Cruise Port Guide · 436 cruises visit New Orleans →
The bucket-list things to do — and who runs each one.
Here’s the bucket list for your day ashore: the most extraordinary thing to do at each stop, who runs it, and how to book it direct — so you can weigh it against your ship’s excursion and pick what suits you.
The ship berths at one of two adjacent riverfront terminals — Erato Street for Carnival’s 41 sailings or Julia Street for Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and most Viking River calls. Both offer a climate-controlled, ADA-compliant gangway straight onto the pier. This is not a tender port.
Gangway to all-aboard is typically 15:30–16:00 on a standard 15:00–16:00 departure. The terminals sit roughly 0.7–1 mile from the edge of the French Quarter. Most experienced cruisers walk it in 15–20 minutes through the air-conditioned Riverwalk mall or along the riverfront. A $1.25 Riverfront streetcar ride is available if legs or heat argue otherwise; taxis and rideshares queue immediately outside and run about $6–8 to Bourbon Street.
The first-timer trap here is over-committing to an early-morning swamp or plantation tour that requires a 7:00 a.m. bus departure. New Orleans heat and humidity hit hard by 10 a.m., and missing the last streetcar back because you lingered over a second mimosa is an expensive mistake. Check your ship’s exact all-aboard time the night before; it can move by 30 minutes with river traffic.
Board the last authentic steam-powered sternwheeler on the Mississippi for a living-history cruise. Jazz musicians serenade you as New Orleans' iconic skyline drifts past — a bucket-list moment unique to this city.
Explore the French Quarter's hidden courtyards, Creole architecture, and storied cocktail dens with an award-winning expert guide and a maximum of nine guests. This is NOLA at its most intimate and insightful.
Step inside America's most storied above-ground necropolis with an authorised guide from Save Our Cemeteries. Stroll the labyrinthine 'cities of the dead', learn Creole burial traditions, and stand before the tomb of Marie Laveau.
Glide deep into the primeval Honey Island Swamp aboard a flat-bottomed boat with a naturalist Cajun guide. Encounter wild alligators, ancient cypress forests draped in Spanish moss, and exotic Louisiana birdlife just an hour from the city.
Ride privately through the stately Garden District mansions, then journey upriver to walk beneath the legendary 300-year-old oak canopy at Oak Alley Plantation. Lavish architecture, dark history, and Southern grandeur in one unforgettable day.
Go inside the working warehouse where Mardi Gras magic is created year-round. Walk among colossal parade floats in progress, meet master artisans, and understand the Crescent City's most extraordinary cultural obsession from the inside out.
A couple booking direct could build a full day for well under what the ship charges. French Quarter: History Tour at $49 per ticket plus New Orleans: St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Guided Walking Tour at $30 each totals $158. Adding Swamp Boat Ride and Oak Alley Plantation Tour from New Orleans at $111 per person pushes the same-day combo to $380. The ship’s version of the swamp-and-plantation day is almost always more expensive and includes guaranteed return transport.
Shorter options stay cheap: French Quarter Live Jazz Brunch + Mimosa at $51 per ticket or the cemetery tour alone at $30 deliver high-value culture without a long transfer. The tight calls are the half-day wildlife or history excursions where the ship’s price premium buys peace of mind on a tight schedule. When the ship offers a long-transfer plantation tour with a hard 3:30 p.m. all-aboard guarantee, many experienced cruisers decide the markup is worth it. Otherwise the direct prices — especially the $49 history tour from New Orleans Secrets Tours or the $30 cemetery walk — win on value.
Assume an 8:00 a.m. gangway and 15:30 all-aboard. Book the 9:00 a.m. French Quarter: History Tour (run by New Orleans Secrets Tours), which finishes around 11:00. Walk or streetcar the few blocks to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 for the noon or 12:30 slot. You are back at the pier by 14:00 with time for a quick beignet if the line is short. Skip anything that requires transportation outside the Quarter; the Swamp Boat Ride and Oak Alley Plantation Tour or the full New Orleans Swamp and Bayou Boat Tour with Transportation will eat the entire half-day and leave no margin.
Disembark at 8:00 and take the 9:00 a.m. New Orleans Swamp and Bayou Boat Tour with Transportation, returning to the pier area around 13:00. Grab lunch nearby, then join the 14:30 or 15:00 French Quarter: History Tour. You are back at the terminal by 16:45—comfortably inside even an early all-aboard. Skip the plantation tour and the jazz brunch; they do not sequence cleanly with a full-day wildlife start.
If I could keep only one choice here it would be the French Quarter: History Tour from New Orleans Secrets Tours. At $49 per ticket with a 4.90 rating from 723 reviews it is the single highest-value use of limited time in a port where the Quarter is literally at the end of the gangway. The swamp tours are fine, the cemetery walk is atmospheric, but the history tour delivers the context that turns a hot, crowded stroll into something that actually sticks with you after the ship sails. Everything else is negotiable; this one is not. (Word count: 682)
You know what to do on the day. Here is the trip it belongs to — each one opens as a whole plan, not a list: where to fly in, every port, what it runs.
Not sure when yet? Tell us the days you can get away and we will only show what fits.
Every one is its own guide — what it costs, whether it is worth it, and who runs it.
⚓ Your bucket-list concierge
Tell us your sailing and we'll send the bucket list for every port — the most extraordinary thing to do at each, and the operator who runs it.
We send the plan to your account’s own address — never to one typed into a box. Free, and Google works.