This article is reposted from a reader in our WeChat group and originally appeared on the WeChat public account Lazy 33’s Food, Drink, and Fun. Original link.

New Orleans, also known as “NOLA,” is said to be the best food city in the U.S.—though of course that refers to its local cuisine, not imported fare. Its reputation is legendary, and as a foodie, I’d wanted to go for a long time.

Overall Itinerary

Last year, when booking a hotel in Osaka, I got transferred to the timeshare sales department. The package was 4 days and 3 nights for only $100, plus 20,000 IHG points. Once I heard New Orleans was one of the destination options, I bought it right away. When I went to book the dates, I was told that Presidents Day long weekend—also during New Orleans’ famous Mardi Gras season—was already sold out, so I settled for Memorial Day long weekend instead.

I say “settled” because by late May, New Orleans, being in the South, is already starting to get hot. During our stay, temperatures were around 22-30 degrees, and while the humidity was high, it still wasn’t as damp as southern China. Overall, the weather wasn’t as nice as late February, but it was still barely acceptable.

  • Day 1: timeshare presentation - Mardi Gras World - Peche
  • Day 2: Ruby Slipper Cafe -Oak Planatation - SwaTour -Big EZ Seafood
  • Day 3: District Donuts Sliders Brew - Global Wildlife -  Felix's Restaurant & Oyster Bar - Luke - Cafe De Monde

Flights

My kid has already missed quite a bit of school this year, so to avoid missing more classes, we made this into a whirlwind trip: take a red-eye on Friday night of the long weekend and fly back Monday night.

The only airline flying SEA to MSY was Alaska, and this time we used a companion ticket. Before departure, the fare dropped, so I tinkered with the reservation. As a result, I lost the good seats I had picked. The gate agent reassigned us to the last few rows. The whole flight had a steady stream of people walking back and forth to the restroom, plus constant bathroom noise. I hadn’t sat that far back in years, and it was really annoying. In the future, I should probably stop messing with the booking and just keep seats closer to the front.

Flight time was 4 hours 07 minutes. The pilot seemed like an impatient type—both takeoff and landing were pretty rough, and there were several stretches of strong turbulence in the middle. Thankfully, we arrived safely in the end. Once we landed, we were told our gate was occupied by a United plane, so at 5 a.m. local time (3 a.m. West Coast time), everyone had to sit on the plane for another half hour before deplaning.

The airport ceiling lights.

Rental Car

I checked on the plane and saw that the rental car counter was only 0.7 mile away as the crow flies. But somehow, the shuttle ride for that short distance took more than 20 minutes, which felt like a pretty poor design. It also means you should allow extra time for the rental car shuttle on the return.

This time we rented from avis, because the other companies didn’t open until 6 a.m. But after all that hassle, by the time we got to the rental car garage, it was already 6 anyway. avis assigned us a Chevrolet SUV. My kid was very disappointed that, unlike usual, we couldn’t pick our own car.

MSY airport isn’t far from downtown NOLA—it took a little over 20 minutes to get there.

Crowne Plaza New Orleans Timeshare Stay Experience

The hotel assigned for the timeshare package was Crowne Plaza New Orleans, in downtown NOLA right next to the famous “sin street,” Bourbon Street. The hotel’s Google rating was 3.9, and it had been a long time since we’d stayed anywhere rated that low, so we did quite a bit of mental preparation beforehand.

As shabby as the hotel was, valet parking certainly wasn’t cheap, and there was no self-parking option. Nearby offsite parking was priced about the same. The hotel’s valet team all drove golf carts back and forth to the parking area, so I’m guessing it wasn’t close.

The valet staff and front desk staff were all Black, and most of them spoke while rolling their eyes, with a lazy, couldn’t-care-less attitude. When I asked whether we could get a rollaway bed, the front desk said Louisiana regulations don’t allow an extra bed in a 2 queen room.

