Dec. 2-14: New Orleans Vacation and Serenade Cruise Review

After reading so many wonderful reviews here on CC and knowing how helpful they’ve been to me, I wanted to contribute something following our trip to New Orleans and our cruise on Serenade in early December. Even though I was too busy having fun to take notes, I will pull as much from my memory as I can while it’s all still fresh in my mind.

A little about us: My wife and I are in our early 30s and we live in the bitter cold of Pittsburgh. We don’t have a great deal of cruise experience, this being only my second and wife’s third, though all were with RCI. For this trip we were also traveling with my wife’s parents (let’s call them MIL and FIL), who were amazingly kind enough to foot the bill for the trip.

This will not be a photo-heavy review, largely because I am visually impaired. I did take one photo on this trip, which I will share with you later. Most of our photos are of our towel animals, but more on that in a bit. I’ll do my best to sprinkle in some photos my wife took, to hopefully satiate the appetites of the picture-hungry among you.

Alright, onward! First up: Leaving Pittsburgh and our first night in New Orleans.

Day 1: So Long Pittsburgh, Hello Big Easy

Our trip got off to an auspicious start when, halfway through our drive to the airport, ice began falling from the sky. It was a brisk 29 degrees out with a delightful wintry mix on deck for pretty much the entire day.

We made it to the airport and managed to avoid the worst of the approaching storm. After making it through security in record time, we decided to kick off our trip the right way by visiting Michael Symon’s Bar Symon restaurant. If you’ve never been to the Cleveland area (or the Pittsburgh airport), Michael Symon’s food is delicious. Fries topped with bacon and a cheddar gravy? Yes, please.

Looking back on it, I am still amazed we managed to leave Pittsburgh that morning. With only a short delay while our plane was de-iced, we were off.

Due to the de-icing, we were about 20 minutes late getting in to Charlotte. We only had about an hour between flights, so we booked it to our connection, which was about as far on the opposite side of the airport as it could possibly be. We met MIL and FIL at the gate and had an uneventful flight to New Orleans.

After collecting our bags, we headed to the airport shuttle service window and arranged our transit to the hotel. We were also able to arrange for our transport back to the airport from the cruise terminal at the same time, which was nice, as you get a discount if you book the shuttle roundtrip.

We stayed at the Hotel Provincial on Chartres Street toward the end of the French Quarter, a couple blocks from the French Market. The hotel was fantastic and I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants a French Quarter experience. Plantation shutters, wrought iron verandas, just a ton of charm. One small caveat: Our room faced the street and it got pretty noisy as the week went on and the partiers came out in force. I did enjoy hearing the horses go clopping by every half hour or so though.

After getting settled in our rooms we decided to find dinner, since we hadn’t eaten since Bar Symon earlier that morning. We decided to walk over to the New Orleans institution, the Acme Oyster House.

I should probably note here that our New Orleans trip, while incredibly fun, was very touristy. I was the only one of the four of us who’d been there before, so we spent a lot of time in the Quarter doing touristy things. So if you’re looking for hidden gems or where the locals hang out, this isn’t the review for you.

That being said, the Acme Oyster House is justifiably famous. My wife and I love Cajun food—so much so that we make gumbo on Thanksgiving and we regularly make things like barbeque shrimp and crawfish etouffe. The food at Acme blew us away, especially the char-grilled oysters in garlic butter sauce. It is not an exaggeration when I say that it was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted.

After dinner, we took our first walk down Bourbon Street. There was a fantastic brass band playing right outside Acme and we stopped to listen for a while. There is no shortage of excellent street performers in New Orleans, but my favorite was that brass band that set up shop at Iberville and Bourbon.

Our leisurely stroll took us to another of my favorite New Orleans haunts, Pat O’Briens. As it was a Tuesday night, the place wasn’t packed, so we nabbed a table for four in the piano bar and ordered our first round of hurricanes. These puppies may taste fruity and delicious, but they definitely pack a punch. MIL and FIL aren’t big drinkers, but one hurricane got them more giggly and in the mood for drunken singing than I’d ever seen from them. My wife and I had a second round and all was well with the world.

