flagmom

13 hours ago, mawvkysc said:

 

This is weird. The app just told me we had an 8:00 am reservation for breakfast today. It’s 9:00 and we ate at 7:30. 🤪 It also appears that we can make MDR reservations but we have fixed dining

Our app did the same thing this morning. I think it may be because there was an error in our table assignments—3 of us were given fixed early seating on deck 3 and the other 2 were given open seating on deck 2. (All 5 of us were supposed to be seated together) When we saw this on our room cards when we came aboard, we went to get it straightened out. Their solution was to give us a “fixed early seating” at the same table for 5 every night, but it’s in the mostly open seating area on deck 2. That’s fine with us. We love our server. But I noticed that each night dinner shows up on our app as a “reservation.” At breakfast this morning in the MDR they asked for our cabin number after we were seated, and then later it showed up as a “reservation” at the time that we were seated. 🤷‍♀️ Maybe that helps explain it?

We’ll be on board with you, and hope to meet you at the M & G tomorrow. We are a party of 5 from Mississippi. Excited to share this trip with my 15 year old granddaughter! 

We used the ACT Big Bus last July for our Whittier departure. We chose their option that had some photo stops, as well as a visit to the Wildlife Conservation Center. The bus picked us up at our hotel at 11:15 a.m. It was immaculate, with large (clean) windows for optimal viewing. The driver and the tour guide (who happened to be brothers) were friendly, courteous and a pleasure to travel with. Photo stops were made at Beluga Point and Portage Glacier. We had an hour and 45 minutes at the wildlife conservation center, which gave us time for lunch as well as getting some great photos. We were brought directly to the embarkation dock, and the luggage was removed from the bus for us, so all we had to do was walk through the boarding area and on to the ship. We were on board at 4 p.m. For our family group of 12, this was a great way to travel from Anchorage to Whittier. 

Editing to add: the cost of the Big Bus, with wildlife conservation center visit, was $67 per person; without the wildlife stop it was $45. The HAL bus was $69 per person. The train would have been $98 per person. For the HAL bus, and for the train, we would have had the additional cost/time factor of getting our party from the hotel to the appropriate departure points. ACT picked us up right at our hotel, so no extra cost. 

Hi CC friends,

Since posting this narrative regarding the sights to see as you cruise down the Mississippi River from New Orleans, my husband received some requests for an upriver version. He has recently rewritten the original narrative into a much more detailed one, including photos, which describes the trip upriver from the Gulf to New Orleans on a cruise ship. Perhaps it will be interesting to others. Happy travels!

Tour up the Mississippi.pdf

@tbmrt Here you go! Post if you have questions. 🙂

Tour up the Mississippi.pdf

@tbmrt I didn't notice what time of year you will be sailing, but as it takes several hours for a ship to make its way upriver from the Gulf to New Orleans, a large portion of your journey will likely be before day break, which will limit what you may be able to see. But some of the larger landmarks, like the Pilot Station and pilot boats will be well-lit. My husband wrote the original narrative that Saint Greg referred to in his post. It describes the views from the cruise ship in 2019, and he has an updated version, with photos, that I can send you if you're interested. 

3 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

You probably want to check this out.

My husband is the historian who wrote and submitted this to Cruise Critic in 2019. The original thread describes the voyage from New Orleans to the Gulf, but if you skip to post #11 you will see the commentary for sailing upriver from the Gulf to New Orleans. He has updated his commentary, with photos, and if there is any interest I can share that as well.

 

I was in 6117 on the Noordam for our Alaska cruise this past summer. Loved everything about this suite!! I posted photos on Halfacts.

Forgot to mention something else regarding driving on this island: the roads are narrow and lacking in signage. It was a good thing that we downloaded an offline map in the google maps app so we could get around without using cellular data roaming. Also, they drive a lot of motorcycles, very fast, and often right down the center of the highway even though there are cars in both lanes already! They zoom up from behind you so quickly that you don’t realize they’re there until they are inches from your driver’s door. A little nerve-racking. Just be aware. 

1 hour ago, javasa said:

How was your experience with Coastal? We are travelling to St Maarten in March....

