[Ohio-Talk] Navigating the Hotel

[Jordy Stringer]

New Orleans is a city rich with traditions and celebrations. Honoring that
tradition, let's approach the layout of the New Orleans Marriott by
imagining a birthday celebration for a two-year-old. We're going to present
this young birthday celebrant with a square four-layer cake with two
candles. Since this cake is imaginary, you can make it any flavor and
choose your favorite frosting. Rather than placing the candles in the
middle of the cake, we'll place them near the two front corners of our
cake. And don't sneak a taste of the frosting! You can celebrate when we're
done with our tour of the hotel.

Now let's put our analogy to work. The Marriott takes up an entire square
city block on the edge of the French Quarter, New Orleans' oldest
neighborhood. Picture the hotel as our layer cake, with each square layer
placed directly on top of those below it. There are two towers of sleeping
rooms. The birthday candle on the left rises twenty-one floors and is
called the Quarter Tower, named for the French Quarter. The birthday candle
on the right is known as the River Tower, given the hotel's proximity to
the mighty Mississippi River. It contains forty-one floors. The lobby takes
up much of the first layer of the cake. The second, third, and fourth
layers are filled with meeting space. The roof of the fourth floor is,
figuratively speaking, the icing on the cake in more ways than one—on the
fifth floor between the two birthday candles are the hotel's two rooftop
swimming pools.

The Marriott's main entrance is on Canal Street, roughly in the center of
the hotel. Stepping through the two sets of doors, you will walk up several
steps to find yourself in the hotel's bustling lobby. Turn to the right and
you will immediately find the line for the front desk on your right,
running along the Canal Street wall. Unless you arrive late at night, you
can expect this to be a busy and crowded area. Working your way through the
crowd, as you approach the end of the reservation desk, you will find the
River Tower escalators to your left positioned perpendicularly to the
registration desk. These escalators run to the second and third floors of
the meeting space. Also on your left, just beyond the escalators is the
FedEx business office, a helpful place to go if your chapter or affiliate
has shipped something to the hotel. Past the registration desk and the
business office, you will enter the River Tower elevator lobby. In this
elevator lobby, you will find seven elevators labeled A through G in a
clockwise pattern. Elevators A, B, and C are on your left, elevator D is on
the wall in front of you, and elevators E, F, and G are on the right. These
elevators stop at all meeting room levels, the fifth floor for the pool and
the fitness center, and the River Tower sleeping rooms. There is more to
say about the elevators at the hotel, but we will save that for the end of
the tour.

Let’s return to the top of the front door steps where we began. If we
continue walking straight, heading across the lobby, we pass on our left
the bellstand and the concierge counter. On the right is a large lobby bar
called 55 Fahrenheit. The bar itself is far to the right, backed up against
the River Tower escalators. The majority of the space between you and the
bar is filled with a variety of tables and comfortable seating clusters.
Continuing our walk across the lobby brings you to the entrance of 5Fifty5,
the hotel's main restaurant. Just to the right is the entrance to the M
Club for qualified Marriott Bonvoy members. To your left is a large
revolving door that exits to the porte-cochère and parking garage.
Wheelchair users will want to use this entrance and exit as there are also
ADA paddle-operated doors at this location. Some of you arriving via
airport transportation may enter the hotel through these doors. If instead
we turn to the right at the 5Fifty5 entrance, walking with the side of 55
Fahrenheit on our right, we will reach the Canal Street Pantry. The Pantry,
in the far right corner of our first layer, offers prepackaged foods, fresh
fruit, salads, made-to-order pizzas and sandwiches as well as a selection
of beer, wine, and liquor.

Now let’s return once more to the top of the stairs where we first entered
the lobby. If we were instead to turn left, we would find ourselves headed
towards the Quarter Tower escalators that run parallel to Canal Street.
These serve the second and third floors of the meeting space. To the right
of the escalators is the Quarter Tower elevator lobby. All passenger
elevators—H, I, J, and K—are on the right side of the lobby. On the left
are two service elevators. These elevators stop at all floors except the
fourth floor. On the wall in between the Quarter Tower escalators and
elevators is an ATM.

Let’s take the Quarter Tower escalators to the second floor. There are two
meeting room clusters on the second floor: the Preservation Hall Studio
breakouts are on the Quarter Tower side while the Galerie meeting rooms are
closer to the River Tower side.

