Taxis at Manhattan Cruise Terminal?

[islandmandan]

My family of 4 have decided on a 7 day cruise to Bermuda on NCL Gem over a 5 day land vacation (thanks to the info I gleaned from this wonderful website). I did not purchase the flight package with the cruise and instead booked flights on my own ($1,000 cheaper). Our return flight is at 11:30am and the ship shows 8:00am docking. Will we have enough time to get to Laguardia, go through customs, and check in our luggage? Particularly when there is another ship (Holland) docking at 7:00am. Will there be plenty of taxis at the pier? I probably could change this return flight but the next latest is at 6:30pm and we don't want to be hanging around the airport that long. What do you think? Thanks

[njhorseman]

(First, don't be surprised if the moderators move this thread to the East Coast Departures board, since it has nothing to do with Bermuda per se.)

 

You can make an 11:30 flight from LGA (use self disembarkation so you're among the first to get off the ship) if everything goes perfectly, but unfortunately it's not uncommon for the process to be delayed for any or all of the following reasons, which may cause you to miss your flight (Numbers 2 and 3 are pretty common):

 

(1) The ship might arrive late.

(2) CBP might delay clearing the ship for disembarkation for some reason.

(3) CBP might not have enough officers assigned to the pier that morning to handle passengers from two ships .

(4) You might have to wait a half hour on the taxi line (FYI you can also get a taxi by walking across 12th Ave to the taxi stand on the northbound side of the avenue. Sometimes it's a quicker way to catch a cab).

(5) Your taxi may get caught in a traffic jam going to the airport.

 

It's your decision on how much risk you're willing to take.

[islandmandan]

Thanks for your reply njhorseman. I think I'll try to book that later flight (better safe than sorry)

[Brighton Line]

11:30 is tight, while it was September 11th when we got off the ship CBP stopped the process (well the CD on the Jewel claimed it was CBP) twice and there was a large delay in getting off the ship, even for walk off that some people in line were complaining about missing fights.

[mjkacmom]

We were in the self embarment line by 7 am, because we needed to be off the ship ASAP for something, and it took forever! Got to the street at 10:40!

[smeyer418]

We were in the self embarment line by 7 am, because we needed to be off the ship ASAP for something, and it took forever! Got to the street at 10:40!

 

The Gem comes back on Saturday. The Jewel mostly returns on Sunday....and Sunday is much worse. They almost always have less people on Sunday.

[njhorseman]

The Gem comes back on Saturday. The Jewel mostly returns on Sunday....and Sunday is much worse. They almost always have less people on Sunday.

 

The OP is cruising to Bermuda, and the Gem switches to Sunday sailings for the Bermuda season, so they will be returning on the worse day for having sufficient CBP officers on duty.