Shuttle Service to Cape Liberty Cruise Port

It appears as though a void that has been well-document in many of the questions posted in this forum may be filled by new shuttle services that start operation on Memorial Day weekend. As many cruise passengers here have discovered, reasonable transportation to the Cape Liberty Cruise Port can be both a challenge and expensive. An established company, TransportAzumah, will fill the transportation void. See http://www.transportazumah.com/CruiseShuttle.

 

One shuttle route connects hotels in Secaucus and Jersey City with the Cape Liberty Cruise Port. The route serves virtually all of the hotels in these two cities that are continually recommended in this forum. The bus starts in Secaucus at 10:00 a.m., picks up in Jersey City at 10:30 a.m., and arrives at the port at 11:10 a.m. The fare is listed as $20.

 

Another shuttle route connects Manhattan with the Cape Liberty Cruise Port. There are pick-ups at Penn Station at 10:30 a.m. and 12:10 p.m.; and from Grand Central Terminal at 10:35 a.m. and 12:20 p.m.; and arriving at the port at 11:50 a.m. and 1:10 p.m., respectively. There are also pick-up locations along Madison Avenue, 60 St, Seventh Avenue, and near Port Authority Bus Terminal, as well as two later departures (apparently for cruisers wanting to cut it close by arriving much closer to departure time). The fare is listed as $20.

 

Interestingly enough, both of the routes above pick up passengers at the Hudson Bergen Light Rail station at 34 Street destined for the port.

 

And a third shuttle route connects Syracuse (6:30 a.m.), Binghamton (7:50 a.m.), and the Poconos (9:35 a.m.) with both the Cape Liberty Cruise Port and the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. Hopefully this service will ease the journey for cruise passengers coming from central and western New York State, and from northeastern Pennsylvania. The fare is listed as $100 round-trip.

 

This sounds like good news for many of the people who have posted here asking about shuttles and other transportation to Bayonne. (Perhaps if successful there might be another route from the hotels at Newark Airport and Elizabeth!) I would be curious to know how the new service meets the needs of cruise ship passengers.

Why would an "established company" schedule a bus that arrives at Cape Liberty after 3 pm? You wouldn't be allowed to board a ship with a 4pm departure that late. Their 12:30 pm departures from Cape Liberty and Manhattan to Syracuse aren't going to win too many fans either. Do they think passengers are going to want to hang out at the cruise terminal waiting for their bus for three hours after disembarkation?

 

Sounds like they haven't done a very good job of researching the requirements to service the market.

You're probably right that a return trip might be "scheduled" earlier, but I imagine that if all the passengers have alighted from the vessel, have cleared immigration and customs, and all are ready to leave, then the bus will leave at that time. I assume that the other companies at Bayonne, Yankee Trails and Entertainment Tours, also establish arbitrary departure times, but in fact leave once everyone has cleared immigration and customs and is ready to travel.

 

I looked at the schedules for Yankee Trails, and while the company does not provide a scheduled arrival time in Bayonne, its 9:05 a.m. departure time from Newburgh, the last pick-up location, suggests an anticipated arrival time in Bayonne between 10:35 a.m. and 10:50 a.m. (according to Google). The company shows its return trip from Bayonne as being between 11:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. I see that TransportAzumah schedules its last pick-up location, Delaware Water Gap, at 9:35 a.m., which means that the actual arrival time in Bayonne is probably sometime between 10:55 and 11:15 a.m. (again, according to Google). I would guess the listed 11:30 a.m. arrival time, and listed 12:30 p.m. departure time, is to protect the company from being "late" on account of unanticipated traffic delays (Amtrak puts in schedule padding as well on so many routes, especially in the west, with the result being than trains running on-time arrive "early" at their destination). What I see in reality is virtually the same timetable for both companies.

 

In the end, a shuttle service cannot arrive at the port too early, for otherwise boarding passengers have to wait. Nor can a shuttle service arrive at the port too late, for otherwise alighting passengers have to wait. I think the time between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. is probably the sweet spot for shuttle service to be at the port, and that seems to be the target for both Yankee Trails and TransportAzumah.

 

On the shuttle from Manhattan, I think the last trip, scheduled for a 3:10 p.m. arrival is indeed a bit tight. Entertainment Tours has a bus from Philadelphia and East Marlton that gets into Bayonne at about 2:30 p.m., also tight. For a 5:00 p.m. sailing, RCI's 90 minute check-in deadline means one needs to be there--and on board the vessel--by 3:30 p.m. For a 4:00 p.m. sailing, the deadline is 2:30 p.m. It appears as though Entertainment Tours uses the same schedule regardless of sailings being at 5:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m., and thus anyone relying on Entertainment Tours would surely miss the boat on a 4:00 p.m. sailing. But where TransportAzumah does better than Entertainment Tours is that there appears to be a choice of any of 4 departure times . . . and I would most likely aim for one of the earlier trips from Manhattan and not risk a delay in the Lincoln Tunnel.

