Jackson Square – New Orleans

My first time out of the country since I was a teenager.

I took advantage of the experience of my friend and coworker. She tells me that she is “Loyal To Royal” and so I basically looked at only Royal Caribbean for my first cruise experience. I was attracted to the Voyager because it was out of New Orleans, which was also on my bucket list.

We arrived in New Orleans on Thursday afternoon. My sister and I flew into Dallas on American Airlines from different ends of California. DFW is huge and required some advanced investigation to meet up there and have some lunch before heading out to NOLA. Upon arrival at the Louis Armstrong Airport, we were met by a Limo driver holding a sign with my name – a special splurge for my birthday vacation. She took us directly to the Omni in the heart of the French Quarter. We had a lovely “double double” room overlooking Royal Street. There’s a rooftop swimming pool and bar with a fabulous view of the river.

Omni Royal Double Double – Larger than I expected for the French Quarter

We set out for Jackson Square for our introductory mule ride. We got a great feel for the town and a lot of history

We had dinner over at World Famous Brennan’s and had to try the Banana’s Foster – Hanna was new to the dish but it was fabulous. My Trout Almondine was also very tasty

We checked out Bourbon street after dinner. It was during the lenten season, but that did not deter the partying crowd. I consider myself to have an open mind, and I have noticed that the syle of dancing has become much “dirtier” over the years, and the style of dress, since Maddonna has been more and more lingerie. It was a warm evening in early April and the term “get a room” comes to mind. All up and down the street there were barkers luring you in to hear music, only it wasn’t the music you expect in New Orleans – it was just that same old club music you hear everywhere else. We pressed on and found a little square and a quartet playing to a fully seated crowd. We grabbed the last table, right up next to the band. It was a great vantage point for people watching. The most entertainment came from the 4 year old little boy who gave us all a show, dancing a few numbers before his mom made him leave – after taking several bows.

The Omni was very comfortable – I was pleased with our “double double” and loved that it had a bath tub. We tried the breakfast buffet in the morning – I learned not to get pancakes or waffles from a warming pan… best ordered fresh. It was a nice spread and we had an attentive waiter… got to sit in oversized chairs and watch the street musicians set up on Royal Street.

Street Musician as seen from Omni’s Rib Room window – not much foot traffic yet

We had pre-arranged a Cemetery tour – led by Jeremy of Strange Tour Tours – right next door to the Omni.

Our tour guide Jeremy in front of one of the many rumored voodoo queen burial spots

http://strangetruetours.blogspot.com/

I would recommend the tour – but keep in mind that you walk through the French Quarter to get to the cemetery, then you walk back. It gets hot out there – so if you have a parasol, this would be a good time. Maybe one of those funeral type parasols would be good.

We decided to try a Beignet for lunch – We tried Cafe Beignet right there on Royal street, on the other side of the courthouse from the Omni. I’m not a coffee person, so I didn’t get the full on New Orleans experience – but I was covered in powdered sugar and had some chocolate milk to wash it down. It was delightfully delicious.

After lunch, we found we had more time on our hands and very sore feet, the concierge booked us a tour from Cajun Encounters. I was amused at our tour guide, who was winded by climbing up the stairs to get to his driver’s seat. He would cough into the microphone and I found myself wishing he would take a moment to compose himself before speaking.

Isn’t our tour bus lovely?

And here’s our Tour Guide

This tour included the 9th ward – and we were pretty surprised to see it all cleaned up. We expected more debris to be honest. The bus did stop and let some children on board to sell their Praline’s… which my sister of course couldn’t resist (she’s gotta be nice to the cute kids). It tasted like pretty much pure sugar. I also enjoyed that this tour took us to see the Garden District, with all the stately homes and wonderful trees. We drove through New Orleans City park and saw a wedding in progress and another bridal photo shoot in front of the New Orleans Museum of Modern Art (NOMA)

This was our second and final dinner in New Orleans, and so I chose carefully, but still within steps of the Omni. We enjoyed the fabulous service at Emeril’s casual restaurant, NOLA. I had the Hickory-Roasted Duck with Whiskey-Caramel Glaze, Buttermilk Cornbread Pudding, Haricot Verts-Fire Roasted Corn Salad, Natural Jus and Candied Pecans. It was wonderful – really really wonderful. We also enjoyed conversations with the folks seated at either side of us – small tables for 2 situated so that you could ignore the person at the next table or you could engage them. We chose to share our experience with others around us, and found that everyone loved every bite.

Saturday morning we went ahead and dined once again at the buffet in the Omni and went down to the river walk before heading over to the cruise terminal.