The lobby was actually fairly grand and didn’t look all that old. But once we got to the elevators, our hearts sank—it was exactly what we had feared. From the elevators to the hallways to the room itself, everything felt old and worn, in that classic dimly lit American hotel style. The room had a small window, and not only was there no view, it looked out onto an abandoned vacant lot with some trash piled up. The toilet had cracks, the bathtub was damaged, and the sheets had stains. Even my travel companion, who usually prides himself on being able to tolerate rough conditions, was speechless.

At that point, all we could do was accept it. Since we had to go to the presentation at 11:30, we disinfected and tidied up, and by 7 o’clock the three of us collapsed into bed.

Before sleeping, I happily placed an order from District Donuts Sliders Brew, only to wake up and see the order had been canceled. Starving and in a rush to get to the presentation, we ordered a Benedict and a parfait from Common Interest, a restaurant we’d pass on the way. It’s on the first floor of hotel indigo. The Benedict was decent, but the parfait was basically just a few containers of yogurt and some granola—easy money for them.

The presentation was at Holiday Inn Vacations, just a few minutes’ walk from the hotel. Along the way, we kept catching whiffs of marijuana and urine, with the marijuana smell in front of our hotel being especially strong.

The presentation venue was much nicer than the hotel they assigned us—at least the building was bright and well lit. After check in, we waited another 10 to 20 minutes, during which we ate our breakfast, before a sales rep finally came over.

I won’t go into detail about the presentation process, since it was mostly similar to our previous experiences. The difference was that IHG was clearly the most budget-conscious of the bunch. Unlike Marriott, which had private rooms, or Hilton, which had partitions, this setup felt more like the dating market you see on TV, with very little space between tables. You could hear pretty clearly how far the people at the next table had gotten. Another difference was that they added a short documentary screening in a mini theater, plus an in-person tour of the timeshare unit. The timeshare was right upstairs from the presentation area, and it was actually quite nice. The sales rep, with a classic American fake smile, said, "I wish I could have you move in today!" Sure—so do I.

What was supposed to be a 2-hour presentation somehow dragged on for 3.5 hours. The sales rep, who looked like Angelina Jolie, and her Black woman manager both managed to exit gracefully. But at the final check out, the Black guy at the desk lost all composure. Seeing that he wasn’t making a sale and that we were urging him to hurry up because we wanted to leave, he kept repeating, “I know we have language barrier” to mock us. It was incredibly low.

Even the final check out took several more minutes. The pace of doing things in NOLA really does seem to have inherited something from the French...

Food and Fun

One of NOLA’s signature features: the streetcars.

Because the presentation ran 1.5 hours longer than expected, it was already 3 p.m. by the time we finished. We had originally planned to go somewhere else, but check-in there closed at 5, so we gave up on that idea and went back to the hotel to get the car. Earlier, my travel companion had mentioned seeing online reviews saying this valet was especially slow, and I figured maybe they had been short-staffed during the pandemic. But no—it really was that slow. Retrieving the car basically started at 20 minutes minimum, so make sure to allow plenty of time. After that, I started tipping when requesting the car and then tipping again once it arrived, just hoping the valet staff would bring our car around faster.

Since we couldn’t make it to the National WWII Museum, we went with the backup plan: Mardi Gras World. We drove there directly, but parking was expensive at $22. Another option is to park near French Market and take the free Canal–Mardi Gras World shuttle round-trip.

Even though we missed Mardi Gras season, I still think this attraction was well worth visiting. You can really see how much effort locals put into Mardi Gras. Most of the sculptures are made of foam, which admittedly isn’t very environmentally friendly, but they’re incredibly detailed. Seeing a whole warehouse filled with these giant sculptures creates a kind of serious absurdity.

The tour runs once every hour, and we happened to catch the 4 p.m. tour. Before it started, everyone watched a short film together in a small theater, and then the tour guide handed out the special Mardi Gras bread. It was a bit like banana bread, with green icing drizzled on top. Extremely sweet, but both my kid and my partner actually liked it quite a bit.

