Chaos on the New York Piers!

[Joanandjoe]

We’ve ended three cruises at the New York Passenger Ship terminal in Manhattan. The idea was that we would be 10 miles from home, so we’d have an easy end to our cruise. It has not worked that way. Disembarkation on three different lines, ranging from basic (Regal) to mainstream (HAL) to upscale (Radisson Seven Seas) has resulted in three bad experiences: slow clearance by the feds., no porters to be found, too many people, little help from the cruise lines, difficulty connecting with transportation. We’ve tried taxis and couldn’t get one for over an hour, and tried limos twice, and had to wait over a half hour for the limos to make it from the street to the pickup area. Utter chaos.

 

Our last experience, last month on Radisson, was the worst. There were six ships in town, one of which (Oreana) got diverted to Brooklyn, which wasn’t even open officially. (It opens next March, but will only handle one ship.) The port could not handle the more than 10,000 PAX, and our ship wasn’t cleared for disembarking until 2 hours and 20 minutes after we reached the dock. It took another hour for us to wait for our color, get our luggage, shlep four suitcases without a porter, and meet our limo; so we landed at 8:30 a.m. and got home (after a less than 15 minute trip) after noon. Had we gotten off the ship (without luggage) when we landed, we could have walked home and been there by 11 a.m.

 

Before anyone asks, we’ve had one occasion when we were the only ship in port. Things were better than last month, but still not very good.

 

If anyone has suggestions for improvement, we’ll try to assemble them and send them to the passenger relations departments at some of the lines that dock in NYC, such as Radisson, NCL, Princess, HAL, and Carnival. We’re posting this inquiry on all of those boards, and the board moderators should feel free to post it elsewhere on CC. Maybe we can use CC to improve this awful situation. WE LOVE NEW YORK, and want to have it a pleasant experience cruising from the City. Nothing beats sailing past the Statue of Liberty and the NYC skyline; but disembarkation ruins the good impression.

[Nitemare]

We had zero problems with the NYC cruise terminal last month on the Golden Princess. Drove ourselves, little traffic at 11AM arriving, just as easy leaving at 10AM on the return. 3 ships in port arriving, 4 leaving. Lots of cabs and porters, too.

 

(Not sure why this thread is on the Princess Board)

[spongerob]

Fortunately, Crown Princess is slated to use the new facility at Red Hook.

[blambition]

We also just got off the Golden Princess and did not have any problems getting on or off the ship. We arrived around 11 am and waited a short time to go through the x-ray machines then no wait at all to check-in. When we got off we did get off a little late but Super Shuttle was there since I called and told them we were running a little behind. We were on Dolphin Deck and got off around 10:30. Had a porter and no problems at all.

[SaylorGirl]

We had zero problems with the NYC cruise terminal last month on the Golden Princess. Drove ourselves, little traffic at 11AM arriving, just as easy leaving at 10AM on the return. 3 ships in port arriving, 4 leaving. Lots of cabs and porters, too.

 

(Not sure why this thread is on the Princess Board)

 

I believe the OP stated she had sailed into NYC on the Regal Princess on a past cruise.

[Pam in CA]

I believe the OP stated she had sailed into NYC on the Regal Princess on a past cruise.

Well, the OP was talking about cruiselines and I don't think the Regal has itineraries that begin/end in NYC. I also don't consider the Regal Princess a "basic" cruiseline or ship.

[lv2cruiseanywhere]

We had a similar very bad experience on September 24th returning on the Golden Princess to New York. There were porters but no busses to transfer to JFK. Many ships in port, no apparent organization of moving people out of the way. The workers said the Police were keeping the busses a few blocks away for security? It was our first curise out of New York, and will probably be our last since we live on the west coast.

[JohnL1935]

Back around 4-5 years ago we left from NY and had our daughter pick us up. It was before the "easy" cell phone stage so we had no communications. There was a fire on another ship in port and nothing moved. Somehow we found each other and we slepted with our lugguage to her car several blocks away. We no longer have anyone meet us on our NY cruises. We park our car in one of the areas between the piers, pay their exhorbitant fees but we leave the ship, take our luggage to the "street" area and I get the car and return to load the luggage. We did that twice and were on our way in a hurry only to face the NY traffic and the Lincoln Tunnel. If you park on the piers there seems to be some priority to get back to the loading area without all the hold ups on the street with the new and old passengers trying to get in at the same time. It seems to me that if you need a taxi, you must get away from the grid-lock at the piers and walk a few blocks to catch a cab--a limo seems impossible to coordinate.

 

John L.

[Druke I]

Have had both good and bad experiences with cruises ending in NYC.

 

Our last time, on Golden Princess, Sep 02, was particularly bad. On a Sunday, fourth ship in (we were 6 hrs late due to mid-Atlantic storms), with only enough Immigration, Customs, porters and teamsters to handle one ship at a time. Busses could not get close to the terminal, and of course, because we were late, many of us missed scheduled flights.

 

Princess, in our opinion, handled it as well as they could - and made alternative travel arrangments for many of us, and did in fact put us up in a motel adjacent to Newark Airport and fed us.

 

Although the trip ended on a bad note, it did not diminish our overall good experience. Sometimes you have to accept the unexpected while traveling.

[lwnbwlr]

I have vowed "never" to disembark in NYC again. A couple of years ago we arrived on ther Regal after a horrendus transatlantic cruise marred by 5 straight days of dense fog (yep, like soup) and several hundred passengers and crew with the noro virus. I was never so anxious to get off a ship in my life. But the porters had other ideas. They claimed that they weren't going to unload the passengers for fear that they too would get the virus. Actually I think they were demanding double pay for the risk involved. At any rate, we sat on the ship, knowing nothing because Princess decided to tell us nary a word, until 1:00PM when they finally started disembarkation. The very thought of this cruise still gives me the willies.

[cruzluvr2]

I had a similar experience in 2002 when I sailed NCL. I'm not blaming the cruiseline. There were three ships in port and it seemed we were the third from the entrance to the port. Taxis were few and far between. Many people missed their flights and had it not been for the generosity of one that had already missed their flight we would have missed ours. At that time you got the next taxi with a "ticket". It was utter chaos.

[Joanandjoe]

We're on all of the boards mentioned in the posting because those are the lines that sail into New York. We're really looking for suggestions more than comments, but welcome the comments. Apparently, it's a matter of luck and the number of ships in port, and we've been unlucky three times. Parking on the pier is not an option when the cruise is one way from Montreal!

 

We note that Luv2cruiseanywhere arrived on the Golden the same day we arrived on Radisson, and had a similar problem. The Golden was in long before our ship; maybe that's why Luv was able to find a porter. We had a stereo effect while waiting to disembark: we heard announcements on our ship and on the Princess and Carnival ships next to us. We felt like a minnow (490 PAX) next to two whales.

 

Regal was the Regal Empress (now Imperial Majesty), not the Regal Princess.

[starprincess]

I left from NYC about 4 years ago. Had absolutely no problems. Its the luck of the draw.

[bluesea2]

we arrived in NYCity last friday on the Star, no problems at all, plenty of porters, made phone contact with our limo driver and told him our location, he picked us up about two minutes later.

[sgriff17]

 

(Not sure why this thread is on the Princess Board)

 

did you even bother to read the OP's post? He said exactly why it was on the Princess board. :rolleyes: