weekday sailing from NYC question

[hateswaterloves2cruise]

We have sailed out of NYC at least 3 times, but always on a Saturday or Sunday. Just looked at a calendar and our next cruise from NYC is on a Wednesday in February. We are driving from the Syracuse area (5 hrs or so) and wonder how the incoming traffic will be. Should we leave lots more time to get to the pier? Will traffic be a lot different from weekend? Thanks for any input we can get.:)

[Keith1010]

We have sailed out of NYC at least 3 times, but always on a Saturday or Sunday. Just looked at a calendar and our next cruise from NYC is on a Wednesday in February. We are driving from the Syracuse area (5 hrs or so) and wonder how the incoming traffic will be. Should we leave lots more time to get to the pier? Will traffic be a lot different from weekend? Thanks for any input we can get.:)

 

My advice is to drive in the day before. I know you must be used to the winter weather but that doesn't mean that snow will not have an impact on the area near NYC.

 

I would arrive the day before and spend the night in the city and then you can leisurely make your way to the terminal in the morning.

 

In terms of traffic, it will be more congested on a weekday than on a weekend.

 

Keith

[138east]

If you don't want to pay for an expensive Manhattan hotel and parking, look at hotels in Parsippany on Hotwire - they will be much less expensive. There should be no problem with a 3*+ hotel in that area - it would put you within an hour of NYC. If you leave the Parsipanny area at 9:30 am, you will arrive in ample time.

[youngestof9]

If you do choose to stay outside the city since you're coming from upstate, you may consider staying at the Hampton Inn in Central Valley (sometimes called Woodbury Commons). It's right off of 87 and then it's about an hour to the pier. There's an outlet mall close by so there's some restaurants and a walmart for last minute cruise things.

 

Once you're past rush hour you shouldn't have too many problems but sometimes one little thing makes that GWB back up - you never know!

 

Good luck

[billysive]

If you have driven down before for your cruises and were planning to do the same again (on other words not come in the day before) I would give yourself maybe and extra hour than you did when coming on the weekend.

 

By the time you would be arriving to NYC the main morning rush will be over and it shouldn't really be that much different than on a weekend (weekends are sometimes worse than weekdays coming into Manhattan).

 

One other thing to think about is what pier you are going to. The New York Pier is in Manhattan, but there is also a pier in Brooklyn (allow an extra 30-45 minutes) and one in Cape Liberty, New Jersey (allow an extra 30 min).

 

Hope this helps.

[trish1c]

Traffic will be awful. The last few miles or so of your trip will probably take you double the time.

If it normally takes you 5 hours door to door, I'd budget at least 6, maybe 7 depending on the weather.

[hateswaterloves2cruise]

Thank you all for your comments. We have always driven down the day of the cruise, with a plan to go a day ahead depending on weather. So far we have been fortunate and the weather (even in Feb) has been good. We do go thru PA and NJ and are aware there can always be backups due to accidents, etc. Perhaps this cruise we will leave Tuesday, and stay in NJ. It will certainly make the Wed drive a bit easier. Guess I didn't look carefully enough when booking to realize it was a weekday departure. At least we disembark on a Saturday.;)

[marco]

Are you going to park at the pier? If so, and the weather is good and you do end up driving down the day of the cruise, if you plan your arrival 11:30-ish, or just a tad later, the last two hours of your drive which will be the most congested part of it will be a couple of hours past "rush hour". It really won't be that bad. If your last hour or so of driving, within that 50 mile radius of Manhattan were going to be between 7:30-ish and 9-ish in the morning, I'd say it would be, but that really is way too early to arrive at the pier. At that time the pier will be totally congested with the folks disembarking that day. If you do drive down the day before the cruise, anyplace an hour or so out of the city won't be terribly expensive and if you are an hour or so out of the city and you start your drive that morning 9:30-10AM, you won't run into rush hour commuters coming into Manhattan.

[Milaandra]

We take Amtrak to Penn Station and then it's a short cab ride to the Manhattan pier. Much cheaper than parking.