The admission ticket was a string of purple beads, which was pretty fun.

At the beginning of the exhibit were unfinished statues like these.

Besides explaining the history behind the sculptures in the museum, the tour guide also talked about how they are made. There was also a workshop area in the warehouse showing the production process.

A corner of the gift shop displayed some Mardi Gras costumes.

Going out through another door of the gift shop leads straight to the canal, where there were small cruises on the water.

When the last shuttle before closing was about to leave, a gift shop employee came around and asked each customer individually so no one would miss the shuttle. Compared with the hotel service, it was night and day.

After that we went to Rouses Market to buy water. This grocery store was also a gated property. Finding free parking in downtown NOLA is no easy task. This supermarket was quite nice, with lots of local specialties. There were also some tables and chairs nearby, and several groups were eating huge bags of boiled crawfish they had bought from the store. It looked pretty tempting.

Dinner was at Peche, and it was easy enough to make a reservation online in advance. A little after 6 p.m., street parking near the restaurant was still fairly easy to find.

We ordered the server’s recommendation: half a dozen Brightside oysters (smaller, in the photo below) and half a dozen Admiral oysters (larger, in the photo below). Both were delicious, with no fishiness at all. In addition to the traditional cocktail sauce, they also came with a house-made soy sauce, and each had its own distinct flavor. We both thought the larger Admiral oysters were sweeter and fresher.

The tuna crudo, served with saltine crackers, was also pretty good. The crunchy bits on top didn’t overpower the tuna at all.

The service at the restaurant was excellent, and it was pretty kids-friendly too. They gave my child some pipe-cleaner crafts to play with, which kept the kid occupied through the whole meal. But aside from the appetizer, the rest of the dishes came out really, really slowly. We had originally planned to order a bit more if we were still hungry, but once we saw the pace of the kitchen, we gave up on that idea.

Pictured below are the grilled mahi, crab rice, and shrimp noodle. All of them were decent, with fairly strong flavors and just a little salty. The issue was that the seasonings were all pretty similar, so everything tasted more or less the same. The portions were also very small. The three of us finished and still didn’t feel full.

Since we still weren’t full, we went to get a second meal: Nola Poboys.

The po’ boy, with a history of more than 100 years, is a baguette sandwich popular in the American South, especially Louisiana. It originated from street carts making oversized sandwiches out of sympathy for manual laborers, and “Po” is short for “poor.”

The navigation sent us to Bourbon Street, where the crowds were overwhelming and traffic was completely stuck. I just got out of the car and walked over to buy it.

The menu was very distinctive and colorful. The order line took quite a while. That day, the card machine was down, so it was cash only. I bought an 8-inch wat-dot, and it was huge—one was enough for two people to fill the rest of our stomachs.

On the street in front of the hotel, there was always a weed truck parked there, which explains why this area was ground zero for that distinctive smell.

We took it back to the hotel for a late-night snack. The wat-dot had fried shrimp, crawfish, and more inside. The baguette here was very soft and easy to eat. The fried shrimp were crispy, soft, and pleasantly chewy—quite tasty. But even from this sauce, you could tell one defining trait of Southern food: it’s all pretty heavy.

When we got back that night, we found that the hotel was checking room keys at the entrance, which gave us a decent sense of security. Of course, it also indirectly showed just how chaotic the area was.

For all its shabbiness, our room was at least fairly quiet at night, and we didn’t hear anything strange.

This was one of those ultra-packed itineraries, so we were up by 8 AM. We went downstairs and called a car at 8:15, and a thousand years later, it was already past 8:40 by the time we actually got in.

I had previously made a note that the lobster daddy at bearcat was good, but that place only does in-person walk-in lines. It opens at 8 AM, and when I called the CBD location at 8:30, they said the wait was half an hour. Holiday weekend—totally expected.

No problem, I had a backup: Ruby Slipper Cafe. They have lots of locations, and all of them let you join the waitlist online. After breakfast, we had booked a tour at Oak Alley Plantation, so we picked the Old Metairie location, which was away from dt and also on the way.

