New Orleans

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.