We hung out and enjoyed the music for about 2 hours. We had a great time singing along, especially when one of the piano players took our request and played a song by Rush, our favorite band. I think everyone in the bar got a kick out of watching my wife and me singing (or slurring) along happily.

MIL and FIL were ready to turn in for the night, so we walked with them back to the hotel. My wife and I, on the other hand, didn’t want the evening to end just yet. We set out in search of a small snack. We ended up back on Bourbon and we stopped at one of the ubiquitous Willie’s Chicken Shacks.

Here’s the thing about New Orleans: even the hole-in-the-wall fried chicken joints are delicious. We enjoyed everything, except for the unfortunate sweet biscuit. I don’t know about you, but when I see a biscuit next to my fried chicken and fries, I think I’m in for a savory, buttery treat. Unfortunately, this was apparently some sort of dessert biscuit, which did not go particularly well with the rest of the meal.

Hunger satiated, we decided to grab one more drink before heading back to the hotel. We picked up a hand grenade, which is very melon-y, and very strong.

This being New Orleans, we walked our drinks back to the hotel. While my wife found the bed to her liking and quickly fell asleep, I opened the plantation shutters and enjoyed finishing my drink (and hers) while reveling in the beautiful warm night air and the feeling that, happily, this is only the beginning of an amazing trip.

I was originally going to post this review only after writing the entire thing, but I've been having too much fun writing it and wanted to start posting it. I'll be posting things as I write them from here on out. Until then, if you have any questions about New Orleans or the Serenade I'm happy to try to answer. To head off one question: no, I didn't remember to bring back the compasses, my apologies. I do have a pretty decent memory though, which I will be putting to the test as I write this.

Up next, Day 2: Walking, walking, so much freaking walking.

This April, we'll be in New Orleans and will be sailing on Serenade (both first experiences for us, although we have been on most of the other ships in the RCI fleet), so we are looking forward to future installments of your thread. Thanks in advance.

Bill & Rita

Paul, if I've guestimated correctly, your voyage was 6-13 December 2014, so you would have sailed Western Caribbean. We're on 7-14 March Bahamas, so, unfortunately, different itinerary.

But our RC has been starved for information on Serenade since she returned to the Big Easy on 22 November and any comments, observations, or advice you can provide on the ship...and, of course, as you've already commenced, your time in New Orleans...will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much and looking forward to your "Rolling Review!" :D

VR,

T Lex

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Leaving in two weeks on Serenade!! :)

Looking forward to the rest of the review. We sail on the Serenade at the end of February. This is our first cruise, so we'd really be interested in hearing about life on-board the ship, if you can enlighten us :)

Enjoying your review - keep it coming.

Can't wait for more.

:)

Looking forward to more of your review. It brings back fond memories. We did this a couple years ago on the Voyager. Hope you had a chance to try Mothers in NO.

We can relate to what an adventure it it can be getting out of Pittsburgh in the winter.

Go Pens.

This April, we'll be in New Orleans and will be sailing on Serenade (both first experiences for us, although we have been on most of the other ships in the RCI fleet), so we are looking forward to future installments of your thread. Thanks in advance.

Bill & Rita

It was the first visit to New Orleans for my wife and her parents as well and they all loved it. Especially if you enjoy food, it will be a hit and, quite frankly, will end up putting most of what you eat on the cruise to shame.

Day 2: About 10 Miles of Walking

You know that song that goes “I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more?” Well that’s approximately how much we walked on our second day in New Orleans, or at least, that’s how it felt.

One tip I would mention for anyone staying in the Quarter is to bring the most comfortable shoes you can find. You can walk from one end of the Quarter to the other in 15-20 minutes, but doing that several times a day to go to different restaurants, bars, walking tours and the like can really add up.

We started the morning off with one of my favorite breakfasts and an absolute must-do in New Orleans, Café du Monde. Sugary, doughy beignets and delicious café’ au lait is an amazing way to start the morning (or end the day, as we’ll do later in the trip).

From there we walked a couple blocks over to the French Market and did a little window shopping in the souvenir stores, scoping out what we might want to bring back to Pittsburgh. There was no shortage of fun stuff, including a lot of pre-made mixes and seasonings for beignets, classic Cajun dishes, and my favorite, the Pat O’Briens hurricane mix.