Thanks!

We had no problems. Their office is located right outside the cruise port entrance (in the parking lot area). Excellent communication and a good price. We prepaid the minimum deposit, and then paid the balance when we picked up the car. They put a $500 hold on your credit card to cover possible damages. When we returned the car in the  afternoon, they were not in the office but there was a key drop. We made sure to photograph all sides of the car before we returned to ship, in case any damage happened in the parking lot. Our $500 credit card hold was released by the next day. 

44 minutes ago, mathed101 said:

 

Thanks so much for posting this information!! Do you have any photos of the tour transportation vehicle? Did you pay him in cash? Would you be able to provide any specific information regarding the sights you saw and visited, that is what you actually did at Shirley Heights and Nelson's Dockyard?

I’m sorry I don’t have any photos of the vehicle. It was a large passenger van. Very comfortable. He provided us with cold water or other drinks. We paid him in cash at the end of the tour. He pointed out sights as we drove out of the city into the countryside. At the national park we spent time up on Shirley Heights at two different locations, and Mr. Lawrence provided historical information for us there. There are ruins of fortress buildings there and beautiful lookouts over the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other. Then at the bottom of the hill at Nelson’s Dockyard, which is also part of the park, Mr. Lawrence waited for us while the park guide gave us a tour and then we had a little time to walk around on our own. From here we took a different route back to the port so we saw new sights along the way. Hope this helps. 

On 2/3/2024 at 5:38 PM, rstep said:

Could you tell me how much this tour was and how long was it?

The tour was almost 4 hours because we did not choose to go to the beach. The cost was $50 each plus admission to the national park was $15 each. We paid him in cash. 

I'm happy to say that Mr. Lawrence Leston is still giving excellent tours of Antigua! We recently spent a half-day touring with him on a small-group tour. There was only one other couple with us, who happened to be from the same ship. We took the tour to Shirley Heights and Nelson's Dockyard, with many other lovely sights along the way. We booked this tour in advance via email, and no pre-payment was required. All emails were answered promptly, and he gave us excellent directions to meet up with him. Even though our ship changed its docking berth at the last minute, he adjusted his location and was right there waiting for us. If you want a friendly, knowledgeable guide who is an excellent driver, you will like Lawrence of Antigua. 

We took a half-day private tour with Kurt, and it was one of the highlights of our cruise. He is a very pleasant person, knowledgeable about the island, and an excellent driver. Since we had previously visited the Pitons and volcano area on another trip, this time we chose to stay on the north side of the island. We were treated to beautiful vistas in the hills above Castries, a beach stop at Rodney Bay, time at Pigeon Island National Park, the Vigie beach and lighthouse, and the "Moonrise" scenic spot, to name a few highlights. It was a most enjoyable day. 

We used Waitukubuli Adventure Tours for our recent port call to Roseau, Dominica. We booked online in advance; the company has great communications via website as well as email. We were picked up at our ship, even though we were docked at the container port and not the main cruise port. Since it was a semi-private tour, there was another couple in the van with us. Our driver guide was Lennard, and he did an excellent job in showing us this beautiful island. We saw the highlights of Roseau, and then headed through the lovely countryside to visit Trafalgar Falls. We also made stops at the hot sulphur springs in Wotten Waven, the Dominica Botanical Gardens, and the park atop Morne Bruce. I highly recommend this tour company.

We will be using Coastal Car Rental in January. It was less expensive than Hertz, and right by the cruise port.

Great information and beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing!

2 hours ago, wolfde53 said:

Hello Flagmom,

I came across your wonderful narratives and wanted to combine all 3 into one upriver narrative since that is what I will be doing January 2024. This was only to be for my personal use but because of the incredible wealth of information, I thought it would be worth sharing.

I would love for you to look it over, edit where necessary, and permission

to share. It is 7 pages so I’d like to email it to you. My email is wolfde53 at tampabay dot rr dot com. (I read in CC that this is the best way to share your email to keep it off AI searches.)

Deborah Wolf

Email sent with my contact information.

