Today was a transition day: from solo exploring New Orleans, where each hour presented a what-where-how decision, to falling into the lap of American Cruise Line where every minute of every day is planned. The only question of any import is “how much will we eat this time?”
My morning started with a before-breakfast walk to do the one thing we hadn’t done in three days in New Orleans: view the Mississippi River. So about 7:30 AM (taking advantage of the fallback bonus of the time change), I walked down St. Charles Street, which became Royal Street after crossing Canal and entering the French Quarter, to St Louis Street to see Antoine’s Restaurant. Royal Street had been recently hosed down to remove the dredges left by partiers the night before. From there I walked a few blocks to Woldenberg Park and then up the river to the Riverwalk Outlet Mall and the beginnings of the Port of New Orleans docks. Then it was a 10-minute walk up Poydras Street to the Intercontinental. It was a beautiful clear and crisp morning – a great time of day to see the Quarter without the throngs..
We spent the rest of the morning eating breakfast in the hotel, taking a Covid test and then two-hours of down time before leaving for the ship a little after 11. Just enough time for a little email work and a nice morning snooze. A 20-minute bus ride to the docks and we were on board and ready for lunch by noon.
They gave us a briefing on what to expect during the week, especially the land tours. The ship lecturer told us about the Mississippi and what we would see on our journey. He started explaining the difference between port and starboard and worked up from there. He gave some graphic examples of how the level of the river can change. We are at a relative low water level now; in the Spring the water level can be tens of feet higher. The other feature of the river at this point is the industry on shore and the barge traffic on the river. Flotillas of 20 and more barges, pushed by a single motor craft, are common.
And indeed, the real attraction of this afternoon was watching the river traffic and the huge chemical and refinery facilities on shore. The Mississippi is navigable by ocean-going vesicles as far as Baton Rouge and we saw those ships as well as lots of barge traffic.
All seven of us met around 4:30 on the open deck area next door to our staterooms. We chatted for an hour, got cocktails and wine at 5:30 and reported for evening mess at 6:00. The dining room has four tables for eight people, so we had a fun time socializing, talking about our kids and grandkids and repeating oft-told stories about each other.
Tomorrow is a full day of touring with frequent caloric injections of pretty good grub to keep us going.