The plaza where the restaurant is located has very limited parking, but you can park in the spots at the park directly across the street. This location was much less crowded, and there were plenty of seats when we walked in. They’re best known for their various benedicts. We ordered eggs cochon, shrimp, and fried chicken.

It was definitely good, but not exactly amazing—basically just benedicts with different toppings. Also on the salty side. We ordered the vanilla spice coffee recommended by the server; the hot version was very, very sweet, while the iced one was better.

There was a kids menu, so we ordered the standard American brunch combo for our child.

Then we drove for an hour to Oak Alley Plantation. There are many plantations around New Orleans, and this one is famous for the two rows of giant oak trees on the grounds. It seemed like the grounds themselves might be free to visit? Only the tour required paid advance booking. During holidays, it’s best to reserve ahead. I had booked the 12:30 PM tour, and they strictly require you to arrive half an hour early. We got there a little after 11, which was still early, so we asked at the ticket booth whether we could move to an earlier time. The best they could do was 12:15; everything before that was full.

The entrance is actually at the back of the house, where the enslaved people lived. There are also a few large oak trees in the back, which made me think that this was the famous oak alley, and I was like, “That’s it?” The real oak alley is actually at the front of the house.

The enslaved people’s quarters are well worth seeing. Even if you’re not especially interested in history, it doesn’t feel boring. The signs at the door use real examples to explain what each enslaved person’s life was like. The “higher-ranking” ones were house slaves, whose rooms had beds; from there the conditions got progressively worse, and the lower-ranking field slaves could only sleep on the floor.

The “sick ward” had terrible conditions—in fact, even healthy people might have caught something just by going in there.

The “sickbed.”

The pots the enslaved people used for cooking.

There was a cat—no idea whether it belonged to the plantation or was just a stray—napping on a lounge chair. So cute.

The oak alley behind the house.

The outhouse.

The chicken coop.

There was also a visiting doctor; illnesses the nurses on the plantation could not treat were left to him.

Laundry kettle.

A “high-ranking” slave, pognon.

For the tour, we arrived five minutes early and lined up on the right side of the house to wait to go in. The group was fairly large, probably around 30 people. One guide led the tour.

Photography was not allowed inside the house. The house was not as huge and palace-like as I had imagined, and the third floor was not open to visitors. Interesting things included a period baby cradle and a manual rope-pulled fan operated by slaves.

The tour ended on the second-floor balcony. The tour guide had everyone hold their breath and stare ahead, then slowly opened the doors facing the oak-lined avenue. The moment the doors opened felt like a movie scene—dreamy, almost like traveling back in time.

On the sides were a lawn and a rose garden, both with lovely views.

This was the area where we had entered from the back.

After the tour, you could keep strolling along the oak avenue. There were several great photo spots there. Our kid was especially excited and took lots of pictures for us.

We went back out the same way, through the exit behind the house, where there was a gift shop, a cafe, and a restaurant. Since we still had some time, we planned to eat at the restaurant. We entered at 1:15 p.m. and waited about half an hour before getting seated. There were chairs for the line, and you could also browse the gift shop, so it did not feel too boring. As an aside: the restrooms at the New Orleans-area attractions we visited were surprisingly decent, unlike at wilderness attractions in some other places where the bathrooms can be truly awful.

The weather was so hot that we were really thirsty. We had left most of our water in the car, so my husband and our kid went to the cafe to buy water while continuing to wait for the restaurant.

We ordered New Orleans classic gumbo (okra stew) and the eggplant special of the day.

The eggplant was fried and quite soft, a bit better than what we get in our company cafeteria. But the noodles had a strong medicinal taste and were not good.

When you ordered, the restaurant asked whether you were in a hurry and what time your tour was, which was thoughtful. But the food still came out very slowly, and in the end we did not have time for dessert and had to pay and leave quickly.

We then drove another 1 hour 15 minutes to the famous New Orleans swamp tour.

