embarcation/pier 88 nyc

[jfpb]

This is our first cruise. Can anyone tell me the procedure of getting on the ship. We'll be traveling with a 7 year old and 2 year old. Are there people to help you with luggage? What time should we get to the pier? How soon do they let you on the ship? Thanking you in advance for your advice.:)

[nybumpkin]

If you're driving to the port, you can enter off the West Side Highway - there's an exit for the pasenger ship terminal right by the 56th Street exit. Before you park your car, stop at the pier entrance and check your luggage with one of the porters (it's where you'll see the taxis letting people out); if you booked a guarantee and don't have your cabin assignment yet, the porter will have the cabin list. You can then drive up to the parking level (on the top of the piers - there's parking on piers 88, 90 and 92) and go to the check-in one level down. (We did this all wrong last year - we didn't stop to drop off our luggage before we parked, and had to go down to street level to check our bags with the porter before we could check in.) We arrived a little before noon; the line was long, but it moved and we were aboard by 12:30. Our cabin wan't ready yet, but lunch was being served on the Lido deck and the cabin was ready by the time we finished lunch. Bring a change of clothes for dinner and bathing suits in your carry-on, in case your luggage doesn't arrive in your cabin quickly; on our cruise, the pools were open before we left port, but we didn't have our suits since they were in our checked luggage.

 

Embarcation was relatively painless, but disembarcation was a madhouse! If you parked on one of the piers, one person has to go get the car and bring it down to the porters' level to load luggage; they won't let you take your luggage directly to the car, since there's only an escalator to the parking level. The day we disembarked, there were 3 ships at the terminal and 10,000 people trying to get out of the terminal at once! Think cabs, limos and private cars trying to pick up that many people at the same time! Hopefully the situation improves this year, since fewer ships are using the west side terminal.

 

Our kids are 14, 9 and 5 (a year younger during last year's cruise). Register your kids with Camp Carnival, and they'll probably have a great time! Our kids loved CC and are looking forward to this year's trip to try it again.