Three boats work the Mississippi from the French Quarter: a true steamboat with 1925 engines, an 880-passenger paddlewheeler, and a brand-new riverboat christened in 2025. Between them they run ten bookable cruises: jazz dinners, weekend brunches, the two-hour daytime classic, a history sailing that lands at an 1815 battlefield, and full-day city combos. This is all of them, compared by what each actually gives you.
15,153 traveller reviews across the 10 sailings, and every one offers free cancellation, usually up to 24 hours before departure.
Listings, wharves and prices checked against every live booking page. How we check
Short answer
The Steamboat NATCHEZ daytime jazz cruise ($43.50) is the classic first pick, and the evening jazz cruise ($58, or $107.50 with dinner) is the same idea with the city lit up. The Creole Queen runs the only cruise that goes ashore, an hour at Chalmette Battlefield with a park ranger ($47). Short on time or money, the 75-minute narrated run is $25.75. All three boats leave from the French Quarter riverfront within a ten-minute walk of each other, sail rain or shine, and cancel free.
Five kinds of sailing run this river, and the fork that matters is what you want the boat to do: feed you after dark, brunch you on a weekend morning, show you the port working in daylight, land you at a battlefield, or anchor a full touring day. Each page below compares its options side by side.
Jazz dinner cruises
Best for date nights, anniversaries and first-time visitors who want the full New Orleans evening
Jazz brunch cruises
Best for families, Sunday celebrations and anyone who wants the river in daylight
Daytime river cruises
Best for tight itineraries, kids and anyone who wants to see the port actually working
History cruises
Best for history buffs and anyone who wants the cruise to land somewhere real
Cruise & city tour combos
Best for one-full-day visitors who want the city and the river without planning the logistics
Every cruise on this site runs on one of three vessels, and knowing them apart is most of the choosing. The New Orleans Steamboat Company runs the NATCHEZ and the CITY of NEW ORLEANS from the Toulouse Street Wharf behind Jax Brewery; New Orleans Paddlewheels runs the Creole Queen from Spanish Plaza, a ten-minute walk downriver.
| Toulouse Street Wharf | 400 Toulouse Street, behind Jax Brewery in the French Quarter. The Steamboat NATCHEZ: daytime, evening and brunch jazz cruises. Paid lots on Decatur Street nearby; walking beats driving here. |
|---|---|
| Wharf at 101 St Louis Street | One block from Toulouse, the CITY of NEW ORLEANS's berth for the 75-minute sightseeing runs and her brunch and dinner sailings. |
| Spanish Plaza, 1 Poydras Street | Next to the Riverwalk outlets at the foot of Canal Street. The Creole Queen: history cruises at midday, dinner jazz at night. The easiest walk from CBD and Canal Street hotels. |
Boarding starts at least 30 minutes before every departure, and the boats sail very close to on time. The NATCHEZ boards at 11:00am, 2:00pm and 6:00pm for 11:30am, 2:30pm and 7:00pm sailings.
Three sailings carry most of the bookings on this river, and they are genuinely different trips rather than three versions of one. The evening NATCHEZ is the classic night out, the daytime run is the same boat with the port awake, and the Chalmette cruise is the one that goes somewhere.
2 hours · New Orleans Steamboat Company (Gray Line New Orleans)
The evening run on the last true steamboat working this stretch of the Mississippi. The Dukes of Dixieland play the dining room, the captain narrates the harbor, and the Creole dinner buffet is an add-on rather than an obligation. The skyline does its best work after dark.
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2 hours · New Orleans Steamboat Company (Gray Line New Orleans)
The sailing most people mean when they say they rode the steamboat: two hours on the river with Duke Heitger and the Steamboat Stompers, the calliope playing you aboard, and the full harbor narration. Lunch is a genuinely optional add-on. 4,639 travellers have rated it.
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1.5-hour cruise + 1-hour battlefield tour · New Orleans Paddlewheels, Inc.
