New Orleans in Oct/Nov

[Christina_Snape]

Hey everyone, newbie here. I'm pretty sure I've read every single New Orleans related thread here, as well as every Quarter House related one, but I was hoping to pick your collective brains some more.

I'm hoping to travel to NOLA at the end of October. There's an event I'm hoping to attend on Nov 1st. (provided I can afford and get tickets before they sell out. But that's another story.) So the way the weeks fall for most places with a Friday check in, we'd be checking in on Oct 31st. (If I'm not mistaken it's Week 44?) I didn't intentionally want to visit on Halloween, but I had no choice in when the event was booked for. LOL

My dream location is The Quarter House, but so far that date hasn't shown up on clubs.RCI (via our Club Wyndham RCI account). I have both Avenue Plaza and La Belle Maison on a hold while I wait, but as soon as tickets are announced I'm going to want to pull the trigger and book something as soon as I can. (Unfortunately I have no idea when tickets will drop yet.)

So 1. How likely do you think it is that that week will pop up for Quarter House? Should I keep holding out hope for it, or should I book one of the others when tickets for the event go on sale? How late would you leave it/wait for an opening before booking something?

2. For those folks that have stayed in at least 2, if not all 3, of these places tell me your thoughts. How do they compare? I know it's not easy to compare Quarter House to the others because they're so different, but would you be disappointed if you had to stay in one of the others? Are they worth it for a first timer's trip to NOLA? Which of the other 2 do you prefer, and why? They're pretty evenly matched for me, I keep going back and forth between which one is my number 2 and 3 choice.

For me, Avenue Plaza seems quiet, good location on the streetcar line, though I'm concerned about the travel time, but it gets bonus points for having a haunted house on the property! Whereas La Belle Maison has a bit more character to the rooms (barely, and not all rooms, but more than Avenue Plaza does!), and is closer to the French Quarter so less travel. But I'm not one for crowds or loudness, so it'll be days in the French Quarter, and various sightseeing, and nights in the hotel! (Even the Quarter House, might be too noisy for me, but it wins out due to its character alone! And I have already emailed with them, and Nina let me know that if I can avoid staying in the back building (I presume that's anything that faces the alley) that would be best for me, but otherwise the hotel itself shouldn't be too noisy.)

I probably have more things I could ask/talk about, but I'll leave it at that for now, so I'm not babbling on and on.
Thank you all for your time and opinions! Hit me with every nitty gritty detail you want. I'll gladly absorb it all when I check back later tonight!

 

[Rolltydr]

We’ve stayed at La Belle and Avenue Plaza. We aren’t big French Quarter partiers but we do prefer La Belle for it’s location. We walk almost everywhere and take the trolley or Uber when we need to. La Belle has larger units and is more centrally located to the restaurants and attractions that we enjoy. We do most of our activities during the day and get back to the room by 8-9 in the evening.

 

[NiKan]

La Belle Maison and Quarter House are both great and only a few blocks away from each other!

You’ll be really happy with La Belle plus you’ll have the best Egg Benedicts in the country across the street with The Ruby Slipper.

Avenue Plaza is okay bc it’s in the beautiful Garden District with a trolley stop right out front but it can’t compete with the location of the other two.

I doubt you’ll have much noise at La Belle bc it’s in a chiller area, and Quarter House you don’t hear the outside noise at all because the rooms are on the inside of the unit with the living room near the street side windows to dampen the noise

 

[Christina_Snape]

Thank you both!
(I'll continue to accept more thoughts/opinions!)

Yeah, most of the places I want to eat are French Quarter area, though there are about 5 (and still adding to my list) off the beaten path spread between the Garden District and the Audubon Zoo area. So Avenue Plaza is a bit more centrally located to those... but still... 90% of the food and attractions I want to visit are French Quarter area.
I already have 28 food places on my list and I'm only gonna be there a week! Some of them will have to get cut, especially since I'm not done adding to it yet.

