Park/Not Park @ Manhattan Cruise Terminal ?

We are traveling from Philadelphia to NYC for the NCL Breakaway in Sept. but don't know the parking situation in NY.

Our options are:

1. Drive into Manhattan via Tunnel(toll) and park at the Terminal or alternate parking facility.

2. Take the train into NYC and taxi over to the ship

3. Drive/Park in NJ and ferry over to Manhattan 43 St slip then shuttle bus to the ship.

Breakaway leaves on Sunday so traffic into NY is not the issue. Price and convenience are in question. Anybody have the best solution to get us there at a reasonable arrival time prior to boarding :confused:

Go on over to the East Coast Departures board, under North American Homeports. Me, I would take the train and taxi. Parking at the pier is $35/day, last I heard. We parked in Weehawken and took the ferry, then walked to the ship, but that was just a small carryon as it was a one night CTN. There was not a shuttle bus at that time, but maybe the folks on East Coast Departures can clarify that. EM

We were coming from further away, but the option to stay in a hotel that had free parking and a shuttle was still cheaper than parking at the port. Plus we had a shorter trip morning of and a nice breakfast to boot.

Again, check the departures forum as suggested for suggestion as to WHICH hotel.

Even though parking is $40 a day we found it much more convenient for us to just park at the terminal. Luggage for a week for 5 (one of which was DW:eek:) equals not wanting to worry about transporting it from elsewhere in the city. When the trip is over I like to get in my car and go, which is hard to do if it's parked somewhere else in the city. (And the port was very easy to find coming from the north, just hop on the Henry Hudson Parkway and drive until you see the ship.)

When we take a short cruise (no more than 7 days) from NYC we usually do park at the terminal. While the parking is expensive, it is convenient and the price not unreasonable for NYC parking. But if we take a longer cruise we will sometimes do one-way rental cars (both ways). Sometimes we have found it cheaper (on longer cruises) to rent from Hertz and drop the car at their office a few blocks from the NYC cruise terminal. When we return we either arrange for another one-way or use some other form of transportation

Hank