Ramada Plaza Newark (Cape Liberty Park & Cruise) review

Just off of the Anthem's 3/7 12-night cruise. Since Cape Liberty parking would have been $200+ and we wanted to spend a few days in NYC beforehand (the cruise left on a Monday), we were looking for a more affordable option. Some folks on this very board pointed me to Trinity Reservations who have a deal with the Ramada Plaza Newark: 1 night's hotel and 28 days of parking for just under $200. I booked that and then made a separate booking for Friday and Saturday nights.

When we checked in, I explained our 2 reservations and was told to check with the Front Desk on Sunday to change the room to the other reservation. We had dinner in the restaurant attached to the hotel (which BTW is a separate operation, you can't charge your meal to your room -- not a big deal, as I just put it on my credit card, but it was a little odd), which was your basic Sports Bar/Pub grub sort of place. Not great, but it was the only choice that didn't involve driving, and we'd had enough driving in Northern NJ for that day

Interestingly the restaurant had a breakfast menu, but all 3 days we were there, it was closed in the AM and there was a breakfast buffet in one of the hotel ballrooms. The Buffet was pretty lame, and pricey at $12.95 each, on Monday we got fruit, cereal and milk from the hotel snack bar and made a DIY continental breakfast.

The hotel room was your basic mid range hotel room, enough space for us (and a substantial cache of luggage), and it even had a fridge in which we kept various beverages (including the 2 bottles of champagne we brought on board). One warning, this hotel does a lot of bus tours (presumably groups flying in or out of EWR), so several times we walked into a lobby full of people milling around while the tour leader was getting keys and or bills settled.

A word here about parking. The lot is gated, you take a ticket on the way in and pay at the front desk to validate your ticket on the way out. This made me a little more comfortable leaving my car near where they shot the reality series "Jacked" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1280619/) for 2 weeks. I'm not sure but I think Parking is included with the room. I know I had more days of "Free" parking than I was going to use, but when I asked to validate my ticket I was never asked for a room number or name, and when we came back in on Sunday night, before leaving for the cruise, the only thing the front desk person did was initial and date my ticket (which we then validated when we returned after the cruise). The hotel has a decent amount of function space (there were parties on both Friday and Saturday nights), so they probably get some revenue from attendees.

On Saturday and Sunday we drove about 10 minutes to Journal Sq, parked in a garage not far from the station and hopped the PATH to Manhattan. Key PATH fact., the Journal SQ to Midtown PATH trains only run 6am - 11pm on weekdays. Nights and weekends the trains go from Journal Sq to Hoboken, then reverse direction to go to Manhattan. This is a slower trip, so if you are thinking about changing to the NYC Subway, you are probably better off going to the World Trade Center and picking up the subway there, even if your ultimate destination is north of 33rd st.

Monday there was some confusion about our pickup time, but a few calls to Trinity and discussion with the Ramada's Front desk and we got a ride to the port. The return trip was much better, we got off the ship, called Trinity, who said to call the Ramada, the Ramada said their shuttle was waiting in the pickup area and we rode back with 2 other couples.

In summary this is a very good deal, especially if your cruise is a week or longer, and you want to spend the night before you cruise near the cruiseport. I'd do it again were I cruising out of Cape Liberty. What I wouldn't do is stay the weekend before. The hotel is perfectly fine, but the location is such that you are going to have to drive (or take a cab) to do anything, and driving in Northern NJ isn't for the faint hearted. Were I making a similar trip, I think I'd find a hotel with better access to Manhattan, stay there for the weekend and drive to the Ramada after dinner.

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Thanks for the review. I'm trying to figure out where to stay for my trip in August and the Hilton is already showing fully booked for there park and cruise package.

The price is really good but I'm concerned about leaving my car unattended for a week.

I had some concern, as I've seen every episode of "Jacked", but the Ramada lot is about as safe as you can get for self parking. The lot is gated and you need to get your ticket validated at the front desk in order to get out. The lot is in front of the hotel, so people going in or out might notice suspicious person in the lot. You can park anywhere in the lot you want, there isn't a designated Long Term Parking area, so a potential thief wouldn't know if the owner of a given car would turn up in an hour or a week. Obviously there are no guarantees, but the way the Ramada is set up is,about as safe as is pracitble.

I had some concern, as I've seen every episode of "Jacked", but the Ramada lot is about as safe as you can get for self parking. The lot is gated and you need to get your ticket validated at the front desk in order to get out. The lot is in front of the hotel, so people going in or out might notice suspicious person in the lot. You can park anywhere in the lot you want, there isn't a designated Long Term Parking area, so a potential thief wouldn't know if the owner of a given car would turn up in an hour or a week. Obviously there are no guarantees, but the way the Ramada is set up is,about as safe as is pracitble.

I agree. The Ramada and the Doubletree are on a dead end street in an isolated area on the north side of the Aiport surrounded by a mess of spaghetti like roads and freight yards (no reported noise). There is no easy access for random people.

I have done a park/sleep at the Doubletree property and stayed at the Ramada property. The parking for both is gated. Both properties are active 7x24 with airline crews coming and going at all hours.

Thanks for your report.

Thanks for writing this review and sharing it with everyone.

Keith

Thank you for taking the time to write a review for the Ramada. We have it booked for next month based on the recommendations on CC so it is nice to know what to expect.

Anyone stay here recently? We booked it for mid-December, but there are a ton of recent reviews that mention cockroaches...! Would love an update from someone who has been there in the past year. Thanks!

Anyone stay here recently? We booked it for mid-December, but there are a ton of recent reviews that mention cockroaches...! Would love an update from someone who has been there in the past year. Thanks!

I stayed there in Feb and it was fine. Where exactly did you see these reviews?

Glad to hear it! It was on TripAdvisor. I saw at least 6 references... but of course, that could be from grumpy patrons ;)

My opinion is that it's a solid 2.5-3* hotel. Like all the other Newark Airport hotels, it's not a vacation destination - it's an airport hotel. Only the hotels on International Blvd in Elizabeth have any kind of nearby services. All the other hotels are relatively isolated with no walkable chain restaurants or stores.

I've read a lot of reviews of these airport hotels and my sense is that a good number of the bad reviews come from folks who end up in these hotels due to an unexpected travel delay. The day I stayed there and took the shuttle to Cape Liberty, I polled the other cruisers and everyone was satisfied with their overnight stay and port transportation.

Makes sense to me!

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