I went on my very first cruise when I was five or six. I think it was a Disney cruise but my mom says it was with Royal Caribbean. I’ll be honest, I can’t quite remember. Now, 8 cruises and 20-21 years later, I planned my first cruise as an adult with Royal Caribbean. Meaning, I’m the one paying for it this time.

Here’s a table of contents to skip to different sections:

How the Trip Came to Be

I’d been wanting to visit New Orleans for awhile. Ever since I took French in 8th grade and learned about Mardi Gras I wanted to go. The idea of the fun celebration that the whole community participated in sounded so fun (my teacher left out other parts of the celebration). In college, my fantasy writing professor told us how she’d visit New Orleans almost every year and she made the city sound electrifying.

Then, there are all these shows and movies that were based in New Orleans like The Originals, Cloak and Dagger, The Princess and the Frog, and Girls Trip.

I originally planned to go in 2020 for “free” if I listened to a time share presentation. Then pandemic happened, of course, so that cancelled a trip that was barely planned to begin with. I wasn’t sure when I’d try to make it over there again until I started thinking about what to do for my birthday.

Ever since I graduated college, I’d taken trips for my birthday. In 2019 I went to San Diego and then up to Disneyland in Anaheim (mostly to visit two of my friends from college who in lived in California). In 2020, before the pandemic, I went to Las Vegas. From 2021-2022 I didn’t take any birthday trips mostly out of precaution. I wanted to go to New Orleans for my birthday this year so I’d finally get to visit the city I’d been fantasizing about. I was nearly set on it…until my Dad, step-mom, and little sister went on a cruise.

Seeing them go on a cruise reminded me how much I loved and missed cruising myself. That’s when I started thinking, “What if I could do both?”

I knew that some cruise lines started leaving out of New Orleans so I used Skymiles Cruise to see if any were leaving around my birthday from the New Orleans port.

I found out about Skymiles Cruises when I was booking my Las Vegas trip. I used Delta Vacations which combines your roundtrip flight and hotel into one. I saw they’d included cruises at the time but they branched off to create Skymiles Cruises at some point after. Update as of 04/09/2023: Skymiles Cruise is now called Delta Cruises.

I decided to use them because they’d show me multiple cruise lines at one time that matched the port and the dates I needed rather than having to go to each individual cruise line site.

Immediately I found two that fit in perfectly: Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Carnival was cheaper but

1. It left on a Friday so I’d have to take one or two extra days off work on top of the cruise itself
2. I didn’t like how the ship/staterooms looked from the pictures (it felt outdated).
3. I’ve had a bad experience on Carnival before so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use this trip to give them a second chance.

So, I chose Royal Caribbean. It left on Saturday, had nice looking staterooms, and I’ve had a good experience with them in the past.

Sending Out the Invites

I originally invited my sisters to go with me. My little sister’s birthday is three days before mine so I thought it could be a double celebration and we’d all been talking about doing a sister trip. I was thinking if we all went, we could fly in early the day of and maybe eat breakfast in the city before going on the ship.

Ultimately, they couldn’t make it. My little sister’s spring semester of college would’ve just started back and my other sister had just started a new job and hadn’t earned enough PTO/Vacation hours yet.

That’s when I thought of inviting my some of my closest friends from college, one of whom I hadn’t seen in person since I visited them in San Diego 4 years ago. I wasn’t sure if they’d be able to go because the cruise was 7 nights long which is a lot of time to take off work (essentially the same reason my sisters couldn’t come).

I had already done research into how much the total cost would be split between the three of us and how much gratuity would be per person. I also advised there would be additional costs that were optional like drink packages, internet packages, and excursions. At this point I had determined to fly-in the day before instead so I advised to keep in mind hotel costs. The whole point of this trip was to also experience the city so might as well give us some time in the city. I couldn’t control how much their flight would cost since we all lived in different states but I asked them to keep that in mind as well. I wanted to make sure they had all the information available to them to make their decision.

I really wasn’t sure if they’d say yes (especially, because the cruise was only 5 months away when I asked) so I almost considered going by myself if they said “No.” I normally travel with my mother but because she had recently gotten a kidney transplant and we were still skeptical about COVID on cruise ships and her immune system, she didn’t want to risk it. However, she didn’t want me going by myself either out of safety.

So, I started thinking of a back a plan. If my friends also said no, I would still go to New Orleans and just spend a weekend there with her; she could do New Orleans just not the cruise ship. Looking at the cost of the flight and hotel, parking a car at the airport and boarding all of our dogs for that time, it ended up costing just as much if not more than the price of the cruise.