The one sailing on this river that actually lands somewhere. The Creole Queen runs downriver past the working port, ties up at Chalmette Battlefield, and a National Park Service ranger walks you through where the Battle of New Orleans was fought in January 1815. Lunch on board is optional.
Check Price & Availability →The Steamboat was very nice the food was amazing I recommend getting the lunch or the dinner cruise the history of the boat and history around New Orleans was very interesting the ride was very smooth had a wonderful time recommend to take children staff was awesome they really was very friendly also the jazz band was so good we danced and had a good time
This was an amazing experience. The food was wonderful, hot, authentic and plentiful. The staff were all fun and knowledgeable, and the hospitality was tier one. The music and the aviance of the scenic route was mesmerizing. We will definitely be returning.
the whole experience was great!! we have been on many of these throughout the US and this was the best one ever. The narrator was awesome, so much good information. Thank you for an awesome time.
It poured during most of our tour, but there were plenty of indoor or covered areas to stay dry. The captain was very knowledgeable, jazz band was good, engine room was neat, bar and bartenders were great! Highly recommend!
I came on solo and it was absolutely amazing!! The staff were super generous and the history was quite intriguing made humorous! The food was everything!
Not sure what I was expecting but was less than expected. Food was okay. Music was okay. The trip was kind of short.
A few of the reviews travellers have left on these sailings, word for word, the lukewarm one included.
A feel for the decks, the band and the wheel before you commit, from travellers who filmed their own cruises.
We do not earn anything from these videos.
The river runs cheaper than most people expect, and the meal decides most of the bill. Every fare below is the current from-price on the live listing, per person; the with-meal figures are the operators' own published prices for the same sailings.
| What you are booking | From | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| 75-minute sightseeing run | $25.75 | The budget ticket: live captain's narration, bars on every deck, kids 6 to 12 at $12.75 and under-6s free. No band, no meal, same river. |
| Daytime and brunch jazz cruises | $43.50 to $44 | Two hours with a live jazz band and full narration. The Creole lunch adds $21.50 on the NATCHEZ ($65 all in); the weekend brunch buffet brings it to $80. |
| The Chalmette history cruise | $47 | The 2.5-hour trip downriver with a historian narrating and an hour ashore at the 1815 battlefield with a National Park Service ranger. Lunch optional. |
| Evening jazz cruises | $58 to $60 | The city lit up, the Dukes of Dixieland on the NATCHEZ, and dinner as an add-on: $107.50 with the Creole buffet on the steamboat. |
| Full-day city combos | $88 to $99 | The riverboat folded into a guided city day: bus tour, cemetery or French Quarter walk, and the cruise, timed on one ticket. |
| The VIP evening | $190.50 | Early boarding, front-row band seats, the buffet and a champagne cocktail included, and the only ticket with a private tour of the 1925 engine room. Rated 4.8 by 893 travellers. |
The boat question is the one travellers argue about, so here it is settled by what each boat is actually for rather than by loyalty.
| NATCHEZ | Creole Queen | CITY of NEW ORLEANS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built | 1975, steam engines from 1925 | 1983, diesel-electric | 1991, christened here in 2025 |
| Powered by | True steam driving the wheel | Diesel-electric, 24-ft wheel | Diesel-electric, working wheel |
| Capacity | About 1,600 across four decks | 880, biggest indoor dining rooms | 1,000, elevators on decks 1 to 3 |
| Signature cruise | Evening jazz with the Dukes of Dixieland | The Chalmette history cruise | The $25.75 75-minute run |
| Pick it for | The steamboat experience itself | History, indoor comfort, Canal St access | Budget, short visits, step-free decks |
This river works year-round, and the boats sail rain or shine; a cruise is cancelled only when the Coast Guard calls severe weather on the river. What changes through the year is the comfort of the deck, not the schedule.
