection, noted for its extraordinary strengths in French and American art, photography, glass, African and Japanese works, continues to grow. The five-acre Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA is one of the most important sculpture installations in the United States, with 50 sculptures situated on a beautifully landscaped site amongst meandering footpaths, reflecting lagoons, Spanish moss-laden 200-year-old live oaks, mature pines, magnolias, camellias, and pedestrian bridges. 

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is home to the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world, and a unique and innovative destination to "See the South." It is located just minutes away from the Port’s cruise terminals in New Orleans’ Warehouse District. 

The National World War II Museum is now designated by Congress as the country’s official World War II Museum. This remarkable attraction illuminates the American experience during the WWII era with moving personal stories, historic artifacts and powerful interactive displays. From the Normandy invasion to the sands of Pacific Islands and the Home Front, the Museum brings to life the teamwork, optimism, courage and sacrifice of the men and women who won the war and changed the world. 

Memorial Hall, located adjacent to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, contains the second largest collection of Confederate memorabilia in the world and is the oldest continually operating museum in Louisiana.

Oak Alley Plantation, located on the Mississippi River between the historic Louisiana cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, has been called the “Grande Dame of the Great River Road.” Nowhere else in the south will you find such a spectacular setting! The quarter-mile canopy of giant live oak trees, believed to be nearly 300 years old, forms an impressive avenue leading to the classic Greek-revival style antebellum home. 

Explore Louisiana’s River Road, a 70-mile corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which is home to some of the South’s most famous antebellum homes. Visitors can use this web site to plan itineraries and preview the famous homes.  

Louisiana Tourism: See all the Bayou State has to offer by visiting this site. From Shreveport to Thibodaux, this site has everything.

See Mardi Gras come alive year round at Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World. Located just across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, visitors can take the Algiers Ferry and get a behind-the-scenes look at how Mardi Gras is made. 

Visit The Cabildo, home of the Louisiana State Museum and the site of the Louisiana Purchase.  

Built in 1835, the Old U.S. Mint is the only building in America to have served both as a United States and a Confederate Mint. President Andrew Jackson advocated the Mint’s establishment in order to help finance development of the nation’s western frontier. 

The Louisiana Children’s Museum is New Orleans’ most playful and educational place for children and families! Discover more than 30,000 square feet of hands-on, interactive exhibits that invite and engage children and families as they explore art, music, science, math, and health, and role-playing environments. Learning has never been more fun!

New Orleans Museums web site lists all of the historic collections the Crescent City has to offer. From voodoo and religious museums to antebellum homes and niche galleries – browse this site to learn more. 

Shopping 

The Riverwalk Marketplace offers local and national retail shops and a food court just steps away from the Port of New Orleans cruise terminals. 

Magazine Street offers shoppers six miles of antiques, furniture, clothing, jewelry, dining, gifts and more. 

The French Quarter isn’t just for partying. Visit unique shops, art galleries, photography studios, antique galleries and retailers. 

Explore all the French Quarter has to offer before your visit by clicking here. 

The Shops at Canal Place offers world-class shopping at the foot of Canal Street, adjacent to Harrah’s New Orleans.

Events 

Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is New Orleans’ biggest celebration. The pre-Lenten event includes more than two weeks of parades and pageantry. Often called the Greatest Free Party on Earth, hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on the Big Easy each year to celebrate in the streets. 

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is a world-class music festival celebrating New Orleans music with local, national and international artists. The two-week event is held annually around the last weekend in April and first weekend in May.

French Quarter Fest is held each April and is a free music festival celebrating all local music genres. Stages and food booths are set up along the Riverfront, Jackson Square and throughout the French Quarter. The group also sponsors the Satchmo Summer Fest each August and Christmas New Orleans Style.

The Essence Music Festival is held annually around the Fourth of July weekend, attracts musical artists from around the world.  The festival also features panel discussions and famous speakers.

Sports Venues

The Louisiana Superdome is the crown jewel of the New Orleans skyline. Home of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and the Tulane University Green Wave, the Superdome has hosted NFL Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours and is home to the annual Sugar Bowl. Daily tours are also available. 

The New Orleans Arena is home to the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets and the Arena Football League’s VooDoo. Opened in 1999, it is a state-of-the-art arena for everything from basketball games and concerts to festivals and conventions.

The Fairgrounds Racecourse offers live Thoroughbred racing weekly from November through March and an off-track betting parlor. Owned by Churchill Downs, it is the nation’s third-oldest Thoroughbred racing facility.  It has been in operation since 1872 and is home to the annual $600,000 Louisiana Derby.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007, Zephyr Field - "the Shrine on Airline" - has become the focal point for family entertainment in the Greater New Orleans area. Over four million fans have attended a variety of events at the stadium since it first opened April 11, 1997. Zephyr Field features 10,000 chair-backed seats with cup-holders, plus seating for nearly 1,000 on The Levee in center field. The Zephyrs have drawn more than 320,000 fans in each of their nine seasons on Airline

Live Music 

From Preservation Hall to Tipitina’s each night in New Orleans offers a wide variety of live music from jazz to funk to zydeco and rock-n-roll. Search OffBeat Magazine’s daily listings here or try NOLA.com’s music listings here.

Restaurant Guides

New Orleans has some of the best authentic Creole and Cajun restaurants in the world. Search New Orleans Restaurants.com or search NOLA.com’s restaurant guide here.