Pre-cruise overnight in NYC for Manhattan departure

I didn't see much discussion on this topic before we went on our cruise on 6/17/2015, so I thought I'd share what we did here. Hopefully it will be helpful for some people.

We flew in from California, so we had to stay in NYC one night prior to the cruise. After much research, I found Holiday Inn Express Manhattan West via hotwire, and got a room for $231/night for me and my two teen girls.

This particular hotel is about 5-6 blocks away from Times Square, and it's easily walkable for us. We took a taxi to Central Park which was less than $10. Basically the location is really good. The most surprising part to me was that we actually were able to walk, dragging our luggage with us, from our hotel to Pier 88. It's only like 2-3 blocks away!! Piece of cake!

The hotel staff was very nice and helpful. They were able to hold our luggage after we checked out so we could have more time to explore NYC before having to board the ship.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this place in case you are looking for one for Manhattan departure.

Thanks for the great feedback.

I didn't see much discussion on this topic before we went on our cruise on 6/17/2015, so I thought I'd share what we did here. Hopefully it will be helpful for some people.

 

We flew in from California, so we had to stay in NYC one night prior to the cruise. After much research, I found Holiday Inn Express Manhattan West via hotwire, and got a room for $231/night for me and my two teen girls.

 

This particular hotel is about 5-6 blocks away from Times Square, and it's easily walkable for us. We took a taxi to Central Park which was less than $10. Basically the location is really good. The most surprising part to me was that we actually were able to walk, dragging our luggage with us, from our hotel to Pier 88. It's only like 2-3 blocks away!! Piece of cake!

 

The hotel staff was very nice and helpful. They were able to hold our luggage after we checked out so we could have more time to explore NYC before having to board the ship.

 

Overall, I'd highly recommend this place in case you are looking for one for Manhattan departure.

Thanks! We are looking at hotels in Manhattan for our September cruise, and we're spending a couple of nights in the city. The prices are quite high there, and I was wondering what that hotel was like.

How did you handle transportation to the hotel? We are flying into Newark, and are looking at the shuttles. We are arriving late in the afternoon and I generally don't like to use trains and busses with a bunch of luggage in an unfamiliar place at night.

We just took taxi everywhere :). With 3 of us, it may not save that much with shuttle or bus fare. From the hotel to LGA is about $40 for taxi. Not sure about Newark though - maybe a little more because I think LGA is the closest to the Pier.

I didn't try busses or subway either because time is of essence for us. We were trying to see as much of NYC as we can before and after the cruise, so taxi worked great.

We just took taxi everywhere :). With 3 of us, it may not save that much with shuttle or bus fare. From the hotel to LGA is about $40 for taxi. Not sure about Newark though - maybe a little more because I think LGA is the closest to the Pier.

 

I didn't try busses or subway either because time is of essence for us. We were trying to see as much of NYC as we can before and after the cruise, so taxi worked great.

I would expect it to cost twice as much, will tolls, and having to cross state lines. That time of day, it could take an hour.

I googled "taxi fare calculator NYC" and found a few websites that offer some ideas. Maybe worth a try. :confused:

I googled "taxi fare calculator NYC" and found a few websites that offer some ideas. Maybe worth a try. :confused:

That taxi fare estimation websites are worse than useless for taxi fares between EWR and NY City, simply because you're crossing state lines. I'd recommend booking one of the large car services such as

Carmel Limo http://www.carmellimo.com

Dial 7 http://www.dial7.com

Figure on paying about $50 plus tolls and tip for a sedan between EWR and midtown Manhattan.

I definitely agree on that Holiday Inn. I have stayed there and have never had an issue.

You could also try Uber for car transportation. It is sometimes cheaper than a cab to/from the airports and the cars are nicer.

We recently stayed at a 4 star hotel for just 50 more, Uber can be cheaper than taxi and can be more expensive also.

Thanks! We are looking at hotels in Manhattan for our September cruise, and we're spending a couple of nights in the city. The prices are quite high there, and I was wondering what that hotel was like.

 

How did you handle transportation to the hotel? We are flying into Newark, and are looking at the shuttles. We are arriving late in the afternoon and I generally don't like to use trains and busses with a bunch of luggage in an unfamiliar place at night.

Aloha :D

Moving between EWR and Manhattan, the consensus seems to be to use a car service since you are going between two different states. There seems to be some thing about the taxis being able to increase the fare since they are leaving the state. With the car service, you reserve the car at a fixed fare and time. You pay the fare+tolls+tip, and you don't have to wait for the car to be filled up like the shuttle vans.

The shuttles seem to be unreliable, late, crowded, have to wait for pick-ups and drop-offs. My own experience was all of the above and although we were the last to be dropped off, the driver stopped and pointed out our hotel down the street in the middle of a block and told me that we had to walk because he couldn't stop in front of the hotel. It took over twice as long to get to the hotel as previous trips by taxi. I thought to save a few bucks by using the shuttle, but I don't think we'll be doing that again from JFK.

I've had good and bad experiences with taxis that don't know where they are going, so especially for the JFK to Newark Penn Station, I don't want to be riding in a taxi with a driver that is trying to find it using GPS and maps while driving in morning rush hour traffic.

I remember on a ride from JFK to Long Island City where I pointed out the street signs to the driver since he was flipping thru his books of maps and asked him if it was usual to drive past LGA on the way to Long Island City. He got upset and asked if I knew where Long Island City was and I told him I did and that I thought I could get us to our hotel there faster than he could since he seemed to be lost. I told him that he should have taken the Van Wyck Express Way to the Long Island Espress Way instead of switching to the Grand Central Parkway to take us up to LGA before going to Long Island City. I told my wife that I was going to give him a nominal tip but she is the kindhearted one of us and demanded that I give him a decent tip even with the fare run-up and poor service.

I understand that the NYC Metropolitan area is very large, but if you drive a taxi for a living, you should really get to know where the different boroughs are. Especially since people have handheld GPS and can research beforehand using Google Maps.

Anyway, while we haven't used Dial7 or CarmelLimo, for our Sept cruise out of Cape Liberty, we'll be using CarmelLimo https://www.carmellimo.com/WebApp/index.jsp for JFK to Newark Penn Station, Cape Liberty to Manhattan 35th St., and Manhattan 35th St to JFK, all using $3 or $5 off coupons. Their online reservation website is easy enough to navigate and they answer the phone (212) 666-6666 if you have questions. They seem to be having a problem with the 1-866-666-6666 toll free number. You can google the CarmelLimo coupons and print them out at home.

Aloha :D