When people from other countries ask us where they should visit in the USA, we suggest the three most unique and characterful cities in the country: Boston, San Francisco, and New Orleans.
In full disclosure, we grew up just outside the Big Easy. Once we were old enough to drive, the Crescent City (you see, New Orleans is so cool it has TWO nicknames) was where we snuck off to when our parents were out of town. We know it well and our love for this unique city grows every year. We go back every chance we get.
Everyone thinks of South Florida when they think of cruise vacations, but New Orleans has become a bustling cruise port in its own right. Uniquely positioned in the center of the northern Gulf of Mexico, cruises can easily get to anywhere in the Western or Eastern Caribbean. Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean all offer New Orleans departures, and Norwegian is raising the standard of New Orleans cruising by offering departures aboard megaships Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Getaway.
And for perhaps the most unique and most underrated cruise option in the world, consider a cruise on the Mississippi River with either American Cruise Lines or The American Queen Steamboat Company. It’s European river cruise meets the deep south, with some jazz and great food mixed in.
But what really makes New Orleans a great place to take your cruise vacation from is all else that the Big Easy has to offer. Miami pales in comparison to all that New Orleans has to offer, from Bourbon Street and the French Quarter to the World War II Museum and cemetery tours. And then there’s the food. We might be a little partial, but there’s no better food on the planet than in New Orleans. Po-boys and muffulettas, charbroiled oysters, beignets and chicory coffee, gumbo and jambalya, shrimp creole and blacked redfish, oysters Rockefeller and a sazerac (actually, no fewer than a dozen cocktails were invented in New Orleans).
We know New Orleans, we love it, and we’re sure you will too. If you are considering a cruise from New Orleans–or might want to consider a cruise from New Orleans–then give us all call. (877) 585-SHIP.