Thank you for the information. We booked a rental car and plan to do the drive clockwise--Maho Beach, late lunch in Marigot, then relax time at Orient Beach. We may not see the really huge airplanes in the morning, but we've been there before, and it will still be fun. 

Also, regarding Iguana Park: we stopped at a little roadside area where you could feed iguanas when we did the circle tour of the island with Amigo Tours in 2017. If this is the same one you are referencing, it was on the road between the Rotary Point Lookout on Rue de Coralita Rd. and Orient Beach. I don't know if it's still there since the hurricane. 

We will visit Dominica aboard the Eurodam in January. We chose a small group tour with Waitukubulitours. 

Following your thread, as we are going in January. There will be 5 ships in port, so we were also thinking of going to Maho first and Orient Beach last. Is the rental car place near the port?

We're supposed to sail out of Fort Lauderdale on the Volendam on March 22. Thank you for keeping us posted on the progress of your cruise--please especially let us know about port closings. Have a great time!

Thank you for your generous offer to share your walking tour of Old San Juan. I too would like to receive the info.

Please send to anlimc01@gmail.com

Many thanks!!

On 1/1/2020 at 12:10 AM, ithaca gal said:

You don't have to choose between a partial cruise and a full transit!  There is an excursion whereby you get off of your ship and onto a 300 passenger boat and transit the remaining locks -- all the way to the Pacific Ocean!  Then they bring you back to your ship by bus!  

 

It's a much more intimate experience than doing the entire transit in a ship!

 

It's a long, hot day but we wouldn't have missed it for the world.  Bring a hat and sunscreen and a handfan or battery operated one but just don't miss this opportunity!!!

 

I second this advice! We did this cruise on the Zuiderdam in March and it was wonderful. This shore excursion is great because you see the canal from two vantage points: the deck of the cruise ship and up close and personal from your tour boat. You can even reach out and touch the walls of the canal as you lock down on the Pacific end.

A few people on our ship's roll call wondered about what to see as the ship left New Orleans. So thought we'd share this information to the New Orleans departure board for those of you on other cruise lines.

“Enjoying the Mississippi River from a cruise ship out of New Orleans”

By Rod and Leslie Lincoln

[information accurate as of January 4, 2019]

Being native Louisianians, we really enjoy cruising from New Orleans. The Mississippi River portion of the cruise has quite a few notable sites to see all the way down to the mouth of the river. The true mouth of the Mississippi can only be reached via boat, because the highway stops at the town of Venice, Louisiana; so consider yourself fortunate to get to see it on your cruise. From Venice it’s still about 30 more miles of river to be traveled before you reach the Gulf.

Like an interstate highway, the river has mile markers along the riverbank that measure the distance from Head of Passes (where the main river splits into three major passes). Going north, the miles are measured as AHP (above Head of Passes).  The cruise terminal is at approximately mile 96 AHP. The river south of Head of Passes is marked as BHP (below Head of Passes) and the actual point where it dumps into the Gulf is approximately mile 20 BHP.

My husband was born and raised on a citrus plantation on the lower Mississippi River, about 50 miles south of New Orleans. He frequently leads media tours of this area, and here are some of the things he recommends that you look for from your cruise ship vantage point. (even after dark)

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is the really large building across from the cruise terminal. It was the original location of the 1984 World’s Fair.

Riverwalk: This mall was also originally built for the 1984 World’s Fair. At the foot of Canal Street is the ferry which takes cars/passengers across the river to Algiers Point. Canal Street marks the beginning of the area known as “the French Quarter.”

As the ship continues downriver, you can see the following points of interest on the east bank (port side):

Aquarium of The Americas and Woldenberg riverfront park. The aquarium, which was built in 1990, is part of the Audubon Nature Institute, along with the Audubon Zoo and the Audubon Insectarium—all great places to visit.

Jax Brewery is a shopping mall inside the former beer brewery.

St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square. This is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the U.S., and a very familiar landmark of New Orleans. The first church on the site was built in 1718. The park in front of the cathedral is Jackson Square and has a large statue of Andrew Jackson on his horse.