 

I've avoided cruising on either Royal Caribbean or Celebrity out of New York largely because of the inconvenience of dealing with a Bayonne departure point. (I've sailed X only between San Diego and Ft. Lauderdale.) I have known about TransportAzumah for some time--ever since it started service between Manhattan and the Jersey Shore a number of years ago--so I'm quite pleased to be able to consider Bayonne as a reasonable departure point for a cruise (though the Manhattan Cruise Terminal continues to remain most convenient for me).

 

I hope the company is able to make whatever adjustments and tweaks to service are necessary in order to be successful with its shuttle service to Bayonne.

This is indeed great news! I hope folks use this. I did notice on their web site that transportation from the Bayonne light rail to the port is only $5.

hopefully someone at some point will do something for the Brooklyn cruise port.I wonder why nothing is available for that port?It is a very nice port and needs some sort of transportation available to it.

 

Laura

Hi - quick question! Does this mean that when our cruise returns to Cape Liberty on 31st March that we will be able to access a shuttle service to Newark airport easily. Does anybody know whether we have to book? It would help to know as I have limited mobility. Thanks folks!

i need help getting from delaware to cape liberty.....i have no idea what i am going to do.....!!

http://Www.enttours.com - round trip bus from Wilmington Delaware to Cape Liberty for $100/pp. I use this company from the Boston area to Cape Liberty. For one or two people you can't pay for the gas, tolls, and parking for the cost of the bus.

Anyone out there with experience using Trasport Azumah from Syracuse or even Binghamton?

 

I'm very seriously considering using them-I think it could save me about $200 plus the wear, tear, milage on my car, the hassle of driving/navigating to a place I've never been...but I lose the "control" of me having my car and the wiggle room of leaving for the port the day before the cruise.

Anyone out there with experience using Trasport Azumah from Syracuse or even Binghamton?

 

I'm very seriously considering using them-I think it could save me about $200 plus the wear, tear, milage on my car, the hassle of driving/navigating to a place I've never been...but I lose the "control" of me having my car and the wiggle room of leaving for the port the day before the cruise.

 

Look VERY carefully "under the hood" to see who you are dealing with. According to the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) there is NO insurance on file for this company and NO operating authority to transact business.

 

Here is the info direct off the SAFER system for the FMCSA: http://li-public.fmcsa.dot.gov/LIVIEW/pkg_carrquery.prc_getdetail

 

If that doesn't work, type in SAFER in a Google search. Then click on the main link, go to licensing and insurance, type in TransportAzumah and look at the info.

 

Insurance has been cancelled and also found not acceptable by the FMCSA (which means whatever insurance was filed was either an illegally operating insurance company, a company that has a bad financial rating or a company not authorized to write insurance in NY State). Authority was suspended in 2007. Pending common carrier application has been pending since 2007.

 

The City of NY shut him down in 2010. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/city-tells-private-bus-line-owner-hit-road-judge-signs-temporary-restraining-order-article-1.467618

 

And this recent comment in a proprietary transportation journal: Comment by john torres on April 20, 2012 @ 10:53 AM

 

"If ur considering conducting business w/this guy, don’t!!!

He seems at the onset to be a respectable business man but then he feeds you bait then racks up a bill & bam!!! doesn’t pay. He rented a van from my company racked up 5000 miles no fuel and yeah did’nt pay his bill. Then he called his c.c co. to claim he had never done business w/us.

He is a snake & should be run out of town. Your a pig Joel."

 

PLEASE be careful who you do business with. NY and NJ are rife with illegal operators running buses and shuttles. There have been quite a few accidents in the last couple of years with these illegal operators. Very often they have no insurance (MANDATORY $5,000,000 for passengers-it IS expensive), vehicles that may or may not be licensed as commercial vehicles, no authority from the Feds or State to conduct business.

Oh my gosh...yikes!!!!! Thanks for that info ...I think I'll stick to our original plan of driving down ourselves the night before. Thanks for the quick and very enlightening reply.

I dont know what to do, I was planning on taking the bus out of New Haven, CT to Bayonne and I noticed my cruise being the last one does not have a date. I am a bit confused reading all of these ways of getting there.......I would really hate to pay for a town car to get there......I wanted to go to Grand Central......and get there from there.....Yikes!!!!

I'm seeing an Entours bus for 10/20 from Hartford and New Haven for $100/pp.

 

Where are you flying back to?

I'm seeing an Entours bus for 10/20 from Hartford and New Haven for $100/pp.

 

Where are you flying back to?

 

We are flying into Hartford, from San Juan

 

I am trying to locate Entours website......nothing is coming up.

 

Thank You for your help

 

Dorene

It's tricky - 2 T's. Enttours.com. I saw the 10/20 sailing out there under Celebrity.