New Orleans Holiday Trip

Okay, I’m pretty well caught up and ready to make my promised report about our New Orleans trip.  After a fun-filled holiday visit at the Frugal Princess house in Columbus, GA, all six of us, plus Zachary’s girlfriend, Taylor, piled into two vehicles on New Year’s morning and headed south.  Kaitlynn drove one car for awhile to get some long-distance freeway driving experience, but that was cut short when we encountered driving rain and she was glad to turn over the wheel to an adult.  Then she, Zachary, and Taylor slept most of the way since the latter two had been to a church youth lock-down  for New Year’s Eve.  They called it a sleepover but I don’t think much sleep took place!

With only a quick stop at McDonald’s for lunch, we arrived late afternoon in New Orleans and checked into Harrah’s hotel.  Brad and I found one of our favorite VP machine open, $1 Triple Play NSUDs.  Angela was tired from the long drive and fighting a bad cold so she took a nap.  Steve and the kids walked around the waterfront,  doing geocaching and sightseeing.  Then we all met back at the room and went to the Grand Isle Restaurant for dinner.

Having kids with us in New Orleans necessitates some special arrangements since no one under 21 is  allowed entry into the casino, even to go to a food outlet.  So that rules out the food court and the buffet.  But this has not been a problem during any of our visits during the holidays the last three years.  The kids feel it is a treat to have room service for breakfast and we can always bring them carry-out from the casino food court.  Plus we can take them to any of Harrah’s partner restaurants not in the casino itself, with Ruth’s Chris Steak House in the hotel being a handy choice. 

However, their favorite  is Gordon Biersch’s Brewery Restaurant, where we have had one of our 7 Star “celebration dinners” each year.  We usually have other relatives in town to help us use up the $500 that must be used for that one meal – we are all too frugal to let any of that go to waste!  This year we had a real surprise during our meal here.  Drew Brees and his family and friends were also eating there.  Although the Saints had lost that Sunday afternoon, the fans filling the restaurant went wild , with yells and chants of “Who dat” following  the Brees group as they  filed out.

Since this was Brad’s  free 7 Star trip (I still have to use mine), we had two nice adjoining rooms.  We usually get a huge suite, but because of it being New Year’s Eve weekend, plus a Saints game, we weren’t quite high enough on the gambler totem pole this year.   But with two adjoining rooms, one a mini-suite, we had plenty of room for 4 adults and 3 teenagers to spread out.

We enjoy the perks in New Orleans of being 7 Star.  We can always get carriage rides.  This year we gave one to Zachary and Taylor for a little romantic getaway from the group.  And there was an improved perk we really took advantage of.  7 Stars usually get free room movies but in the past in NO you were limited to one per room per “trip.”  They recently changed it to TWO free movies per DAY.  So with 2 rooms we had a total of 12 free movies – and I think we used them all since the kids – and their parents – are all avid movie watchers.  Brad and I didn’t watch as many since we had “work” to do in the casino, but Ang and Steve “helped” us with that some of the time.

Monday one car took back the part of the family that had to go to work or had other things they had to do on Tuesday.  On Tuesday morning the second car took the rest of the Columbus family home.  Brad and I got a late checkout Tuesday afternoon and then our limo to the airport picked us up and threaded through the packed streets full of Suger Bowl fans.

Our plane was about an hour late leaving NO, but we finally arrived back in Vegas nonstop about 8:30 p.m.  Our friends picked us up.  We stopped at a couple of casinos to pick up free play.  And then it was Home Sweet Home!