This is the one I booked: https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g60864-d11460165-New_Orleans_Swamp_Tour_Boat_Adventure-New_Orleans_Louisiana.html

This one departs from Lake Salvador in the southeast, which fit our itinerary better. Other tour companies also offer tours departing from the northeast. We booked the 4:15 p.m. tour, boarded on time, and finished right at 6:00 p.m.

New Orleans lies in a hurricane zone, and Hurricane Catarina in 2004 dealt the city a severe blow. Even today, you can still see the scars the storm left behind. Pointing to two brand-new large houses on the shore, the captain said each one could be bought for just 250,000, but after buying one, first you would need to find an insurance company willing to insure it, and second, you would need to be able to afford the insurance—50,000-60,000 per year.

On our tour, the boat went quite a while before we finally found alligators. The captain was the type who liked springing “surprises.” He stopped the boat between two alligators and suddenly fed each of them a marshmallow. Setting aside the environmental issues, it was a pretty unusual experience; the alligator tour we did earlier in Florida did not have anything like this.

Watching alligators eat marshmallows was pretty funny.

Just as we were intently watching the alligators eat marshmallows, the women on the boat suddenly started screaming. I turned around and saw the captain standing right behind me holding a baby alligator, which made me start screaming too.

After that, every interested passenger on the boat could take turns holding the alligator. As the brave one in our family, I volunteered first. My teammate flatly refused, and our kid hesitated. I told our kid, “If you hold it, you beat Dad,” and our kid immediately did it. That was really not easy for such a cautious child. After trying it once, there was no more fear, and our kid even asked to hold it a second time.

The alligator’s neck was soft, its scales were cool to the touch, and it actually felt pretty nice.

The captain had previously been bitten by a large alligator, and he AirDropped every passenger a video of it. My carefree teammate actually showed it to our kid. If this were a movie, it would probably be PG-13. Our kid said it left a psychological scar.

There were some incredibly long cargo ships on the lake—far longer than a cruise ship. I had never seen a ship that long before.

On the way to the restaurant, we saw quite a few European-style buildings. New Orleans was once a French and Spanish colony, and European architecture is everywhere.

New Orleans is especially famous for its crawfish, with peak season running from mid-March to early June each year. We happened to arrive right at the end of the season, so of course we had to try some.

After the swamp tour, we drove 45 minutes to Big EZ Seafood. They have several locations, but only the Kenner location near the airport is a full-service restaurant; the other two are more like fast food. We happened to go on a Sunday, and the other two locations closed at 6 pm, so we had to make the detour to the Kenner one. You can make a reservation online, but it wasn’t crowded the day we went, so it felt like a reservation wasn’t necessary.

The Black waitress we had was excellent. We asked, and she said that only the lobster and crawfish were live that day; everything else was frozen. If you’re eating seafood, live is the way to go, so we decisively ordered only crawfish, plus a garlic noodle. We started with 3 lb of Viet-Cajun mild so the kid could eat it too, and the combo came with sausage, corn, and potatoes. It was nowhere near enough.

After the kid was full, we added another 2 lb in the EZ-blend flavor, spicy, and it was incredible. You absolutely have to order it spicy: fresh, tender, and satisfyingly hot. Kids who can’t handle spice really do hold back the food journey.

At just $7 per pound, it was dirt cheap.

The interior decor was pretty fun too, very Instagrammable.

This place was also extremely slow bringing out the food. I can’t imagine how slow it would be if every table were full. Otherwise, we could have gone for another 2 lb.

Oh right, Popeyes, which claims to have the best fried chicken in America, was born in Louisiana, where New Orleans is located, so Popeyes is everywhere in the NOLA area. Sure enough, there was one right outside our hotel.

The famous VooDoo market was also right outside the hotel. VooDoo originated from African voodoo religion and is also an important part of NOLA culture. In addition, NOLA is also said to be the birthplace of vampires, and the classic vampire film Interview with the Vampire takes place in the NOLA area. There are lots of local witch, vampire, and werewolf elements around town.