The Moon Walk - the area of the riverfront in front of Jackson Square was named for Mayor Maurice “Moon” Landrieu; the large promenade here was built in the 1970s. It’s a popular place for street performers and musicians. It’s reached from Jackson Square via the Washington Artillery Park, an elevated plaza with cannons which honors the 141^st Field Artillery of the La. National Guard, established in 1838.

The French Market includes the long buildings and covered open-air stalls that stretch for several blocks. You can find pralines, souvenirs and fresh produce here. The end of the building closest to Jackson Square contains the world-famous Café du Monde with its delicious beignets. There’s also a Café du Monde in the previously mentioned Riverwalk, in case you want to try some when you disembark.

At the end of the French Market stalls, there is a 3-story red brick building which originally housed the New Orleans mint. Gold and silver coins were produced here from 1838 to 1909, except during the Civil War. It has been designated as a National Historic Landmark, and is a branch of the Louisiana State Museum. It also houses the New Orleans Jazz Museum. It may be a little hard to see because the Governor Nicholls wharf is between it and the river.  

You will pass many warehouses on the river before reaching the Industrial Canal, which is a man-made canal that runs between the river and Lake Pontchartrain. It’s where many of the levees were breached during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, flooding the entire area.

Just downriver of the Industrial Canal, you will see an area with several brick buildings with white columns, and a large grassy parade ground. This is Jackson Barracks, home of the Louisiana National Guard. The base was established in 1834, and in 1866 it was named for Andrew Jackson. Past this point you leave Orleans Parish and enter St. Bernard Parish. Parish is the Louisiana term for county.

Domino sugar refinery opened here in 1909. According to Wikipedia it is the second largest sugar refinery in the world, producing 7.5 million pounds of sugar per day! If you look closely to the left of the large blonde brick smokestacks, you can see Cavaroc House. It’s a Greek Revival plantation home built in 1839. This beautiful home, listed on the National Historic Register, is used by Domino Sugar for executive offices.

About mile marker 90 AHP: Chalmette Battlefield and Jean Lafitte National Park is the large park just downriver from the sugar refinery. This is the location of the Battle of New Orleans which took place on January 8, 1815 during the War of 1812. The Chalmette Monument is the tall white obelisk. The park grounds also include the Chalmette National Cemetery. Closer to the river you can see the Malus-Beauregard House, which was constructed about 18 years after the battle. It was purchased in 1949 by the park service and completely restored.   

The very large plant with a tall red stack originally belonged to Kaiser Aluminum, which was a huge player in the local economy, with more than 2,700 workers, until it closed in 1983. Then the site was purchased by the St. Bernard Parish Port, Harbor and Terminal District which uses it to store grain and other materials.

Right next to it is the PBF Chalmette Refinery. On the riverbank here is the Chalmette ferry landing. The ferry takes passengers/cars across the Mississippi River to Algiers, the part of Orleans Parish that is located on the west bank.

A mile or so past the refinery and ferry landing, the river begins to make a huge bend to the south, then back to the west again, and then south. Hundreds of years ago, when sailing ships reached this bend, they had to wait days, and sometimes weeks, for the winds to change enough to enable them to negotiate this extreme turn. This bend is known as English turn; named so because (according to the explorer Iberville), it was in this bend in 1699 that his brother Bienville, coming downstream, met the British who had come up the river to choose a site for a settlement. Bienville convinced the English captain that the territory was in possession of the French and demanded that they turn around and leave. Because they would not be able to pass the turn until the winds changed, the English were afraid of being stranded and attacked by the French, so they turned around and left.

When the ship has made it completely around the turn, you will be at mile marker 76 AHP. You’ve traveled 20 miles by river, but only 5 miles as the crow flies. Looking back towards the northwest, you’ll be surprised to see how close the city of New Orleans still is. You are now entering Plaquemines Parish. The first town you spot on the west bank (starboard side) is Belle Chasse, named after the commander of the French and Spanish troops at the Louisiana Purchase. He lived here, and the commander of the American troops at the Louisiana Purchase, Gen. James Wilkinson, lived 5 miles south of here on the river.

