🇺🇸 New Orleans, United States — Cruise Port Guide
The only cruise port where the reason to arrive early is unarguable. Ships leave from the Mississippi at the edge of the Warehouse District, a streetcar ride from the French Quarter, chicory coffee, and live brass every night of the week.
Updated September 2026
Quick facts
Getting ashore
When to visit New Orleans
Cruise ships sail year-round from here, so there is no closed season — pick your month for the weather at the far end of the itinerary rather than for the homeport.
Good to know
The city is the reason to come, so a night before is close to essential. If you are here during Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest, road closures and crowds can add an hour to any transfer — plan on it.
Things to do in New Orleans
French Quarter walk
Jackson Square, the cathedral, iron balconies and courtyards. Go early — by mid-afternoon Bourbon Street takes over and the Quarter's better half gets drowned out.
Live jazz on Frenchmen Street
Where locals go when Bourbon Street gets too much. Three or four clubs on one block, most with no cover, and music from the early evening.
Garden District & St Charles streetcar
Ride the 1835 line under the oaks to antebellum mansions and Lafayette Cemetery. The streetcar fare is a couple of dollars and the ride is half the point.
National WWII Museum
Consistently rated among the best museums in the country, and a ten-minute walk from the cruise terminal. Give it longer than you think.
Swamp tour
Airboat or flat-bottomed skiff through cypress swamp about 45 minutes out of town. Alligators are close to guaranteed in warm months.
Steamboat Natchez river cruise
A genuine steam paddlewheeler with a calliope, working the Mississippi from a dock beside the Quarter. Two hours, jazz band aboard.
What to eat
- Gumbo
- Beignets
- Po' boy
- Jambalaya
- Muffuletta
Weather by month
Best time to visit: Feb–May and Oct–Nov; summer is brutally humid
| Month | High | Low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 62° | 45° | 5.1" |
| Feb | 65° | 48° | 5.1" |
| Mar | 71° | 54° | 4.9" |
| Apr | 78° | 61° | 4.5" |
| May | 85° | 69° | 4.5" |
| Jun | 90° | 74° | 8.1" |
| Jul | 91° | 76° | 6.2" |
| Aug | 91° | 76° | 6.1" |
| Sep | 88° | 72° | 5.5" |
| Oct | 80° | 62° | 3.9" |
| Nov | 71° | 53° | 4.4" |
| Dec | 64° | 47° | 5" |
A little history
The city was French, then Spanish, then French again, and only became American with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 — which is why the French Quarter's architecture is largely Spanish colonial, rebuilt after fires in 1788 and 1794.
Jazz was born here around the turn of the twentieth century, out of brass bands, blues and Congo Square, where enslaved people had been permitted to gather and drum on Sundays.
The St Charles streetcar line has been running since 1835 and is the oldest continuously operating street railway in the world.
Cruise terminals sit on the Mississippi about a mile upriver from the Quarter, close enough to walk if you are unencumbered, and a short streetcar ride if you are not.
Hurricane Katrina flooded roughly 80 percent of the city in 2005. The recovery is uneven and visible, and local guides will tell you about it honestly if you ask.