We are a retired couple in our late fifties with more than a dozen cruises on Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess and Holland America. This was our second NCL cruise, our other one being a Transatlantic on the Epic. Our group consisted of us, a friend and our two adult daughters. We chose this cruise as we had two CruiseNext credits that we could use on any cabin on a double-up offer. It coincided with my wife's 60th birthday which she wanted to celebrate on a cruise. We also cruised out of New Orleans before and wanted to try it again.

We arrived by car two evenings prior and stayed at an Airbnb in Carrollton. On cruise morning, our group of five split with all the luggage going in my car and the overflow passengers in an Uber. I thought Sunday morning would be an easy time to get to the port.

This is no fault of NCL but getting to the ship was a chaotic mess. Many streets were either closed or temporary one ways (always in the wrong direction). I finally made my way around the Hilton, across the trolley tracks and along the pier in an agonizingly slow queue of traffic. Although the ship was clearly in sight, there absolutely no signage regarding luggage drop or parking. I finally got to an intersection and had no choice but to turn right and back across the trolley tracks. On the other side, we finally saw people taking luggage out of their vehicles and some baggage carts. Again, no signage but we dropped the bags and hoped for the best (it was legit, no problem with our bags). We were directed to an outdoor parking lot (I was expecting a garage at the port). The parking lot was labeled Hilton parking at $48/day with no mention of cruise parking. I was able to u-turn out and re-enter the hell of closed and one way streets. I was desperate to park anywhere but could not find my way back to any garage. Finally, I took another penalty lap all the way along the pier again. A very unhelpful police officer told me I couldn't miss the parking. With a sinking feeling of deja vu, I again made the mandatory right turn across the trolley tracks and this time spotted a tiny cruise parking sign just past the tracks before the aforementioned luggage drop point. It was the exact same outdoor parking lot but the back entrance was manned by a guy with a card reader and he charged the expected $140 for the week and gave me an exit ticket. Read more