How much does it cost to ride the riverboat in New Orleans?
Riverboat tickets in New Orleans run $25.75 to $190.50. Here is the full ladder, what each tier includes, child fares and what adding the buffet costs.
$25.75 puts you on a working paddlewheeler for 75 minutes. $190.50 buys the VIP evening on the Steamboat NATCHEZ, with early boarding, a front-row seat at the band, the buffet, champagne and a private walk through the engine room. Those are the two ends of the New Orleans riverfront, and the honest answer to the question is that most visitors spend somewhere in the middle forties to sixty dollars.
The reason the question keeps getting asked is that every sailing here has at least two prices. There is a cruise-only fare and a fare with a meal attached, and the gap between them is bigger than people expect. Miss that distinction and you can pay $107.50 for an evening you would have enjoyed just as much at $58.00.
What does a riverboat ticket cost, cheapest to dearest?
Ten sailings leave the French Quarter wharves. The floor is $25.75 for a 75-minute sightseeing run aboard the Riverboat CITY of NEW ORLEANS. The ceiling is $190.50 for the VIP evening on the NATCHEZ. Six of the ten start under $60, and the two-hour daytime jazz cruise opens at $43.50.
| Sailing | Starts at | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 75-minute sightseeing run | $25.75 | Shortest and cheapest, CITY of NEW ORLEANS |
| Daytime jazz cruise | $43.50 | Two hours, Steamboat Stompers, NATCHEZ |
| Weekend jazz brunch cruise | $43.50 | Saturday and Sunday morning, NATCHEZ |
| Weekend morning jazz cruise | $44.00 | Creole Queen, Muddy Mississippi Band |
| History cruise with Chalmette landing | $47.00 | Creole Queen, an hour ashore with a park ranger |
| Evening jazz cruise | $58.00 | Dukes of Dixieland, NATCHEZ, no meal |
| Night jazz sailing | $60.00 | Creole Queen, buffet optional |
| City bus tour plus daytime cruise | $88.00 | About 6.5 hours, coach and boat |
| Full day in the city with a river cruise | $99.00 | About 6.75 hours, walking, coach and boat |
| VIP evening jazz and dinner | $190.50 | Everything included, highest rated at 4.8 |
Look at where the ladder bunches up. Five of the ten sailings sit between $43.50 and $60.00, which tells you what the market has settled on: two hours on the water with live jazz, no meal, for somewhere around fifty dollars. The midpoint of all ten fares is $52.50. If a price you see is well above that and the ticket does not include food, a coach ride or a reserved seat, something else is going on and it is worth checking what.
The two sub-$50 daytime options are the best entry point for most people. A $43.50 daytime jazz cruise runs the full two hours, includes the engine room viewing area, and carries the same live band schedule as the pricier tiers. The $25.75 short run is even simpler: 75 minutes, four decks, a bar on each one, and you are back on Decatur Street before you have had time to get restless.
What does each price tier actually buy?
Under $50 buys time on the water with live music and nothing else attached. Around $58 to $60 buys the same thing at night, with a better band and a better skyline. Above $88 you are buying a bundle: a coach tour with a cruise inside it, or the VIP package with reserved seating and champagne.
The daytime tier is the workhorse. On the NATCHEZ the two-hour daytime jazz cruise carries a jazz pianist or trio, Duke Heitger and the Steamboat Stompers, plus live narration of what you are passing. It boards at 1:30pm and sails at 2:30pm. Everything included on the $190.50 ticket that has to do with the boat itself, the 25-ton white oak paddlewheel, the 1925 steam engines, the 32-note calliope before boarding, is also included here. What you do not get is a guaranteed seat in a good spot.
The evening tier at $58.00 changes the music and the view rather than the boat. The Grammy-nominated Dukes of Dixieland play, the sailing leaves at 7:00pm after 6:00pm boarding, and the city lights come on while you are mid-river. It is the most booked sailing on this waterfront by a distance, with 5,243 reviews behind it at 4.4, and it sells out first in every season. If you want that specific night, check which dates still have space before you lock in a hotel.
At the top, the $190.50 VIP evening is a genuinely different product rather than a marked-up one. Early boarding, front-row band seats, the buffet, champagne and a private engine room tour, and it holds the highest rating on the river at 4.8 across 893 reviews. The pattern is consistent everywhere on this waterfront: the more a ticket costs, the more of the evening the operator controls for you, and the less it depends on arriving early and finding a good rail.
What do children pay?
