Questions about this site

Chris Mackelroy, a New Orleans river cruise specialist who has been working with visitors on this waterfront since 2015 and has helped more than a thousand travellers pick a sailing. He does not crew or run any of these boats, and no page here claims he does. Vessel details, menus, timetables and policies come from the operators' own published pages and the live listings, attributed to them. The about page sets out the boundary in full.

No. This site sells nothing, holds no reservations and takes no payment. Every card opens the operator's own listing, and the booking, the confirmation email, the boarding pass and the cancellation window all live on that side. If you have already booked, your confirmation email is the document that matters, not anything on this site.

Through affiliate commission, and no. Links to sailings carry a partner tag, and if you book after clicking one the booking marketplace pays us a share of its own commission, at no extra cost to you: the fee comes out of the platform's margin rather than being added to your ticket. Nothing here is sponsored, no advertising runs on the site, and no operator has been offered a position. Where a category page leads with one sailing, that sailing is the most-reviewed in its category, which anyone can check against the numbers on the cards. The affiliate disclosure names the platforms and sets out the whole arrangement.

They are current from-prices read off each live listing, not live quotes. A from-price is the floor: the cheapest per-person option on that sailing at the moment it was read, and across the ten sailings those run $25.75 to $190.50. On most of these boats the meal is an upgrade sitting on top of that number, so the evening steamboat cruise is $58 without the Creole buffet and $107.50 with it, the daytime cruise $43.50 without lunch and $65 with it. Your real total also moves with the date, the option you pick and the country you book from, so the listing is always the authority.

They are the booking marketplaces' own published figures, copied exactly as displayed, including the unflattering ones. Nothing is averaged across platforms, rounded up or quietly rewritten. The ten sailings on this site carry 15,153 traveller reviews between them, and that total is the sum of the real per-listing counts rather than an estimate. No testimonial appears anywhere here unless a real traveller published it on a real listing.

Because the two marketplaces count different crowds. The 7:00pm steamboat jazz cruise reads 4.4 from 5,243 reviews on one platform and 4.1 from 8,101 on the other, and both numbers are real: same boat, same band, same gangway, two separate review pools. Every rating here was therefore checked on two independent channels, and when they disagreed the live listing read is what prints while the discrepancy stays on file. Nothing gets averaged into a tidier figure, and a price that reads differently in two places usually means one of them is showing you a localised currency rather than a changed fare.

Because seven of the seventeen are the same departures sold a second time on the other marketplace, each with its own product page and its own review count. Showing both would inflate the catalogue with duplicate evenings and split one boat's reputation across two cards. So each departure appears once, and its twin is used only to link out where the other platform happens to have the better page. One of those twins is a good illustration of why review counts matter: it shows 4.0 from eleven reviews, and eleven reviews tell you almost nothing.

Three docks, all walkable from the French Quarter, and they are not interchangeable. The Steamboat NATCHEZ leaves from the Toulouse Street Wharf at 400 Toulouse Street, behind Jax Brewery. The Riverboat CITY of NEW ORLEANS leaves from the wharf at 101 St Louis Street, one block downriver. The Paddlewheeler CREOLE QUEEN leaves from the Spanish Plaza dock at 1 Poydras Street, by the Riverwalk. Boarding opens at least half an hour before every departure and the operators sail very close to on time, so half an hour early is the plan, not fifteen minutes. On the NATCHEZ that means boarding at 11:00am, 2:00pm or 6:00pm for sailings at 11:30am, 2:30pm and 7:00pm. Paid lots sit on Decatur Street near the wharves.

You sail. These boats run rain or shine, with indoor seating and covered deck space on every one of them, and a cruise is cancelled only when the Coast Guard calls severe weather on the river. Read the operator's own policy before you book a wet forecast, though, because it is blunt: in severe weather, unfavourable river conditions or a breakdown, the captain may hold the boat and the company arranges a dockside event instead, and refunds are not issued in those cases. The same policy lets the operator swap the NATCHEZ and the CITY of NEW ORLEANS for each other at any time, again with no refund due, so if you have booked a specific vessel it is worth knowing that in advance.

Not through us, and this is worth being blunt about: we hold nothing and can move nothing. Your reservation sits with the operator and the platform you booked through from the moment you paid. All ten sailings here are currently sold with free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure, and the Creole Queen's own site states the same 24-hour notice for a full refund, but the window on your confirmation email is the one that governs. Amendments, cancellations, refunds, dietary notes, access questions and a late-running party all go through that email, which carries your reference number and a message button reaching the people actually holding your table.

The operator's own wording is short: "No shirt, no shoes, no service. All of our cruises are casual attire. Dressy Casual is recommended for the Dinner Jazz Cruise." So nobody is turned away for jeans, and the evening dinner sailing is the one where people dress up a little. The practical advice matters more than the dress code. Summer afternoons on the open deck are hot and the dining rooms are air-conditioned, so bring a layer for the temperature swing, and the top deck catches wind off the river even in mild weather.

Children pay less on every boat and sometimes nothing. On the 75-minute sightseeing run it is $25.75 for an adult, $12.75 for a child aged 6 to 12, and free for ages 2 to 5. On the evening sailing the child fare is $53 with dinner and $29 without, and under-sixes ride free on the sightseeing ticket. As for whether it works: the 75-minute run is the honest answer for young children, because it is short, the paddlewheel is right there to watch, and nobody has to sit through a two-hour meal. The engine room viewing area on the NATCHEZ is included in every ticket and tends to hold children longer than the band does.

It depends on the boat, and the operator is specific about it. On the Steamboat NATCHEZ the top and bottom decks are reached by stairs only. On the Riverboat CITY of NEW ORLEANS, decks 1, 2 and 3 are served by elevator and only the rooftop deck is stairs-only, which makes it the stronger choice for anyone with mobility needs. Service animals as defined by the ADA are welcome on all three boats, with advance notice requested. One extra note for the Chalmette history cruise: the National Park Service says it is working on longer-term accessibility for visitors arriving by boat, because river levels and the levee affect the landing, and battlefield facilities are limited at present even though the grounds are open.

Set expectations first: the buffets are cooked fresh on board and lean on Creole staples, gumbo, jambalaya, bread pudding, and they are decent fuel for the evening rather than the reason to be on the river. If dinner is the point of your night, the city has better tables ashore and the cruise-only fare exists for exactly that reason. On dietary needs the operator is honest about the limits. All menu items are prepared in a common kitchen, so the food is not recommended for people with gluten-sensitive disorders; staff can point out items without meat or animal products, but separate individual meals are not prepared. Outside food and drink are not allowed on the Creole Queen, and a birthday cake can be brought aboard the NATCHEZ if you flag it when you reserve.