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Fulton Place Parking NOLA review (long)


Razor_Poke
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I used the port parking garage in 2010 but this year, decided to "save" $20 and use Fulton Place. For our 5 day cruise it was $60 versus $80.

 

To recap, the port garage is within a literal stone's throw from the ship. You pull into level 1 and a porter meets you to take your luggage. Tip him $5.00 and you are done. Assuming, like us, that you handle your own luggage back to the car, you are out $85.00.

 

Fulton: First, you get a reservation by calling or filling out an online form. They email you a confirmation with the instructions to pull in and get a ticket, park, then go the cashiers office on the 1st level and pay. They don't give clear directions in the confirmation as to how your luggage is handled or where to find the shuttle.

 

You'll navigate through several reserved spaces but at level three, you'll find open spaces. We were confused about what to do from there, other than the part about paying downstairs. A porter finally appears from the elevator and tells us he'll stop by after loading another customer's luggage. It's hot and humid but we wait it out for 5 minutes until he comes back. We follow him down to level 1 via elevator and we wait again on the shuttle to get back. I go pay the cashier and am told that on Saturday, I need to come back to the cashier's office to get my receipt validated. The lobby has a few seats and is air conditioned.:)

 

The shuttle shows up several minutes later and we tip the porter $5. The shuttle is pretty standard with good seats and AC. It's a very short trip to the port. Well, we've got to tip the driver, so $2 to him and the savings is now $18. :rolleyes:

 

He has to stop at the far end of the driveway where the shuttles and taxi's stage so we have a short walk to get in line. Oh, but who meets us there? Yes, a flowered shirt porter. $5 to him and savings now = $13. :rolleyes:

 

Ok, so we get back Saturday, clear customs and head down to the general area where we were dropped off. I wait a few minutes and decide to call. It's hot and humid. They tell me he's on the way, just left. However, he pulls up across the drive from us so off we go dragging the bags across the way to get in a line about 20 people deep. Of course, he fills up and tells us he'll be back. It's hot and humid and now we are in the sun:mad:. About 20 minutes go by and he gets back and we get on. By our estimation and based on past experience we would have been to Hammond, LA by now had we parked in the port garage:D.

 

We get back and I tip the driver and the awaiting porter a combined $4. Savings final total over the port = $9:p

 

There is sign on the cashier office door that states we will find the cashier today on level 2. We go get the car loaded and start cooling the car down while I go search out the cashier. I walk all over level 2, there are empty booths but no cashier to be found. I saw only one other human the whole time. I go back down to level 1, re-read the sign just to make sure. I find no employee at all on either level 1 or 2. We just exit the garage as the barricades are locked in the up postion anyway.

 

Bottom line, the "savings" don't justify the wasted time. Next time we'll park at the port.

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My husband's feeling exactly. Are any reservations required for port parking?

 

 

Nope, you show up, you pay, you get your bags unloaded (optional) and you park.

 

Best of all though, is when you get past customs, you load your stuff and drive off.

 

Lesson learned.:)

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We did the same thing - parked at the Fulton garage for our cruise last week. We did go by the cruise terminal first and dropped off our luggage so we wouldn't have to put it on the shuttle. Then we parked, and rode the shuttle to the pier. We didn't tip the driver - :o When we got back Saturday morning we were off the ship by 7:00 a.m. and went looking for the shuttle. It was not there, so we called. No one answered until a little after 7 and he said he would be right there. And yes, it was warm already! We did get loaded in the shuttle, got to the garage, went and got our car and pulled it around front and the porter helped us load it into our car. I did tip him $5 for his help. We had prepaid, so we didn't really worry about the fact that we couldn't find the pay booth - the barricades were up as mentioned.

 

But I wondered if it wouldn't have been better to use the parking garage at the port - it would have cost us a little more, but we would have been on the road about 30 minutes earlier.

 

Sherryl

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  • 2 weeks later...
I see Port of NOLA does not require reservations. What form of payment do they accept?

 

From the Port's website

 

"Where can I park? How much does it cost?

 

The Port of New Orleans offers two parking areas: The Erato Street Parking Garage for most vehicles (1,000 spaces) and the Poydras Street Lot for over-length vehicles (75 spaces). Cost for parking is $16 per day effective July 1 2009 based on the length of cruise. Over-length vehicles will pay $32 per day effective July 1 2009 . Cash or credit cards are accepted and passengers may pay in advance. For oversized parking it is suggested that the passenger call in advance to reserve a spot. Please call (504) 528 3482.

 

Free shuttle service is provided from the Poydras Street Lot to the Erato Street Cruise Terminal. The Julia Street Cruise Terminal is located adjacent to the Erato Street Parking Garage. Passengers boarding ships at Julia St. will use the Erato St. garage."

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  • 2 years later...

We cruise a lot and have been parking at the Fulton Place garage for some time now. :D

First off you pull up on the side of the building and the porters help you unload you luggage. It is placed on the side walk unless a shuttle is already there. After unloading your luggage one of you will drive around to the garage entrance where you will pay for your parking or give a copy of your online receipt. At that time they will give you a ticket to validate at the end of your trip. Once you have found your paid for spot you take the elevator back down to the ground floor and board the shuttle.

We have never had any problems with this location or the staff.

