Getting to New Orleans

Reading Time approximately 4 minutes and 30 seconds

Thank goodness we have GPSs. Getting to the hotel in New Orleans, after visiting 2 small towns, was a big change, to say the least. I’ve seen pictures of the many “spaghetti junctions” in Los Angeles. If you’ve seen those, this is the same if not worse. Highways over highways, over waterways, over more highways. A very complex network. But the ever-faithful (almost ever-faithful) Apple Maps got us right to our hotel, safe and sound without any wrong turns.

We pulled up to the Embassy Suites by Hilton New Orleans at 315 Julia Street and were immediately greeted by an eager valet, who took our name and gave us a ticket for the parking. We told him we would be right back and unpack the car.

Checking in to the Embassy Suites on Julia Street

We checked in at the reception desk. The lady was not very enthusiastic at all. Seemed weary. She assigned us to a room on the 14th floor of this 16-story hotel. The hotel is older than we thought. It was built in the year 2000 and has been renovated in 2016. The clerk gave us our key and counted out our breakfast and evening reception drink tickets. We were staying 6 nights, so that was supposed to be 12 breakfast tickets and 24 drink tickets. She miscounted and gave us 20 drink tickets, which we later corrected, although we didn’t use all of them.

She put us on the Premium floor, which is anything but premium. Very old decor, if you can even call it decor. It reminded me of an old coastal condo or rental. The room was small. The shower is tiny. And the lock on the door was quirky, once leaving us with an unlocked room until they repaired it, but that’s another story.

The balcony is small and the railing is concrete block. The view from the balcony was – useless. So we didn’t use it. It is facing west so it is very hot in the afternoon.

But thankfully the bed was comfortable. Setting up the router wifi was easy, (see First Thing We Do After Checking Into a Hotel)

The Lobby and Breakfast Area

The breakfast area is the most impressive space on the 1st floor. Extending 5 stories high to an open roof, there is an enormous round window in its gable. On the left and back walls there is a huge mural with life-like musicians and Mardi Gras party merrymakers.

The breakfast, as at all Embassy Suites, can be made-to-order, or you can get cereal, scrambled eggs, potatoes, and meats, etc. in a separate line. The mad-to-order has porcelain dishes. Sometimes there are porcelain dishwater in the serve-yourself line, but at other times there may be only disposable dishes, bowls, and plastic silverware.

The Hotel’s Location

Let’s get back to the hotel and its location. Julia Street runs down to the Mississippi River, ending at the Ernest Morial Convention Center, the Outlet Collection at Riverwalk mall, and the port to board cruise ships. So the hotel is well situated for convention goers and cruise liners. We saw plenty of each at our hotel. The convention center is only a few blocks from the hotel.

The Outlet Collection is what I call an indoor linear mall, with one hall running for over a ¼ of a mile along the river, housing 75 retailers and restaurants on each side of the wide hall. There is a nice patio overlooking the river, where tourists and convention attendees sat, enjoying their beverages and food while observing the activities on the river.

Maintenance Issue

Going back to the story about the malfunctioning lock, on the first morning when we were leaving the room to go down to breakfast, the lock would not lock. We went down the front desk and asked that this be taken care of immediately. Anyone could walk into our room right now. The clerk assured me that it would be fixed ASAP. When we returned to the room it was indeed fixed.

But – the next day it broke again. We had returned to the room after eating our breakfast, and upon leaving, it would not lock. So we called the front desk and they sent a maintenance guy to fix it. We waited for a while, as he disassembled the lock, but couldn’t get it back together. So he called his superior and they both were working on it. We wanted to get out and explore the town, so we asked them to be sure it was fixed before leaving. They assured us that it would be.

Long story short, we returned after about 2 hours and they were still working on it. Finally they fixed it and it worked from then on. But it was an example of the dated property.

Reviews of the Hotel

Here’s a summary of some of the reviews for this hotel, which is by no means cheap:

Common cons noted by guests include occasional issues with noise (from nearby streets or other guests), some dated decor despite renovations, and variability in cleanliness standards as experienced by some visitors. Some guests also mention that certain rooms may be dark or have limited natural light.

This aligns with typical feedback themes for similar upscale full-service hotels, where location and room space are key positives but some service or maintenance inconsistencies can be drawbacks.

The location is wonderful. The value, considering how expensive it is, is not consistent with the 4-Star rating of the hotel.

Alternative Hotels Nearby

There are plenty of hotels nearby. The one across from the Embassy Suites is a more modern looking Marriott Courtyard with generally positive guest ratings.

Other nearby hotels are –

• Hampton Inn & Suites New Orleans Convention Center
• Hilton New Orleans Riverside
• Loews New Orleans Hotel
• Sheraton New Orleans Hotel
• Hyatt Regency New Orleans
• The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel

Final Observations

The hotel wasn’t all that bad, and we did enjoy our time there, overall. And there is a lot to see and do in this party town. I’ll tell you about some of the activities we did in New Orleans Part 2 – Activities.

In the final series on New Orleans Part 3 – Restaurants, I’ll review the various eateries where we ate lunch.

What About You?

Have you been to this Mardi Gras city? What was your experience there? Where did you stay? Let us know in the comment section below. Thanks. See you soon.