Children aged 2 to 5 sail free on sightseeing fares and pay $26.75 with dinner. Children 6 to 12 pay $12.75 on the 75-minute run, $29.00 on the evening sightseeing fare and $53.00 with dinner. On the Creole Queen's midday historic cruise, children 12 and under are listed free through August.
| Fare band | 75-minute run | Evening sightseeing | Evening with dinner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult | $25.75 | $58.00 | $107.50 |
| Child 6 to 12 | $12.75 | $29.00 | $53.00 |
| Child 2 to 5 | Free | Free | $26.75 |
Run a real family through that and the numbers separate fast. Two adults and two children aged six to twelve pay $77.00 for the short sightseeing run and $321.00 for the evening dinner cruise. That is the same river, the same city, the same paddlewheel, and a difference of $244.00. For young children who will not sit through a two-hour seated dinner, the cheap ticket is not a compromise, it is the better trip. The families I see come off happiest are rarely the ones who paid the most.
The free-under-six rule is the most missed saving on the riverfront. A couple with a four-year-old can get three people onto the Mississippi for $51.50. Families weighing up which sailing suits which age will find more on the families on board page.
Seniors should know that most sailings here have no separate senior fare, so the adult price applies. The exception is the Saturday jazz brunch aboard the CITY of NEW ORLEANS, where Gray Line's own listing prices adults 13 to 64 at $80.00 and seniors 65 and over at $72.00. Groups are better served: ten or more travellers booking together get an automatic ten percent discount, which turns a twelve-person evening sightseeing booking from $696.00 into $626.40.
How much does adding the buffet cost?
Food adds $21.50 on the daily lunch cruise, $36.50 on the weekend brunch and $49.50 on the evening dinner sailing. Those are the gaps between the cruise-only and meal-inclusive fares on the operator's own price list, and the lunch add-on is comfortably the best value of the three.
The buffet is fuel rather than the event, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. It is cooked fresh on board, it does Creole staples properly, gumbo, jambalaya, bread pudding, and it is a perfectly good meal. I have yet to meet anyone who walked back down the gangway raving about the food. They rave about the wheel, the band and the skyline.
That makes the $21.50 lunch add-on an easy yes and the $49.50 dinner add-on a real decision. At dinner you are buying a table in an air-conditioned dining room and a served, seated evening rather than a scramble for a spot on the rail. For a couple marking an occasion that is worth it. For a family that ate a big po-boy lunch, the $58.00 sightseeing ticket plus dinner ashore usually wins. The evening dinner sailings page goes deeper on what is actually on the buffet at night.
One caution on dietary needs. Everything is prepared in a common kitchen, and the operator states the menu is not recommended for guests with gluten-sensitive disorders. Staff can point out items without meat or animal products, but separate individual meals are not prepared. If that matters in your party, take the cheaper cruise-only fare and eat where you can choose. If anyone in your group pictures a multi-night voyage instead, the two meanings of river cruise here get sorted out plainly.
Which ticket gives you the most river for the money?
By cost per hour on the water, the Creole Queen's history cruise wins among the boat-only tickets at roughly $18.80, ahead of the 75-minute run at about $20.60 and the two-hour daytime jazz cruise at about $21.75. The combination tours beat all of them at under $15 an hour because they run six hours or more.
The $47.00 history sailing leaves Spanish Plaza at noon, runs downriver with a narrator on 300 years of city history, and puts you ashore for a full hour at Chalmette Battlefield, where the Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 and a National Park Service ranger leads the walk. Two and a half hours, a park visit and a history lesson for less than a dinner-cruise buffet costs on its own. If a walk on solid ground appeals in the middle of your day, check the sailing dates and current fare and compare it against a straight sightseeing ticket.
Some of the best parts of the riverfront are free. The steam calliope plays from the NATCHEZ before boarding and all 32 notes carry up to the levee, so you can hear it without buying anything. The engine room viewing area is included on every NATCHEZ ticket rather than sold as an upgrade, which means the $43.50 daytime fare still gets you a look at steam engines built in 1925 for a U.S. Steel sternwheeler. Boarding opens at least thirty minutes before each departure, and the operator's frequently asked questions confirm the boats sail very close to on time.
Budget for what the ticket does not cover. Drinks are extra on every sailing, with bars on all decks of both Steamboat Company boats and a cash bar on the Creole Queen, and Louisiana's drinking age of 21 is checked with photo identification. The photograph taken as you board is sold separately by the photo team. There is a gift shop on both riverboats. Parking is not included anywhere, though there are paid lots on Decatur Street beside the French Quarter docks and the Creole Queen offers a discounted rate at the World Trade Center lot at 100 Poydras Street if you present the printed parking ticket at her booth. Two drinks each, a boarding photo and a few hours of parking can quietly cost more than the gap between two fare tiers.
If you want the whole fare picture in one place, including group rates, seasonal party packages and what moves prices through the year, the full price breakdown has every number. For the value question rather than the cost question, the honest verdict on the NATCHEZ is the better read, and the two-hour daytime sailings page lists what leaves each afternoon.