What was your experience getting an Uber or Lyft after the Fest?

[Miss LauraJean]

In previous years, I've had very positive experiences taking an Uber or Lyft to the Fairgrounds in the morning, but it's been a royal pain in the butt getting one after the Fest is over in the evening. Long waits. Peak prices. I was wondering if any one can comment on how it was this year getting an Uber/Lyft home from the Fest. Mahalo in advance.

[fichadelphia]

I used rideshare every day for the six days of fest that I attended. Every morning the cost was minimal (we actually planned to use the bus but every morning we would check the app, find that it was under $15 and we would take rideshare).

The trip home wasn’t great - and I typically leave fest a little early to get a jump on the wait. The main issue I had was with the pickup zones which weren’t very clearly marked either in the app or at the locations (they weren’t marked at all outside). The surge costs were high but we still did better than we would have done had we rented a car. Hope that helps.

[fichadelphia]

Came back to add that I had Lyft Pink which I used often but regular Uber rates were often better but Lyft pink got me picked up with a minimal wait every time.

[Kemp]

I avoided Uber and Lyft during peak post Fest times, taking the bus back to Harrah's and the ferry back to my neighborhood. We had a friend recovering from a hip replacement operation staying with us second weekend and found that an Uber would take four of us for a reasonable price from Algiers Point to the Seahorse Saloon where the Gentilly handicapped entrance was easily accessible. I had a terrible experience with the one cab ride we took from Fest to the foot of Canal and will continue to avoid them with the possible exception of United whom I will give another chance.

[cp_deb]

We always take the bus after the fest. We became separated early on from our housemates at the fest and we took the bus back afterward while they waited for an Uber. We had time to walk home from the bus stop and run an errand along the way and still beat them home by a half an hour.

[Jim]

I took taxis to and from the fest with no problems and no price surges. However, there were other times throughout the week where the service from United was hit or miss so I occasionally took Lyft.

[rasta13]

No issues otw. If you waited until the very end, it was harder to get a car and surged about 3x standard pricing. If you left half an hour early, no problems. This was my experience this year. Went every day and took Uber/Lyft almost every ride. Only issue I had was second Thursday bc I waited too long at Antonio Sanchez. Had to wait twenty minutes and paid about double normal
fare

[swag]

I didn't rideshare from the fest, but my recollection from the one time a friend showed me their Uber app is that the geofence prevented pickups near the Fairgrounds. Suggested pickup points leaving fest were St Bernard & Paris, or Broad & Ursulines, or across the Bayou - am I remembering that right?

[duende]

I didn't rideshare from the fest, but my recollection from the one time a friend showed me their Uber app is that the geofence prevented pickups near the Fairgrounds. Suggested pickup points leaving fest were St Bernard & Paris, or Broad & Ursulines, or across the Bayou - am I remembering that right?

That sounds about right - I re-emerged Sat-Sun of the 2nd weekend and my wife and I took the street car from City Park to Blue Oak BBQ Sat night, and that was outside the restricted area for a ride back into the Marigny. Our Uber driver had to fend off a couple of rides that Uber paired him with folks that were inside the exclusion zone, with one party having a person whose mobility problems made walking out to a reachable spot a hardship. Maybe a cab next time?

on a related note, my wife was generous with getting XL ride-share cars for our group of 5, and more than one driver expressed a bit of displeasure with Uber classifying their vehicle (3-rows w/6 capacity) as XL vehicles. Here, look, we moved the 2nd row seat up for you… it wasn’t like the owners’ golf clubs were back there. None were allowing passengers in the front passenger seat, which turned-out to be the lone preventative Covid measure I witnessed in the entire visit.

[Miss LauraJean]

I used rideshare every day for the six days of fest that I attended. Every morning the cost was minimal (we actually planned to use the bus but every morning we would check the app, find that it was under $15 and we would take rideshare).

The trip home wasn’t great - and I typically leave fest a little early to get a jump on the wait. The main issue I had was with the pickup zones which weren’t very clearly marked either in the app or at the locations (they weren’t marked at all outside). The surge costs were high but we still did better than we would have done had we rented a car. Hope that helps.

Would you mind sharing about how much your ride home from the Fest was with the "surge" pricing gouge? 2x the normal $15 fare? 3x?

[duende]

$25 for our trip home from Blue Oak 7:45pm 2nd Sat - didn’t seem like much of a gouge.

[RKar23]

This year, getting to/from Fest was painless. We stayed on the outskirts of the FQ (near Saenger Theater) and Lyft to the Fairgrounds was $14+ tip. (And without exception, Lyft drivers all dropped us within a block of the Seahorse Saloon on Ursuline rather than on Broad like the Lyft GPS showed). In the evenings we went to the taxi stand on Mystery and Esplanade. Saturday night had to wait a bit but otherwise, never waited more than 10-15 minutes for a shared cab back to the FQ. (Flat rate was $7 p/p + tip).

[fichadelphia]

I had one ride home from the fairgrounds that was $30 but the others were surged to like $18-$21.

I appreciate the designated pickup zones but feel like the rideshare apps need to do a better job of indicating where they are and how to use them. I realized that sometimes drivers were waiting for their riders who hadn’t made it to the zone yet and the pickup zones could easily be a 10 minute walk from the exit, depending on your walking speed/choice to have an exit cocktail. So I think some people were calling cars without realizing they’d need to make it to the pickup.

[Miss LauraJean]

This year, getting to/from Fest was painless. We stayed on the outskirts of the FQ (near Saenger Theater) and Lyft to the Fairgrounds was $14+ tip. (And without exception, Lyft drivers all dropped us within a block of the Seahorse Saloon on Ursuline rather than on Broad like the Lyft GPS showed). In the evenings we went to the taxi stand on Mystery and Esplanade. Saturday night had to wait a bit but otherwise, never waited more than 10-15 minutes for a shared cab back to the FQ. (Flat rate was $7 p/p + tip).

Glad your experience was easy peasy this year. Curious if the 10-15 wait times for a cab on the way home were after the Fest was over for the day (post-7pm) or did you leave early to beat the mass exodus (and hence longer wait times for a ride)?

[ice nine]

I took two Uber rides in the inbetween days. They were both in a Lexus.