New Orleans

MSY is about 15 miles (24 km) west of downtown — typically 25–35 minutes outside rush hour, longer on a cruise-morning Saturday. The City of New Orleans sets a flat $36 taxi fare from MSY to the Central Business District / cruise terminals for one to two passengers (each additional passenger is $15 more, up to a five-passenger maximum). Uber and Lyft run roughly $30–$45 depending on surge, with no flat regulated rate. The Airport Shuttle runs around $24 per person each way and drops at major downtown hotels.

Yes, and out of every US embarkation port this is the easiest yes to give. New Orleans is a destination in its own right — beignets at Cafe du Monde, brass bands on Royal Street, jazz on Frenchmen Street, Creole at Galatoire's or Antoine's. Two nights pre-cruise is the regular's move; one night minimum if you're tight. Stay in the French Quarter or the adjacent Central Business / Warehouse District and you can walk to the terminal with your bags or take a $10 cab ride.

Port-operated parking at the Erato Street and Julia Street terminals runs $20–$25 per day depending on lot and length of stay, payable on entry. Both garages are covered, adjacent to the terminals, and work as park-and-walk-in. Off-site lots elsewhere downtown sometimes undercut this but rarely by enough to justify the shuttle hassle for a 7-night cruise.

On closed-loop sailings (round-trip from New Orleans back to a US port) US citizens can technically board with a certified birth certificate plus government photo ID under WHTI rules. In practice, bring the passport. New Orleans cruises typically call in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, or the Bahamas; if you miss the ship in Cozumel, the birth certificate won't get you on a flight back to MSY. Non-US citizens always need a passport plus any required US visa or ESTA.

Bourbon Street is the postcard — neon, hand grenades, bachelorette parties, hurricanes in plastic cups. Go once, walk the length, then leave. Frenchmen Street, six blocks downriver in the Marigny, is where actual New Orleanians go for live jazz: The Spotted Cat, d.b.a., Snug Harbor. If you only have one pre-cruise evening and care about music, pick Frenchmen. If you want the spectacle to tell people about, walk Bourbon for an hour and then walk to Frenchmen.

Most New Orleans sailings open check-in around 11:00 a.m. with staggered arrival windows you select in your cruise line account. All-aboard is typically 60–90 minutes before the published departure (often 4:00 p.m. sail = 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. all-aboard). Carnival and Norwegian both enforce arrival windows here. Ships sail on schedule; the Mississippi River pilot's slot does not wait for stragglers.