The music is live on every jazz sailing, and the lineups are real working bands, not a playlist. Daytime on the NATCHEZ belongs to Duke Heitger and the Steamboat Stompers, with a jazz pianist or trio filling the room between sets. The evening slot is the Grammy-nominated Dukes of Dixieland, a New Orleans institution that has anchored the dinner cruise for years. The Creole Queen's weekend mornings carry the Muddy Mississippi Band over the brunch buffet, and her dinner cruise runs its own traditional jazz band into the night.
Before any NATCHEZ departure there is one more instrument: the 32-note steam calliope on the top deck, custom built in the Gilded Age style, played live before boarding. You can hear it across the Quarter. That sound has advertised this boat since before websites, and it still works.
From $25.75 for the 75-minute narrated run to $190.50 for the VIP evening. The middle of the market is $43.50 to $60 for the two-hour jazz cruises, with meals as add-ons: $65 with lunch, $80 with brunch, $107.50 with dinner on the steamboat's own price list. Prices move with the date, so the live listing is always the authority.
If you want a real steamboat, yes without qualification: she is one of only two true steam sternwheelers left on the Mississippi, and the engine room viewing area alone justifies the fare for anyone who likes machinery. The 4.4 rating across nearly 10,000 reviews on her two big listings is earned. If you mainly want cheap time on the water, the $25.75 run does that job instead.
The NATCHEZ for the boat itself: steam, the calliope, the Dukes of Dixieland. The Creole Queen for the history cruise, indoor space and the shortest walk from Canal Street. They are ten minutes apart on foot, so plenty of travellers simply do one by day and the other by night.
Almost never by default, and that is a feature. The jazz cruises sell the boat ride at $43.50 to $60 and offer the Creole buffet as an add-on, so you decide whether the meal is part of the evening. Only the VIP sailing includes its buffet in the ticket. Buffets are cooked on board: gumbo, jambalaya, bread pudding with whiskey sauce.
Seventy-five minutes for the sightseeing run, two hours for the jazz cruises, about two and a half for the Chalmette history trip, and six-plus for the city combos. Add the boarding window: the NATCHEZ boards a full hour before sailing, and the calliope concert makes arriving early the right call anyway.
No, and the distinction saves people real money. These are two-to-three-hour excursion cruises from $25.75, returning to the same wharf. The multi-day voyages to Memphis or Minneapolis are floating hotels costing thousands. If you are in New Orleans and want the river, this page is the version that fits inside an afternoon.
The operator's own rule: casual on every cruise, with dressy casual recommended for the dinner jazz cruise. In practice, sundresses to jeans all board without a glance. Flat shoes earn their keep on deck stairs, and the NATCHEZ is stairs-only between decks.
Yes, rain or shine, with enclosed air-conditioned dining rooms and covered deck sections. Only a Coast Guard severe-weather call stops a sailing, in which case the operator arranges a dockside event or rebooking. Reviewers who sailed through downpours mostly report it barely mattered.
Yes on every sailing. Under-6s ride the 75-minute run free and children 6 to 12 pay $12.75 there; the steamboat's engine room, whistle and paddlewheel do most of the entertaining. Mornings suit families better than the dinner cruises, and the elevator-equipped CITY of NEW ORLEANS is the stroller-friendly hull.
The longer answers, written out properly: what each boat actually is, what the money buys, and how the wharf logistics really work.
The 1925 engines, the calliope, every cruise she runs and which ticket fits.
All ten fares in one table, what meals add, and where the value hides.
The river's oldest argument, settled by what each boat is for.
All riverboat guides · All answers
Chris Mackelroy is a New Orleans-based river cruise specialist who has guided visitors on the Mississippi since 2015 and has helped more than 1,000 travellers plan their time on this water. He knows which deck catches the breeze, when the calliope plays, and which sailing fits a family, a date night or a history buff.
Every sailing here was read on its live booking page, every rating is the platform's own figure at the time it was checked, and every price is the current from-price corroborated against the operators' own published price lists. Where two sources disagreed on a figure, the figure is not printed.