Cruises From New Orleans

The Port of New Orleans is run by its own Board of Commissioners, on the Mississippi River in the heart of the city — the only hub we cover where the terminals sit on a river rather than a coastline, and the only one where the cruise terminal and the French Quarter are a genuinely short walk apart. It's a smaller ocean-cruise operation than Florida's or even Galveston's — one homeport line, two seasonal ones — but that's only half the picture here.

The other half is the Mississippi itself: New Orleans is one of the country's principal departure points for river cruises, a distinct product covered in its own section below rather than folded into the ocean-cruise numbers. The port's own site is explicit that it treats the two as separate operations — it doesn't even handle parking for the river lines. Keep that split in mind as you read the rest of this page: "cruises from New Orleans" means two different things here.

Most guides to this port only cover the ocean-cruise side above. New Orleans is also one of the country's busiest departure points for a genuinely different trip: a paddlewheeler or small riverboat up the Mississippi, with stops at river towns rather than Caribbean islands. It's worth its own mention here rather than a footnote.

New Orleans' program is broader than Galveston's but still centers on one region: Western Caribbean is the core, with Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Roatán each reached by two or more of the current lines. Belize City, Nassau, Progreso and Costa Maya are close behind — genuinely served, but each resting more on a single ship's itinerary. Past those, the list gets narrower and more line-specific fast: Freeport and Key West show up only on the port's own page for Carnival Liberty; Celebration Key only in Carnival's own release; Harvest Caye and Ocho Rios only on Norwegian's own materials; Falmouth only on Royal Caribbean's.

For the actual case for a Western Caribbean cruise — who it suits, what a typical week looks like — that's already covered in our Caribbean cruises guide. This section stays narrow on purpose: what's specific to sailing from New Orleans, not a rewrite of the regional guide.

Common, not guaranteed — the actual stops on any sailing depend on the line, the ship, and the season, so check your specific itinerary rather than assuming from the pattern below.

Not linked above: Carnival Liberty's own itinerary and the port's own page both name Montego Bay, Jamaica as a regular Liberty stop — but no dedicated Montego Bay guide or excursion page exists on this site yet, so it isn't shown as a card here rather than pointing you to a page that doesn't exist.

Only two ocean-cruise terminals — a much simpler layout than Florida's or Galveston's, and both consistently named the same way across every source checked when we checked.

Unlike Galveston or Tampa, the Port of New Orleans publishes an exact flat rate by cruise length rather than a per-day charge: $120 for 4 days, $135 for 5, $160 for 6, $180 for 7, $200 for 8, and $350 for the rare 14-day sailing — confirmed directly on the port's own site and independently corroborated by a third-party breakdown matching the same figures exactly. Stable

Two off-site operators turn up by name in third-party guides at rough figures of $14.50-$17/day and $150 flat for a 7-day cruise, but neither publishes that rate on its own site. That comparison gets the full page it deserves.

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) is the city's only real commercial airport, and it's a genuinely short trip from the terminals — closer than the Houston-to-Galveston drive, though still not a walk.