We also spotted some cool-looking wall hangings showing retro New Orleans advertisements. We picked out a few that we plan on hanging in our kitchen and dining room when we get home.

The retro New Orleans ad wall hangings.

Well, adding those images did not go as planned, apologies. Moving on...

After making a mental list of things we wanted to buy later in the week, we set off to ride the St. Charles Streetcar. As this was on the complete opposite side of the Quarter from the French Market, we were in for our first long walk of the day.

When we got on the streetcar we were able to purchase a day pass for $3 per person. We rode the streetcar through the Central Business District and passed the World War II Museum. We got off at Washington Avenue, right in the heart of the Garden District.

With no tour planned, we decided to just explore on our own. About two blocks down along Washington Avenue (to the left when exiting the streetcar) is Lafayette Cemetery #1, one of New Orleans’ most visited above-ground cemeteries. One note of caution: many guide books advise against visiting the cemeteries on your own, as they offer an ideal place for muggers to hide. There are plenty of tour opportunities, if the cemeteries are of interest to you.

After taking a quick look in the cemetery, we walked up a couple side streets admiring some of the large homes that make the Garden District so beautiful.

We looped back to Washington Avenue and hopped back on the streetcar. We took it to the end of the line, passing through more of the Garden District and Tulane University.

One thing you’ll notice when you visit New Orleans is how friendly everyone is. On the return trip, a kind local gave us our own personal narrated tour. He pointed out interesting locations along the way as we headed back toward the Quarter.

It was approaching 2:00 pm and the beignets from earlier in the day were just a delicious memory, so we decided to find some lunch. We headed back toward our hotel and decided to stop at the Gumbo Shop.

We all had classic New Orleans dishes like gumbo, jambalaya and barbeque shrimp. I decided to try shrimp creole, which I had never had. While everything was very enjoyable, when we compared it to everything else we ate in New Orleans, this ended up being our least favorite meal.

After lunch, we decided to head back to the hotel for a couple hours before our walking tour, which was scheduled for 6:00 pm. Getting off our feet for a while was essential, as we had a lot more walking in store.

A blind guy playing with images is kind of funny, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now.

More of Day 2 to come soon. Thanks for reading!

After making a mental list of things we wanted to buy later in the week, we set off to ride the St. Charles Streetcar. As this was on the complete opposite side of the Quarter from the French Market, we were in for our first long walk of the day.

 

When we got on the streetcar we were able to purchase a day pass for $3 per person. We rode the streetcar through the Central Business District and passed the World War II Museum. We got off at Washington Avenue, right in the heart of the Garden District.

Sounds like what we will be doing. We will be staying at the Four Points Sheraton on Bourbon Street. Jackson Square and Cafe DuMonde only about 2-3 blocks away. Already have our Jazzy Passes for the streetcar to the Garden District.

About the cemetery - Were there other people around in the cemetery, or did you really feel unsafe walking in it?

Sounds like what we will be doing. We will be staying at the Four Points Sheraton on Bourbon Street. Jackson Square and Cafe DuMonde only about 2-3 blocks away. Already have our Jazzy Passes for the streetcar to the Garden District.

 

About the cemetery - Were there other people around in the cemetery, or did you really feel unsafe walking in it?

There were a few people at the entrance meeting for a tour, otherwise it was pretty empty. We stayed on the main path and didn't really venture far from the entrance, just being cautious.

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Paul, if I've guestimated correctly, your voyage was 6-13 December 2014, so you would have sailed Western Caribbean. We're on 7-14 March Bahamas, so, unfortunately, different itinerary.

 

But our RC has been starved for information on Serenade since she returned to the Big Easy on 22 November and any comments, observations, or advice you can provide on the ship...and, of course, as you've already commenced, your time in New Orleans...will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you very much and looking forward to your "Rolling Review!" :D

 

VR,

 

T Lex

Yes, you are correct. It was the Western Caribbean that departed on December 6. I promise to get to the cruise part soon, just a couple more days of Nola info for me to write up.

Cheers!

Looking forward to the rest of the review. We sail on the Serenade at the end of February. This is our first cruise, so we'd really be interested in hearing about life on-board the ship, if you can enlighten us :)

Absolutely! Cruise details coming soon. I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time on your first cruise!

Cheers!