To be precise the staff especially Mr Randall has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make our parking experience top notch!

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We cruise a lot and have been parking at the Fulton Place garage for some time now. :D

First off you pull up on the side of the building and the porters help you unload you luggage. It is placed on the side walk unless a shuttle is already there. After unloading your luggage one of you will drive around to the garage entrance where you will pay for your parking or give a copy of your online receipt. At that time they will give you a ticket to validate at the end of your trip. Once you have found your paid for spot you take the elevator back down to the ground floor and board the shuttle.

We have never had any problems with this location or the staff.

To be precise the staff especially Mr Randall has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make our parking experience top notch!

 

Thanks for posting this. We will be using this parking garage for the first time next month and was getting nervous reading the other posts. We were instructed to drop off our luggage at the terminal and then go to the parking garage where there would be a shuttle to bring the driver back. We are used to tipping drivers wherever we park so nothing new there. I hope our experience works out as well as yours did.

 

I do have one question though. It says not to arrive at the garage before noon. We would like to arrive at the terminal around 11am. Do you know if we can leave our car at the garage before noon?

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Thanks for posting this. We will be using this parking garage for the first time next month and was getting nervous reading the other posts. We were instructed to drop off our luggage at the terminal and then go to the parking garage where there would be a shuttle to bring the driver back. We are used to tipping drivers wherever we park so nothing new there. I hope our experience works out as well as yours did.

 

I do have one question though. It says not to arrive at the garage before noon. We would like to arrive at the terminal around 11am. Do you know if we can leave our car at the garage before noon?

 

If you book on line park on the top floor its 8 dollars aday. I'm doing B2B 1/20 and 1/25. With the extra night down town I need 11 days. So the savings is pretty good. I do love parking at the port and most time I do. To save 20 dollars I would park at the port. But I need 11 days this time

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  • 2 weeks later...

We were turned off of using Fulton Street when we did a B2B in 2010.

 

My sister pre-paid for two weeks. When we arrived at the parking lot we showed two ladies manning the booth the pre-paid receipt and they told us they could only print a ticket for one week and call them when we got back and they would raise the arm for us.

 

WELL here's when the trouble started. We got off the ship, the second week, at 7AM and were ready to get home so we could pick up our cat before the vet closed at noon, a three and a half hour drive from the port. We get in our car, proceed to leave the parking garage and when we placed our ticket to raise the gate it gave us a message saying that we over-stayed by 7 days and needed a credit card to pay for additional 7-days. We called downstairs from our cell phone and no one answered in the booth. My sister walked several flights down only to find an empty booth.

 

By now the cars lining up behind us were getting longer and longer but thankfully no one blew their horn. Its amazing how a cruise can relax a person.

 

After 20 minutes, yes 20 minutes, when we finally to decide and manually lift the arm a guy in a car came screeching up yelling at us that we would not "get away with leaving without paying."

 

My sister explained that the ticket was only good for only one week and then showed her printed copy of the pre-paid two week parking. By now several people out of their car and joined us saying they also had a ticket good for one week of parking when they actually paid for two weeks because they to were on a B2B with us.

 

He went into a small office, looked at something on his computer and lifted the arm for us and, rather rudely, waved us through. By now his face is red enough where I thought he would have a mini stroke. At the same time I am thinking his anger was pointed more at the people in the booth than at us.

 

By now a good 35 minutes had pass and we were ready to leave the Fulton Parking Garage and head home.

 

So forgive me if I just can't recommend Fulton Street Parking, even if it is just for a week.

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  • 2 weeks later...

First of all I would NEVER again park in the RCCL parking lot or the "whale lot" as it is referred to. We parked there for our 7 day cruise Jan. 3 of this year, $112. 00 for uncovered parking. Yes it was close we drove up left our luggage and continued less the 1/2 block. When we returned a porter helped by taking our luggage to the car. After he loaded the luggage and left that's when he discovered the problem. We were parked in a handicap spot as we have handicap plates, we were next to the wall and over the wall is RR tracks. Our car was covered even the windows with some sort of grit. When we got home to it to where we get our vehicles cleans, cost over $300.00 to get it cleaned. It had to be hand buffed over and over even the glass. The detail mgr. said it appeared to be some sort of "overspray" or something very gritty. I contacted RCCL and told sorry it's not out lot!! Now Carnival we found out has a covered facility.

 

We will be there again in April so will look at the Fulton garage.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I don't understand the pricing.:confused: Some people say $10 a day and others say $16. Are we talking about the same place? Does it depend on which cruise ship you are on? (Royal Caribbean here) I'm thinking we might want to avoid the Fulton Garage.

 

Also, any provisions for handicapped?

 

Many thanks. Our first time sailing out of New Orleans.

Kathy

Edited by petesweet
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It is 8.00 a day roof top parking. Look up New Orleans parking .com and click on Fulton Place parking. 10 or 12 a day inside. We always park roof top. It does not matter about the cruise line. There is a one time fee of 5.00 for processing booking. Also as with all parking garages you will be charged taxes in New Orleans. For a 7 day cruise we pay 62.00 parking give or take a couple of pennies.

 

They transport you from garage to terminal included in price and yes they accommodate handicap passengers.

Edited by CajunLadie44
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