Ritz or Omni New Orleans
 

If you had to choose which one to stay at which of these would it be?
Poogie

I still find Canal St to be miserable; especially where the Ritz is. Although...once you're inside, it's a different world.

My opinion: Do you mean the Omni Royal Orleans on St. Louis Street?

If so, we stayed there about 2 years ago and thought it was great. We were there the week of Thanksgiving, and w/ the big football game that weekend (sorry, I don't remember what it's called), it was pretty full. Our initial room was fine, but directly across the street from where major construction was going on--I would assume that's finished by now.

I asked for a different room, and was told that the hotel was full so no other rooms were available. So, OK. Still, about 2 hours after we checked in we were called by their customer service person, and she moved us to a MUCH nicer room, at no additional charge.

The location couldn't have been better; I don't think we would have wandered into Brennan's on Thanksgiving morning-WITHOUT A RESERVATION--and given first-class treatment if we hadn't been 1/2 block away and just happened to walk by.

The RC is barely one block from Bourbon Street, on Canal. While Canal Street is very busy, I'm not sure why Canal at Bourbon is more "miserable" than any other street in the immediate area.
As for the RC itself, it is the state's only AAA 5 Diamond hotel, for whatever that's worth. I last stayed there a year ago. The rooms aren't large, but they're standard RC quality. Not nearly as nice as, say, the RC Kapalua-Maui or RC Laguna Niguel, but for New Orleans it's a very nice hotel. It's not one of my favorite RC's all told. NO is short on luxury hotels. In cities with lots of convention business, hotels need not outdo one another in luxury in order to keep occupancy rates up.
The Omni is also a very nice hotel, but in terms of overall amenities and quality, it's not quite as nice as the RC. In years past it wasn't even rated among the top 5 hotels in the city, but it's been refurb'ed since I was last there.

We loved the Ritz and always used the side door instead of Canal St. Really good entertainment in plush surroundings in the evening (Fri. for sure), nice cafe for lunch, spa, etc. Omni nice also, but I'd go with the Ritz.