Since we still felt like we could eat more, we wanted to go to Felix's or ACME to get some char grilled oyster to go. Felix's was already closed, and Acme does not allow char grilled oyster for takeout.

From the hotel to those two restaurants was only 0.1 mile on foot, but along the way there were all kinds of people who looked like they were not in a normal state, plus people trying to shove things into passersby’s hands. I grabbed the kid and walked as fast as I could. Compared with NOLA, Vegas really feels much safer... The hotel’s side entrance on bourbon street also closed promptly at 7, while someone was still checking room keys at the main entrance. Once again, that was the only thing about this hotel that we were satisfied with.

On the last morning at check out, I went downstairs first to get the car. My teammate packed the luggage and, as usual, took photos of the room.

This was the “view” outside the hotel room window that I mentioned earlier. You could also really see how much damage the hurricane had done to the city.

At check out, the front desk messed up the invoice again. We had already prepaid the room rate for the conference rate room, and they charged it again... But strangely enough, although we had checked in a little after 6 am and it should have counted as three nights, both the room tax and valet were charged for only two nights, one rare redeeming feature.

Tipping the valet guy that day was very helpful. After I tipped him, he remembered me and even checked again for me. It was still not yet 8 in the morning, and after waiting about 15-20 minutes, the car arrived, which was also the fastest it had ever been. This hotel’s valet parking was truly a nightmare.

This was also the only hotel in recent years where, when we checked out, our feeling was, “Finally, we can check out.”

Breakfast was at District Donuts Sliders Brew. We went to the location at 527 Harrison Ave, New Orleans, LA 70124, which was also on the way. The drive over there was beautiful, through a very quiet residential neighborhood that felt completely different from downtown.

Because of New Orleans’ terrain, and also to prevent swampy ground conditions from damaging remains, the cemeteries there are known for their distinctive above-ground tombs. There are also lots of cemetery tours locally. In fact, you can pass many cemeteries just while driving around; since we weren’t particularly interested in the architecture, it was enough for us to just look from a distance.

This place has many locations, including in Vegas. As a restaurant where you start eating fried chicken at breakfast, the whole vibe is unapologetically indulgent. It’s fast-food style, and you can download their app to order. We got there early, so there weren’t many people inside and the line moved quickly. We ordered the honey butter chicken biscuit, another biscuit, two eggs, and hashbrown.

The biscuit was a little hard for me, and the fried chicken wasn’t as good as Popeyes. I did like the black pepper seasoning on the eggs and hash brown. The matcha and coffee we ordered were also not overly sweet, which was nice.

The next stop was Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. This bridge is the world’s longest continuous bridge over water, much longer than Seattle’s 520. South to north is free; north to south costs $5 cash.

After another hour of driving, we arrived at Global Wildlife. Before we even got in, we had already seen a whole group of animals.

We had booked the 11 o’clock tour, but boarding the tram didn’t actually start until 11:15, and it didn’t leave until around 11:30. The grounds were nice, and we happened to see staff cleaning the pond.

When booking the tour, we also ordered a family bucket of feed. It was a huge bucket, completely enough for the three of us to use for feeding.

The tram was pretty big—probably enough to seat over a hundred people.

The main animals you could feed were deer, sheep, and cows. There were also giraffes and camels, though they didn’t seem very interested in us. There were zebras too, and the guide repeatedly emphasized that you could not feed the zebras, because they’re highly competitive and would attack other animals if food was involved.

Our kid was thrilled and started feeding them like crazy. Before long, half the bucket was gone, so we quickly told him to slow down.

There were ostriches too.

A very laid-back camel.

The cows had such gentle eyes.

The feeding experience at this zoo was pretty good, and the explanations were very professional. The only downside was that there weren’t that many animal species, so it started to feel a little repetitive toward the end. That said, the park had a survey asking visitors what animals they’d like to see, so it seemed like they were making an effort to improve.