La Belle was originally my #2 choice... And it feels like that's the right choice for location and rooms (size etc)... But Avenue Plaza keeps drawing me back in with the haunted house. Especially on Halloween! I mean, how perfect is that!? LOL
But it's rooms are so much smaller, and I do anticipate spending a lot of time in the room. I'm also hoping for a 2 bedroom, and Avenue Plaza doesn't have any. (currently though, I only have a 1bd on hold with La Belle. a 2bd hasn't come up yet... and RCI's site is incorrect for the 7-night listing they say Avenue Plaza has 2 bedrooms in the room descriptions, and they don't list 2bds for La Belle, but it should be the opposite. If you look at the less than 7 nights listings those ones are correct...) There might only be 2 of us going, but could be up to 4 if others can make it last minute. So the extra space would be nice just in case we need it.

So I think La Belle is back to number 2! I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that a Quarter House one will pop up though.

 

[Rolltydr]

Thank you both!
(I'll continue to accept more thoughts/opinions!)

Yeah, most of the places I want to eat are French Quarter area, though there are about 5 (and still adding to my list) off the beaten path spread between the Garden District and the Audubon Zoo area. So Avenue Plaza is a bit more centrally located to those... but still... 90% of the food and attractions I want to visit are French Quarter area.
I already have 28 food places on my list and I'm only gonna be there a week! Some of them will have to get cut, especially since I'm not done adding to it yet.

La Belle was originally my #2 choice... And it feels like that's the right choice for location and rooms (size etc)... But Avenue Plaza keeps drawing me back in with the haunted house. Especially on Halloween! I mean, how perfect is that!? LOL
But it's rooms are so much smaller, and I do anticipate spending a lot of time in the room. I'm also hoping for a 2 bedroom, and Avenue Plaza doesn't have any. (currently though, I only have a 1bd on hold with La Belle. a 2bd hasn't come up yet... and RCI's site is incorrect for the 7-night listing they say Avenue Plaza has 2 bedrooms in the room descriptions, and they don't list 2bds for La Belle, but it should be the opposite. If you look at the less than 7 nights listings those ones are correct...) There might only be 2 of us going, but could be up to 4 if others can make it last minute. So the extra space would be nice just in case we need it.

So I think La Belle is back to number 2! I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that a Quarter House one will pop up though.

There’s a really good food tour in the Garden District (Magazine Street Foodie Tour) that takes you to about 5 or 6 different restaurants and bars. It sounds like you have quite a list but just thought I’d mention it.

 

[Christina_Snape]

There’s a really good food tour in the Garden District (Magazine Street Foodie Tour) that takes you to about 5 or 6 different restaurants and bars. It sounds like you have quite a list but just thought I’d mention it.

Thanks, I'll look it up! A food tour is a want if we can afford it. But a Vampire Tour is number one if we can only manage one tour. (We're going for author Anne Rice's memorial service, so... I'm staying on theme as much as possible!)

 

[chapjim]

Have you secured lodging yet?

I agree the week you want is Week 44 -- Friday start would be October 31. That makes things difficult as Halloween is a popular week in N.O.

I have a 1BR unit for Week 46 that I never use. I can ask QH if they can do an in-house exchange if you're still looking.

If you are an oyster fan, try Casamento's out Magazine Street. Casamento's is so into oysters that they close May-August, the non-oyster months. No ambience. White tile. Looks like the men's room in a bus station.

Check the hours of operation. They close for a couple of hours between lunch and dinner.

 

[claraj]

We're going for author Anne Rice's memorial service, so... I'm staying on theme as much as possible!)

I'm a huge Anne Rice fan! I won auctions for 2 of her personal books last year, don't even know what I plan to do with them.

I was in New Orleans a few years ago during Halloween. It's a great time. They have a Halloween parade in the French Quarter.

 

[Christina_Snape]

Have you secured lodging yet?

I agree the week you want is Week 44 -- Friday start would be October 31. That makes things difficult as Halloween is a popular week in N.O.

I have a 1BR unit for Week 46 that I never use. I can ask QH if they can do an in-house exchange if you're still looking.

If you are an oyster fan, try Casamento's out Magazine Street. Casamento's is so into oysters that they close May-August, the non-oyster months. No ambience. White tile. Looks like the men's room in a bus station.

Check the hours of operation. They close for a couple of hours between lunch and dinner.

I was wondering if you'd see this and have any insights for me! I've seen a ton of your QH related posts around the forum.

No, haven't booked anything yet. Was going to hold off until May at the latest, in the hopes that a last minute QH pops up on the clubs.RCI exchange. There's at least 4 (if not more) La Belle Maison suites available, so I'm not concerned about losing out at the moment. (And if I do lose out, then it just wasn't meant to be.) Somehow I ended up with 3 of them in my holds because the site has been giving fun glitches that currently have worked in my favour, and there was still at least 1 more available to book. So I've been keeping 2 of those in my holds, with alternate release dates, and re-adding it whenever one expires.