After I sent my friends as much detail as possible and even provided a payment plan for them to pay me back their portion, they worked it out and said they’d be able to go. I booked the trip with Skymiles Cruises as soon as they got back to me. I also added on the travel insurance that they offered which was $50 per person.

When we booked, we originally had to take a COVID test before boarding but two days later Royal Caribbean updated their rules and we didn’t have to. There also are no testing requirements for Mexico.

Planning Additional Cruise Costs

Skymiles Cruises took out half the cruise payment when I booked it which I expected. I didn’t want to book it until I knew for sure my friends could go. Once that was set, I started looking at deck plans and ship tours to see what all was available on the ship.

The booking shared some basics but since I was confirmed I did a deep dive. I found out that there were theme nights like 70s or White Out Party (although, we didn’t have a white out party on our sailing). The ship even has a murder mystery dinner at an additional cost. I went through the Royal Caribbean site/app and good old faithful Youtube.

After seeing what we could do on the boat, we started looking at excursions, and other extras on the cruise. I even made a whole power point showing all the specialty restaurants, drink packages, internet packages, and even photo packages.

We’d meet over video chat nearly once a month to discuss hotels, what to do in New Orleans, and which excursions we wanted to do.

Dining

Because this trip was for my birthday, I did consider going to a specialty restaurant (a restaurant that has an additional cost not included in the cruise fare) for my birthday dinner but I wasn’t sure which one to do. One of my friends doesn’t eat meat so I wanted to make sure that wherever we ate there were options for her. I found out later that she does eat seafood but not all the time.

We looked at the sample menus for the specialty restaurants together on Royal Caribbean’s cruise planner and decided to do Izumi, a Japanese Cuisine restaurant. However, we didn’t reserve it for my birthday; we chose it for Day 5 of the cruise.

Instead, my friends decided to treat me to Chef’s Table, the most expensive specialty restaurant ($95 per person +18% gratuity) on any Royal Caribbean ship. It offers a six-course meal with wine pairings for each. Now, let me tell you a story.

When two of us talked one night, before we even seriously looked at restaurants, we originally said we didn’t need to do Chef’s Table. She and I had gone to Disney World together in 2022 and we ate at Be Our Guest, the restaurant in Magic Kingdom in the Beast’s castle. It is extremely hard to get reservations for and is $67 per person before tip and doesn’t include drinks. While the food was good, we thought we mainly paid for the experience in the castle not really for the food. Basically, we didn’t think it was worth it.

Fast forward to that night we were booking restaurant reservations (and excursions), my other friend says I should go all out on my birthday, my friend I went to Disney with agreeing. I objected saying I didn’t want them to spend that much but they insisted. At least when we made the reservation it was discounted at $84 +18% gratuity. Find out if it was worth it once Day 3 of the cruise is posted.

There were some issues when it was book. My friend that convinced us to eat there said she would pay for herself and me and my other friend could just send half the money to cover for me. However, she selected my other friends name and not mine. There was some stress on my end to get it resolved but eventually, she just paid for all three of us and my other friend send her the money for her meal and half and of my meal.

Excursions

The night we booked this, we also booked the excursion for the day of my birthday. We chose it based on the length of time, the “extreme-ness” of activity, and if we’d get some type of food included.

You don’t have to book excursions with the cruise line; Skymiles Cruises also offered excursions. There are also private companies you can book with or you can wait until you’re in the actual port and book an excursion there (that’s more risky because spots could be full).

However, because this was both of my friends’ first time going on a cruise, and my first time going without my family, I wanted to stick with the cruise line to ensure safety and that we wouldn’t get left behind.

For the ports we didn’t have excursions for, I tried to see what we could do instead. This took a lot of digging through Pinterest and YouTube. The problem was, a lot of content I found was pre-pandemic so there was no telling if a business or attraction was still available.

