If you are heading onto a Norwegian or Royal Caribbean ship out of the Port of New Orleans for the first time, this video is for you! Even if you have cruised out of NOLA many times on Carnival, Keep reading because I am going to walk you through all the problems we had and explain EXACTLY what you need to do!
I have sailed out of the Port of New Orleans several times on Carnival and it is super easy. You just pull right into their parking garage, which is over their cruise terminal. Baggage handlers are right there to take your bags for you, and you parking is easy and convenient. This is NOT the case if you are sailing on Norwegian like we did. And since Royal Caribbean passengers use the same parking lot, I’m guessing its equally confusing for them!
Finding the terminal itself is not difficult, the problem comes when you are trying to figure out where to drop of your bags and park. While we had attempted to look up information on this, there is very limited information available. The whole set up is so confusing we missed both the luggage drop off AND the entrance to the Whale Lot, which is the lot for Norwegian and Royal Caribbean guests. As we say in the Ozarks, we had to “lick our calf over again.”
When you first pull up to the terminal area, there will be signs showing that Carnival guests need to stay to the right and Norwegian and Royal guests stay to the left. There will be a lot of workers out helping you get to where you need to go, but we found that most of them are just waving you through and besides knowing that Carnival is to the right and Norwegian is to the left, they had no real information. I know… because on our second time through… we asked everyone.
After you pass the Erado street terminal, which is where Carnival guests go, the terminal will be on your right as you are waved through. In the midst of that, there will be a section with doors with awnings over them… THAT is where you need to stop and drop off your bags. When we went through the first time, there were a couple cars pulled over there, picking up and dropping off, (because remember, while we were trying to park, there were still people leaving the terminal from the last cruise) but I had made the assumption that they were Uber and Lyft drivers dropping off and picking up passengers. And you know what happens when you ASSume! I guess we were there early enough that there wasn’t a lot of people in line to drop off yet. I never saw a single sign stating that is where we were supposed to drop off the luggage, there wasn’t any real place to pull over to do so, and the “helpful” people in orange vests just kept waving cars on. The second time through we stopped and asked the lady waving cars through where to drop off luggage and she let us know we were already there. Everyone should need to drop off luggage, so why they weren’t stopping cars as they came through and asking if they wanted to drop off their bags, I will never know.
We sort of nosed our vehicle in toward the terminal and out of the driving lane where a really nice man helped us with our bags and gave a detailed explanation of how to actually access the parking lot. We missed it the first time because there was just a small sign that indicated the parking was down a road, and that is a very generous term for what was essentially a back alley along some railroad tracks. You had to drive down that lane to get to the entrance to the Whale Lot and the booth where you pay to park.
So that you don’t miss the entrance like we did, I’ll let you in on the secret that apparently no one knows until they have already been through the circus that is parking at the Whale Lot. After you drop off your bags, you will continue down the road until you hit Julia street where you take a left. Don’t worry, there will be someone there making sure you turn left. Unfortunately, if it is the same lady working that was there the day we went through, not only is she not helpful, you might get a death stare and yelled at like we did. Once you turn left you will immediately cross some railroad tracks. There is a wall along the tracks and the road to the parking entrance is to the right, just after the wall, which is why we missed it. It is obvious that the parking lot is ahead to your right, so I was looking beyond the sign at the lot itself. Plus they had people taking luggage and putting it on carts just ahead of us, so I thought that was the luggage drop off. I think that some people go to the parking lot first, then take their luggage to the drop off next to the Whale Lot. So to recap, your steps are: Turn Left on Julia street, cross the tracks, then turn right just passed the wall.
Let me tell you, if this is your first time attempting this, it is all very confusing. Nothing is as it seems and despite the Port Parking website saying that there will be people there guiding you to make sure you find where you are supposed to go, all they did was wave us through. It wasn’t until we got closer to the terminal that anyone had any answers even if we stopped and asked!
Once you get into the Whale Lot, it’s pretty easy. Just get yourself a parking spot, then you can either choose to go straight to the terminal, or you can go up a flight of stairs to the Riverwalk Mall. Since we got there an hour before our check in time, we went to the mall first.
Cruising From The Ozarks 