Laura

I am looking for comments from anyone who has taken the dinner cruise on either the steamboat or the paddlewheel boat in New Orleans.

chris

I did the riverboat dinner cruise several years ago, dinner is mediocre and once it's dark there really isn't much to see. Last year my husband and I did a riverboat cruise that lasted a couple of hours, that was more enjoyable. I certainly don't recommend wasting money on the dinner, especially not in New Orleans.

Patrick

Must agree with chris. The food is nothing special. The music is traditional Dixiland Jazz...perfect for the older crowd...

I don't even recommend the day riverboat cruises. Too long. Take the free ferry instead.

Nancy Andrews

We are going Sept. 5-9, and I am interested in hearing more about the free ferry. We are also wondering about plantations, should we rent a car or take a bus tour?

S

There was a recent line on this topic here. Do a search on the topic you posted and see what helpful hints were already mentioned.

J Correa

The ferry goes from Canal Street to Algiers and back. There are 2 boats and they go back and forth all day long until about midnight. Walk on passengers are free.

Karen

Hi Laura:

I was in New Orleans for the 4th of July. My mother really wanted to do the Paddlewheel Queen dinner cruise. The post above is right. It was a very small Dixie Land band (I thought we would get a really raucous jazz band) and the food was okay. My family was in agreement that we should have done dinner at a really nice place but hey, we cruised the Mississippi instead.

Do a search on this site on tours. I used Hidden tours for the Cementary and someone else for a 4hr 2 stop plantation tour. The tour guide on the plantation tour gave us bags of Zapps chips and I can still smell the dill oozing out of the bag. Samples of flavors included crayfish, jalepeno, cinnamon and dill. Believe me, I'll be ordering some for x-mas.

Have fun.

Jo

The ferry goes to Historic Algiers Point, a beautiful residential village. Get off the ferry and have a walk around. You will be delighted at this secret jewel in the city.

Lisa

Nancy, I don't know about other travelers but I took the bus tour to Oak Alley Plantation. I spent more time sitting on the bus than I did inside the mansion. Maybe rent the car for the day so you can see the great river road up close and personal.

J Correa

We took a van tour with Spinato Tours. I have heard Tours by Isabelle is similar. The van carried about 10 passengers and picked us up at the hotel. It was a 1/2 day tour and we went to Oak Alley and Laura Plantation. The ride out there and back was a little long, but our guide was very entertaining and had a lot of good information about the area and the history. At the plantations we went on tours given by docents at each plantation. I would have liked to spend more time wandering around each plantation or exploring the surrounding area, but you can only do so much in an afternoon. Overall we enjoyed our tour.

I think that on our next trip to New Orleans we will rent a car and explore the area a bit more, possibly make a 2 day trip out of the city. For our 1st trip to New Orleans, I definitely think the tour was the best option for us because we didn't have to worry about renting a car or driving and we were able to get a taste of the surrounding area.