But also, not planning to book anything until the event tickets go on sale, because if those are too expensive, or they sell out before I can get any, then there's no point in booking accommodations. So it's a waiting game at the moment anyway, regardless.

But out of curiosity, how would the in-house exchange work? (feel free to message me if you want to info dump.) Because I can, unfortunately, only book through our club wyndham RCI exchange, we don't have the funds to book otherwise. But always interested in learning more.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not a huge oyster fan, but I think my mom is, so I'll be sure to let her know!

 

[Christina_Snape]

I'm a huge Anne Rice fan! I won auctions for 2 of her personal books last year, don't even know what I plan to do with them.

I was in New Orleans a few years ago during Halloween. It's a great time. They have a Halloween parade in the French Quarter.

Awesome! Was that during the auction that Christopher held with a lot of the items from her estate? I looked through the auction listings for that. So many cool things!!!

Yeah the main Krewe of Boo Parade this year is the weekend before Halloween (25th) so part of me is hoping that means the weekend of Halloween will actually be a little less crazy, given that the main festivities will already be over. But that's probably just wishful thinking... LOL

 

[claraj]

Was that during the auction that Christopher held with a lot of the items from her estate?

Yes it was! It was incredible to go through the catalog.

 

[chapjim]

I was wondering if you'd see this and have any insights for me! I've seen a ton of your QH related posts around the forum.

No, haven't booked anything yet. Was going to hold off until May at the latest, in the hopes that a last minute QH pops up on the clubs.RCI exchange. There's at least 4 (if not more) La Belle Maison suites available, so I'm not concerned about losing out at the moment. (And if I do lose out, then it just wasn't meant to be.) Somehow I ended up with 3 of them in my holds because the site has been giving fun glitches that currently have worked in my favour, and there was still at least 1 more available to book. So I've been keeping 2 of those in my holds, with alternate release dates, and re-adding it whenever one expires.

But also, not planning to book anything until the event tickets go on sale, because if those are too expensive, or they sell out before I can get any, then there's no point in booking accommodations. So it's a waiting game at the moment anyway, regardless.

But out of curiosity, how would the in-house exchange work? (feel free to message me if you want to info dump.) Because I can, unfortunately, only book through our club wyndham RCI exchange, we don't have the funds to book otherwise. But always interested in learning more.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not a huge oyster fan, but I think my mom is, so I'll be sure to let her know!

It's pretty simple. I offer a week that I own and ask if there is availability for the week that I want.

 

[Christina_Snape]

It's pretty simple. I offer a week that I own and ask if there is availability for the week that I want.

Well, I figured that much. Lol I just wasn't sure how things would work for me after that if there was availability.
Is it A. Just general knowledge that they're not fully booked.
B. They give you the week and you could rent it out. (Doesn't work for me, but good to know)
C. You get the week, and could then put it up for exchange again through club wyndham's RCI exchange. (If both QH and Wyndham allow an internally exchanged week to then be externally exchanged)
D. The above but through regular RCI (no guarantee I can see the week through clubs.RCI. Sometimes they're the same, sometimes they're not.)

So yeah, I just wasn't sure what the purpose/follow-up would be.
I'm way too analytical/detail oriented, sorry! LOL I need to know everything.

 

[chapjim]

Well, I figured that much. Lol I just wasn't sure how things would work for me after that if there was availability.
Is it A. Just general knowledge that they're not fully booked.
B. They give you the week and you could rent it out. (Doesn't work for me, but good to know)
C. You get the week, and could then put it up for exchange again through club wyndham's RCI exchange. (If both QH and Wyndham allow an internally exchanged week to then be externally exchanged)
D. The above but through regular RCI (no guarantee I can see the week through clubs.RCI. Sometimes they're the same, sometimes they're not.)

So yeah, I just wasn't sure what the purpose/follow-up would be.
I'm way too analytical/detail oriented, sorry! LOL I need to know everything.

QH has a number of weeks itself, plus whatever weeks may have been deposited by owners seeking an exchange.

When you find out about tickets, let me know if you want me to try the in-house exchange at QH.