As we step off the escalators on the second floor and turn to our right,
with Canal Street now at our backs, we are facing Preservation Hall with
its collection of breakout meeting rooms. As we approach the Preservation
Hall entrance, the Quarter Tower elevators are on our right. There are also
restrooms, men’s to the left and women’s to the right, just before we enter
the Studios foyer. The meeting rooms vary in size and are arranged in a
horseshoe. Down the left side are Studios 1 through 5, Studio 6 is at the
very back, and Studios 7 through 10 work their way back to the foyer
entrance on the right side.

The other second floor meeting room cluster hosts Galerie 1 through Galerie
6. If we were to have made a U-turn at the top of the escalator, we would
be heading back towards the River Tower elevators with Canal Street on our
right. On the left is Galerie 1. Further down the corridor is Galerie 4.
Galerie 2 and 3 are stacked behind Galerie 1 while Galerie 5 and 6 are
stacked behind Galerie 4. Turning left around the corner of Galerie 4 will
take us down a hallway with entrances to Galeries 4, 5, and 6 on our left.
On the right we will pass the River Tower elevators and the River Tower
escalators. Further down this corridor on the right is another set of
restrooms and the Galerie registration desk.

You may have noticed that I did not talk about the entrances to Galeries 2
and 3. This is a bit tricky. You will remember when we first arrived on the
second floor, we passed the Quarter Tower elevators. Stepping through the
elevator lobby you will find a narrow hallway extending to the left away
from Canal Street. Down this hallway on the right are entrances to Galeries
1, 2, and 3.

Let’s go back to the Quarter Tower escalators and take them up one more
level to the third layer of our birthday cake. As with the second floor
level, the third floor has two meeting clusters. The large ballrooms that
will house our largest sessions, collectively called the Grand
Ballroom—Acadia, Bissonet, and Carondelet—are on the Quarter Tower side
while Salons A through H are on the River Tower side.

And as with the second floor, turning to our right off the escalators, with
Canal Street at our back, we stand in the Grand Ballroom foyer facing the
doors to the Acadia ballroom. Beyond Acadia is Bissonnet and further yet is
Carondelet.

Again, as with the second floor, if we were to have made a U-turn at the
top of the Quarter Tower escalators, we would be heading back towards the
River Tower elevators. With Canal Street on our right, we will pass the
entrance to a hallway that runs perpendicular to Canal Street and between
the ballrooms and the salons. Down this hallway are entrances to the
ballrooms on the left and entrances to Salons D, E, and H on the right.
Continuing along the Canal Street wall, we pass entrances to Salons A, B,
and C. Turning left at the end of the corridor and heading towards the back
side of our layer cake, the River Tower elevators and escalators are on the
right while entrances to salons D, E, and F are on the left. The third
floor restrooms are just past the escalators.

There is still one more layer to our cake. There are only a small number of
meeting rooms on the fourth floor, and many of you will not have need to
visit them. The primary means of access to the meeting rooms is the River
Tower elevators. As you step out of the River Tower elevator lobby on the
fourth floor, the Canal Street hallway serving Balcony rooms I, J, and K is
just off to the left. Turning right out of the elevator lobby, we pass four
meeting rooms on the right: Bonaparte, Regent, Bacchus, and Iberville. At
the end of the corridor on the left is a hallway parallel to Canal Street,
containing entrances to Balcony L, M, and N. Pro tip: there are two small
set of stairs across from Bonaparte and Iberville that run between the
third and fourth floors.

As you now know, the fifth floor is our frosting. The elevator lobbies in
either tower provide direct access to the pool deck, which sits between our
two birthday candles. There are four meeting rooms on the fifth floor
accessible from the River Tower elevators. Turn right when exiting the
elevator lobby and walk down the hallway. On the right are four small
meeting rooms: Audubon, Beauregard, Galvez, and Jackson. On the left are
sleeping rooms, and at the far end of the hallway is the health club.

There is one more small meeting cluster on the 41st floor of the River
Tower. Here you will find Napoleon, Lafayette, Saint Charles, Riverview 1,
and Riverview 2.