Just south of Belle Chasse, at mile marker 74.5, is Alvin Callendar Joint Services Naval Air Station, on the west bank (starboard side.) In 1928 Charles Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis here. During WWII, dirigibles were stationed here to search the Mississippi River and Gulf coast for German submarines that were sinking ships at the mouth of the river. In addition to the Navy, the base also houses Air Force, Air National Guard, Coast Guard, Customs, DEA, ICE and many more agencies, and it’s frequently seen on NCIS New Orleans.

You will pass several industrial operations, plants, refineries, grain elevators, coal storage facilities, etc. on both sides of the river from this point on. One of the more notable ones, at mile marker 73 AHP just south of Alvin Callendar Field, is the Chevron Oak Point refinery. It was built here in 1941 to make diesel fuel additives for submarines, because of concern that the Japanese would invade California which at that time was the only place where these additives were made. Today it’s one of the largest and most advanced producers of blended fuels and lubricants in the world.

The large grain elevators at mile 61.5 are located on the former lands of St. Rosalie Plantation (notable in that it was owned by an African-American with nearly 100 slaves before the Civil War.) The grain elevator stores 6 million bushels of beans, corn and wheat in 176 silos.

At mile marker 48.5 is the Plaquemines Parish seat of government, Pointe-a-la-Hache. It was established in the 1730s. The lighted structures are the new courthouse, and the façade of the 100-year-old building that was replaced after it burned in 2001. Four miles south of this point, the highway ends so it’s the farthest you can drive on the east bank.

Port Sulphur, at mile marker 39, was the center of Louisiana sulfur production. Millions of tons of sulfur were mined and shipped from this point, making it the fourth largest port on the Gulf of Mexico in its heyday. The Freeport Sulphur Company closed in the 1990s, but the docks on the river are still frequently used and you will see them lit up at night.

At mile marker 20.5 AHP, on the west bank, is Fort Jackson—scene of the Second Battle of New Orleans in 1862 during the Civil War. It has been nominated for National Park status, but not yet funded. Though it isn’t lit up for you to see, Fort St. Philip is directly across the river from Fort Jackson on the east bank. It was crucial in the protection of the river in both the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

It will take 7-8 hours for the ship to make its way down the river from New Orleans to the Gulf. During this time it is under the control of a highly trained pilot belonging to the Crescent River Pilots Association. By law, these river pilots direct the navigation of all ships up and down the 106 miles of river between New Orleans and what is known as Pilottown. A few miles after passing Fort Jackson, a pilot boat will bring a licensed bar pilot to the ship. It will have been been launched from the pilot station at mile marker 11, near the town of Venice (the end of the road on the west bank). The bar pilots specialize in navigating ships through the narrow, constantly changing passes and over the bar into the Gulf. The bar pilot will take command from the river pilot who will be dropped off at the pilot station at Pilottown at mile marker 2 AHP. You’ll recognize the small pilot boat by the lights on top—a white light that sits above a red light. The ship will slow down and you can watch as the bar pilot climbs up to the cruise ship from the smaller boat. The same thing will happen around mile marker 4 AHP as a pilot boat from Pilottown approaches the ship to pick up the exiting river pilot. He will spend the night at Pilottown before getting on another ship headed upriver.  The bar pilot will continue to navigate as the ship reaches Head of Passes and enters the Southwest Pass, the last segment of the river before reaching the Gulf.

Once you enter Southwest Pass, you will notice wooden structures jutting from the banks on both sides of the river. These jetties narrow the channel and keep it deep enough for deep draft vessels to pass. You will continue to see them for many miles as they extend beyond the land out into the Gulf.

Around mile marker 18 BHP, on the east bank, you’ll notice a brightly-lit multi-story structure. It is the Southwest Pass Bar Pilots station. From this point a third pilot vessel will be launched to pick up the bar pilot once the ship reaches the Gulf several miles away.

At this point you will begin seeing dozens of off-shore oil rigs of varying sizes. The sizes and shapes will change, the farther out they are located.

Happy cruising on the mighty Mississippi!