Drink Packages

When it came to the drink packages, I laid out what each one included and how much they cost before the cruise. Royal Caribbean offers a soda package, refreshment package, and deluxe drink package which all include souvenir cup. Here is what else they all include:

• No Drink Package – tap water (not bottled), lemonade, milk, plain tea, plain coffee (including decaf), juice (not fresh squeezed), hot chocolate, and flavored waters.
• Soda Package – $8.99 per person, per day +18% gratuity
  • Soda only, it doesn’t include bottled water
• Refreshment Package – $23.99 per person, per day +18% gratuity
  • Includes soda, bottled still or sparkling water, non-alcoholic cocktails, premium coffee and teas (not Starbucks), fresh-squeezed juice, and milkshakes.
• Deluxe Beverage Package – $66 per person, per day +18% gratuity total
  • Includes everything in the refreshment package plus alcoholic drinks up to $13.
  • IMPORTANT:  if one person wants this package, everyone over 21 will have to get it per Royal Caribbean’s policy to prevent sharing.
    • You can try and speak with Royal Caribbean if someone in your group doesn’t drink or can’t drink (pregnant or otherwise) but they will most likely still make the other person get a Refreshment Package at the least.

 I used different drink package calculators to determine if a drink package was worth it for me.

I surmised that I didn’t need a drink package so I didn’t get one; I usually only drink water and even then I still don’t drink a lot of it.

Internet Package, Phone Plans, and Photo Package

My friends got the internet package to have a way to communicate with their family while we’re gone for a week. It makes sense because at we’re away from our family, out of the country, with no other way to reach them for a week.

I didn’t get the internet package but I did add a temporary travel plan to my phone in order to call and text my family once we were in port. It was ultimately cheaper for me.

We also didn’t get the Photo Package because we thought $110 for 10 Photos was ridiculous and we didn’t think we’d get 10 photos…We were wrong, ha ha. We ended up liking our photos so much and got 10 that we paid $150 for on the last night on the ship.

Cruise Credit

Fast forwarding: About 30 days before the cruise Royal Caribbean gave us a $50 credit to use for excursions and packages to purchase before the cruise and it expired two days before the cruise. We thought each of us had $50 to spend but it turned out to be $50 per stateroom. So if you book a Royal Caribbean Cruise and see a credit available right before your trip, remember it’s per stateroom.

We used it for another excursion for our last day in port.

Gratuity

Gratuity was a whole other ordeal. Gratuity is a tip that goes towards your stateroom attendant and dining room servers and servicing assistance. Most cruise lines will have a set rate per person, per day. Some cruise lines have gratuities already included in the price.

You can either prepay gratuities before the cruise or pay them at the end of your cruise on the last night. I wanted get all payments out of the way so I planned to prepay a couple of weeks before the cruise.

Apparently, Royal Caribbean has an option to prepay gratuities online if you booked directly with them but because I booked through a travel agency (Skymiles Cruises), it wasn’t available for me. I had to call Skymiles Cruise to make the payment.

When I called to prepay my gratuities, which I calculated out to $128 ($16 a day for each person), they said my only payment was $50. Of course, that sounded like good news but I was skeptical so I called Royal Caribbean to confirm if that amount covered everything. I thought maybe a benefit of booking with Skymiles Cruises was paying a portion of our gratuities.

Royal Caribbean said for a 7-night cruise it was actually $101.50 per person because I booked my cruise before they changed their gratuity rate (it was originally $14.50). I called my travel agency back to figure out the discrepancy and they advised because I added travel insurance to the booking it covered a portion of the gratuities.

I had told my friends what the travel agency told me however, this information was incorrect. So, when my friend called to pay her gratuities, Skymiles Cruises told her it was $112. She messaged me and at this point I was confused. Why did they say I only had to pay $50 and she didn’t? And on top of that, the amount they quoted was still incorrect.

She added me to the call on three-way and the travel agency called Royal Caribbean who confirmed again that it was $101.50. When it was finally cleared up I paid the additional $51.50.

I was fine with paying the additional because I just wanted it resolved before the cruise but my mom and others said the travel agency should’ve paid the $51.50 for me because two of their agents gave me the wrong information.

What irritated me more is that they told my friend there was a note on my account for someone to reach out to me for the additional money but no one communicated this with me.

Because of this, I will not use them again. The benefits (extra skymiles) were not worth this headache. Now, technically if I wasn’t pre-paying my gratuities it would’ve been fine but another incident happened while I was on the cruise that solidified me not using them.

Additional Charge from Travel Agency

When we got to our first port (which was the day of my birthday), one of my friends let me borrow her WiFi so I could snap the other friend to keep out Snapchat streak. While I had connection, I got an email from the travel agency that looked like their receipt email.

Each time a payment was made, I’d get an email updating the receipt and that email looked exactly like the others, so I checked to see what supposed payment was made.