Operating the Elevators
You now have the layout of the New Orleans Marriott birthday cake. I did
promise more information about the elevators. Both the Marriott and the
Sheraton have installed smart elevators. This means that you will find no
floor buttons on the inside of the elevator cabs. In the elevator lobby,
hotel guests punch their desired floor number into a keypad, and the
software running the elevator system determines the most efficient elevator
to take. Here’s how it works. On each side of the elevator lobbies is a
keypad much like that of a touchtone phone--the traditional three by four
keypad with 123 across the top followed by 456, 789, and the fourth row
with a zero in the middle. There is a fifth row containing one wide button
for accessibility mode. Pressing the accessibility button before keying in
your destination floor number will cause the keypad to speak your floor and
the elevator letter you should take. When your elevator arrives, the
elevator will announce its arrival by letter. When your elevator arrives at
your destination floor, the elevator will also announce the floor.

If all goes smoothly, this process should be accessible to our attendees.
However, matters will be further complicated when there are several dozen
Federationists in an elevator lobby chatting about what they have been
doing for the last three years. When possible, Ambassador Committee members
and/or volunteers will be stationed in the lower elevator lobbies. Bear in
mind that this process will require practice and, more importantly,
patience.

You may now enjoy a slice of imaginary cake. Mine is yellow cake with
chocolate frosting.

New Orleans Marriott Meeting Room Locations
Balcony I-N, Bonaparte, Regent, Bacchus, and Iberville meeting rooms – 4th
floor (access only from River Tower elevators or double set of stairs on
River Tower side of 3rd and 4th floors).
Galerie meeting rooms (Galerie 1-6) – 2nd floor River Tower side
Grand Ballroom (Acadia, Bissonet, and Carondelet) – 3rd floor Quarter Tower
side
Preservation Hall breakout rooms (Studios 1-10) – 2nd floor Quarter Tower
side
Salon meeting rooms (A-H) – 3rd floor River Tower side
The Sheraton New Orleans
Walking through the front doors of the Sheraton New Orleans from Canal
Street, you find yourself in a large, bright two-story atrium. Almost
immediately to your right is the main attraction for many, a Starbucks
coffee shop. To your left, a few steps below the lobby level, is the
expansive Pelican Bar. As you continue further forward into the hotel, you
will pass on your right a set of escalators connecting the second floor.
Beyond the Pelican Bar and the escalators, you arrive at an intersection of
sorts. If you were to turn right, you would find the FedEx business center
on the right. If you were to continue straight ahead, the Sheraton’s two
elevator lobbies are on the right. And finally, turning left leads you into
a wide registration area with a long registration desk on your right,
running parallel to Canal Street. Beyond the registration desk are the
doors to the Sheraton’s motor lobby. Those of you arriving to the hotel
from the airport may be dropped off at this entrance, making the
registration desk readily accessible. The bellstand is also conveniently
located between the registration desk and the doors to the motor lobby.

In the Sheraton, the meeting space is primarily on floors two through five.
Floors six and seven contain only administrative offices for the hotel. The
eighth floor contains a modest number of meeting rooms but, more
importantly, is also home to the fitness center and the swimming pool.

Let’s return to the lobby escalators and take them up to the second floor.
Stepping off the escalators, you arrive at an intersection similar to the
downstairs lobby. Turn to the right and head towards the escalators that
serve meeting rooms on floors two through five. If you were to continue
straight ahead, the Sheraton's two elevator lobbies are again on the right.
Immediately to the left is the entrance to Roux Bistro, the Sheraton's
Creole restaurant with tables along two sides of the hotel, overlooking the
lobby below.

I mentioned that there are two elevator lobbies. One set of elevators
serves the low sleeping room floors and the other serves the higher floors.
All elevators stop at the lobby and all meeting levels. The first elevator
lobby, the one closest to the Canal Street entrance, contains the elevators
that take guests to floors one through twenty-nine. The second set of
elevators serves floors one through eight and twenty-nine through
forty-nine. You'll note that the twenty-ninth floor is a common floor where
guests can switch between lower and higher floors without traveling all the
way down to the lobby. The Sheraton uses the same smart elevator system as
described in the above section.

The NFB’s exhibit hall and Independence Market are in the Napoleon Ballroom
throughout the week. The Napoleon Ballroom is on the third floor. Its
entrance is just a few short steps from both elevator lobbies and only a
few steps further from the meeting room escalators.

-- 

Jordy D. Stringer, Executive Director

Southeastern Ohio Center for Independent Living, 418 South Broad Street
Lancaster, OH 43130

E-mail: jssocil at gmail.com

Phone: (740) 689-1494 EXT (11)


"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with
love and reverence."

 -Henry David Thoreau