Can you believe it’s already Valentine’s Day? How is that possible? 2020 is literally flying by, and I just realized I still hadn’t shared with you all about our recent Christmas holiday trip!
This Christmas was a big one for my family — my grandmother turned 85, and told us that she wanted to mark her birthday by eating turtle soup at Commander’s Palace (a restaurant she first visited more than 50 years ago!) The rest of us quickly got on board with her genius idea, and before I knew it I was planning a family Christmas vacation to New Orleans for eight people — including a senior who’s not as mobile as she used to be and two teenagers. That’s no small order in a city filled with cobblestone streets and adults-only establishments!
First off, though, we had to figure out where to stay. Since I began working at Hilton late last year, I’m able to take advantage of some pretty amazing team member pricing options on certain properties, and this trip was no exception: we booked at the Roosevelt, a Waldorf Astoria hotel, known for their holiday lobby decorations. Normally, the Roosevelt at that time of year would have easily run $300/night or more; I was able to snag a room for just $75/night using the team member rate.
Turns out, this was both a blessing and a curse. Yes, the lobby was nicely decorated. But it was also a complete and total mad house. The lobby was packed at all hours of the day and night with non-hotel-guests attempting to take family Christmas photos. In retrospect, even given the substantial Hilton team member discount, I would have preferred to stay elsewhere.
Other than the lobby, though, the hotel was sufficient. We had a standard King room, which was a bit on the smaller side, but met our needs.
Once we’d settled in, it was immediately time to dig into some classic New Orleans cuisine and so we headed over to Mahony’s in the French Quarter for a quick lunch. These po-boys hit the spot, and my mom and I even snapped a selfie in front of their impressive wall-o-Tabasco.
Over the next few days, we managed to pack in quite the itinerary of holiday classics around the Crescent City. Of course, my grandmother got her requested visit to Commander’s Palace, and it was indeed one of the best meals I’d ever had there.
We also took the family to a holiday tea at the Windsor Court Hotel, which the grown-ups loved, but the teenagers declared the absolute height of boredom. Turns out the Windsor Court also had lovely lobby decorations, and we managed to take a nice family photo.
The hubby and I managed to sneak off a few times for some alone time, and of course, to check out our favorite New Orleans cocktail bars that were all decked out for the holidays.
We were too busy indulging in all the family fun to get blog-worthy photos of several of the other activities we participated in this trip — including a visit to the WWII museum, Christmas Eve dinner aboard the Steamboat Natchez paddleboat, brunch at Compere Lapin, dinners at Maypop and Bywater American Bistro, wine at Bacchanal — though my Instagram followers did get to see all of those things, so make sure to do a quick follow if you’re not following already!
However, I did make sure to get several photos at my absolute favorite meal of this trip, which was the Legs-n-Eggs brunch at SoBou, inside the W French Quarter hotel. This burlesque brunch featured great decor, absolutely amazing food, and some very talented entertainers. I would highly recommend it!
And that’s about it! I believe this was my seventh or eighth trip to New Orleans since Katrina; it’s just a city I absolutely can’t get enough of. And while having the family in tow meant we spent more time in the Quarter this visit than we normally do, it was another great trip to one of our favorite places.
