Road Trip to New Orleans

Author: rikki soteras
Date of Trip: December 2012

on dec 6, 2012 my mom fiance and i set out driving to new orleans to get on carnival conquest cruise ship. we live in illinois so the trip took us about 15 hours. we arrived in new orleans at 1pm on dec 7.. we had decided to stay in new orleans for a couple days before getting on the cruise ship.

we stayed at hotel chateau on 1000 chartres in the french quarter.. it was a nice quiet hotel 2 blocks from bourbon street. they offered parking at an additional cost.

i love new orleans!!! of course you have to go to cafe dumonde for beignets, go to the farmers market, walk along the mississippi river, and experience bourbon street…ive been to new orleans at halloween , mardi gras and now christmas time. it was my fiance first time there and he loved it also. the restaurants are expensive. we even took a nice trolley ride. the port for the cruise ship was only 2 miles away. we parked in the fulton garage only $8 a day for cruise guests. it was easy to get in and out of the garage and they provided transportation to the ship.

we sailed on the carnival conquest for 7 nights to montego bay, jamaica, grand cayman, cozumel, mexico. i would recommend this cruise ship we had alot of fun.

once off the ship we rode the trolley back to cafe dumonde to get beignets one more time. we were on our way home and i had one little surprise for my fiance we stopped in memphis so he could go to graceland, something he has always wanted to do. we stayed at the days inn at graceland which was across the street from the mansion. nice hotel they even had a guitar shaped swimming pool. but unfortunately it was too cold to swim..that night we went to beal street to see what that was like.. it was just like a mini bourbon st. a little disappointing.so we just went back to our hotel.. the next day we spent 6 hours at graceland and loved every minute of it. we paid extra for the vip passes so we didnt have to wait in line for the mansion and we were able to see extra rooms and the back of the property.6 hours is not enough time to see and read everything. once we left memphis we had a 3 hour drive to sikeston missouri to eat at one of my favorite restaurants Lamberts cafe home of the throwed roll…. i love that place they throw the hot buns at you from across the restaurant. after we ate there it was time for the 6 hour drive home