When I looked I saw an extra $30 was pending to be charged. It didn’t say what it was for so I was even more confused. At this point I tried to make a call but only text messages were going through so I asked my mom if she call them and ask them why they were charging me $30.

Skymiles Cruises told her it was because my friends and I prepaid our gratuities so it made the cost of our cruise go up which made the insurance go up. My mom worked her mom magic and had them get rid of it. She most likely pointed out the gratuity issues from before and how this was not communicated with me. I was lucky to be able to get it resolved as soon as I could but what if I couldn’t contact anyone and they just charged my card!?

I’m not saying this will happen to everyone who uses them but I certainly will not use them again. If you using a travel agent or agency, look at the reviews if there are any or use recommendations from family or friends.

Planning New Orleans Itinerary

Now, on to New Orleans. To figure out what I’d have time to do in New Orleans, I looked at many different places. TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, and the New Orleans website.

I found a lot of things to do through TikTok but what helped the most was using Google My Maps. Not Google Maps, Google My Maps. You can bookmark and label the different places you want to visit and see how far they are from the airport, your hotel, or just from each other. I even researched where the New Orleans Port was to know how far it was from the French Quarter/

I made layers for restaurants and activities and planned my itinerary that way. Most of the restaurants I chose just came from looking at the map (though I did look at reviews to solidify my choices). I looked at the menu of all restaurant options to see if they had vegetarian options for my friend as well.

I looked at what public transportation was available to avoid using Uber all over the place (even though we ended up using Uber more than I planned on our last day).

New Orleans has the Le Pass app specifically for the RTA which is what’s used in the French Quarter. They offer Jazzy Passes which are $3 for unlimited rides on the streetcars or busses for 24 hours. Most busses near the airport are Jefferson Parish Transit so they aren’t affiliated but you can still transfer over to a RTA bus or streetcar if you choose to use public transportation.

I downloaded the WWL Mardi Gras Parade Tracker in case there would be any parades but as we drew closer to the trip, I didn’t see any scheduled on the days we’d be in New Orleans so I removed it.

Originally the plan was to fly in the day before the cruise and fly out the day we came back but we decided to stay until the next morning to give us more time in the city. Since we were staying an extra night, that meant another hotel stay.

Hotel Options

When looking for a hotel, I tried to focus on what was closest to the port, at least for the first night. While trying to find that, I also wanted to see what was close to all the items I had mapped out in the Google My Maps. I had found five in a reasonable price and showed my friends but we didn’t settle on anything right away.

Looking at the hotels, you can use Google Hotels to see the cheapest option for a room. I personally used Tickets-at-Work to find discounted prices, a benefit offered by my day job. My friend used Priceline to search. She rushed and booked a hotel she saw because she was afraid it would go up. When I looked for the same hotel, on Tickets-at-Work, I found it nearly $80 cheaper. Her booking was non-refundable so we had to stick with it.

Make sure to check all possible options for prices before booking everything.

For the night we come back from the cruise, I decided to continue to look. The second weekend was more expensive than the first no matter which sites I used (probably because it was for Saturday night). Then I decided to look at a hotel chain directly.

Having a hotel membership can also help in some cases. There’s no cost to join and the more you use a hotel chain, the more points you get to use for a hotel stay.

I didn’t have any points to use (mostly because I used them for a one night trip to Chicago) but I did find a discounted price that even included a shuttle from the cruise port. I booked it because it was the best price I saw. The only probably was it was much farther from the French Quarter than the first weekend hotel. Location is important when choosing a hotel if you want to avoid walking for a long time or using Uber.

Flights

As I said in my What to Expect in the Overthinker post, I’m pretty loyal to the airline I use (which if you’ve been paying close attention you may have already guessed which one that is). Even if there is a cheaper option, I’ll still go with my usual airline majority of the time.

However, you can use Google Flights to see a list of flights and prices from different airlines and choose what time and, more importantly what price fits for you. Base on where your home airport is and where you’re going will alter how much your flight costs.

For me, I ended up using miles that I had saved so the only thing I had to pay was $12 for taxes. Having an airline credit card can help if you plan on traveling often. Those miles will add up to some nearly free flights when you need them most.

This is just about everything I did towards planning for this trip. Next week, I’ll share how I build my packing list for the cruise (and what I could’ve left behind). If you have any questions on something I didn’t cover or want more information, just let me know in the comments below or send an email on the contact page.

Let me know if you want to see the mobile itinerary I made for the entire trip. In the meantime, check back on Saturday for the first day on the cruise!