The items in the gift shop were pretty well made. We bought a set of zoo toys, and it was quite a bit cheaper than Amazon.

If you come to NOLA and don’t eat char grilled oyster, it just doesn’t feel right. Sure enough, even in a less touristy spot north of the bridge, there was a Felix's at 2891 U.S. Hwy 190, Mandeville, LA 70471.

As expected, there was hardly anyone in the restaurant. We ordered the charbroiled oysters we’d been craving, and they were delicious. They felt a bit like something between grilled and boiled, which was really unique. They looked heavy, but weren’t greasy or overwhelming at all. Totally different from making them at home. Our order also wasn’t salty at all, and there was no sand.

We also ordered alligator, prepared blackened. Every time I’ve had alligator, I’ve never found it particularly amazing—it’s just pretty chewy. This one was on the salty side.

We also ordered crawfish, and compared with the Big EZ Seafood we had the day before, it was night and day. The crawfish didn’t seem fresh and tasted like they had been frozen, plus there was so, so much grit—one bite and your mouth was full of sand. At this place, the char grilled oyster was really the only standout.

We wrapped up that meal quickly and headed to the last stop of the trip, another oyster spot—Luke.

We made a 3 pm appointment at Luke, but honestly it wasn’t necessary since there weren’t many people there at that hour. Street parking was actually pretty easy to find, and the restaurant also had designated parking at 205 camp st. Using the code "LUKEGUEST" got you half off.

Luke is well known for its happy hour, which runs every day from 3-6 pm, including holidays. The raw oysters are especially famous. We didn’t waste any time after walking in—we went straight for two dozen oysters. Delicious, delicious. At $1.5 each, they were absolutely worth it: fresh, sweet, and plump. We ate, paid, and were done in just half an hour. Most of the diners at that time were clearly there for happy hour too, with huge platters of oysters on every table.

After thoroughly enjoying our final two oyster meals, it was time to say goodbye to New Orleans. We returned the rental car and once again took the rental car shuttle for more than 20 minutes. Airport check-in was on the 3rd floor, while security was on the 2nd floor, which was pretty bizarre.

The Alaska ground staff took a full 10 minutes just to finish processing half of a boarding pass. One of the restrooms near security was actually out of order, and the other had a huge line. It took forever just to change clothes.

Once again, because of ticketing issues, we needed to change seats. Unlike the smooth experience on the outbound flight, the gate agent on the return trip rolled her eyes and said there were no seats. I asked whether even the last few rows were unavailable, and she rolled her eyes again but helped us switch.

We ran off to buy Cafe De Monde beignets. I don’t think I even remembered to eat these when I was in France. There was another line, and the guy at the counter looked so exhausted he could barely speak, like he might pass out at any moment. The beignets were kind of like chewier donuts. I just told my kid they were long-shaped donuts, and he couldn’t tell the difference either.

When we got back to the gate, boarding had already started, but nobody knew which group was currently boarding. Someone went to ask the gate agent and found out that just 2 minutes after boarding time began, they were already on group D. That created a huge line at the gate, and it took us 15-20 minutes before we were finally in our seats. While waiting in line, I casually used chatGPT generate to draft a complain email to Alaska Airlines, and two days later we received compensation: a $50 discount code for each of us.

On the flight back, I somehow couldn’t fall asleep, so it felt especially miserable. My partner complained that only after sitting in the last row did he realize just how many people use the restroom on a plane, and said that next time we really need to buy tickets earlier and pick better seats.

Summary

My overall takeaway from this NOLA trip: the crawfish and oysters were genuinely delicious, but the dirty and chaotic downtown area, the unprofessional hotels and airport, and the bad service attitude were all pretty off-putting. (The service at these restaurants, though, was actually quite good.)

So—NOLA is nice, but one trip is enough for me.

About the Author

This article is reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from our WeChat group, Lazy 33’s Food, Drinks, and Fun. The posts are all original and very well written, so feel free to follow if you’re interested.