NYC to Port Liberty and more questions

[mking8288]

...if there is one "no show" from Carmel limo will we have our money back? What can we consider one "no show"? 15 minutes?20 minutes? We will not wait "forever" ... that after 10 minutes waiting is it ok to ask to our hotel staff to call them?

Put my 2 cents here, we use Carmel year after year, most of time and the driver was lost, late by 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes at most coming to our house. If there's unexpected traffic as you are in Manhattan, there's not much one can do - things happened - odds are that the driver/dispatcher from the "base" will try to call you (or, even offer to send another car/driver) Our driver was late, called us and we knew where he got lost since it's our neighborhood, with some dead end streets, etc. - and he was making his best, good faith effort to pick us up - was sincerely apologetic.

 

I don't know where you are reading those reviews - some of those could be "fake" as you labeled them, sometimes possibly written by competitors, non-verified reviews. Both Carmel & Dial 7 each have a fleet of several hundreds, something like 600 or 700 assorted vehicles and drivers in service daily, with their own garages & lots (waiting areas, including airports) and do thousands of trips each day - the odds are pretty low, as far as I am concerned ... even read about flight delays while flying and cruise ships being late, things happened (read them yet in your "research" ;) )

 

Carmel does NOT required pre- or full payment when reservation, unless you wanted to in advance. You reserve or book in advance - pay the driver at the end of the ride, no "refunds" to deal with in the highly unlikely case of a "no-show" ... all the years I am here on CC, don't personally recall reading a negative review especially NOT with a no-show. If you do a search of some of the posts here specific & filtered for Carmel and Dial 7, you will see almost all CC'ers using them have post-cruise/trip feedback of a positive nature and recommended them to others.

 

Access & use of Carmel's free App (iOS & Android) - it sounded like you will NOT have access to mobile (cellular) smartphone and/or WiFi data, as that would facilitate & make your travel easier - I must be mistaken that most/many/almost all Euro travelers have free incoming voice calls even when roaming in the USA as well as data ... as in the case of our relatives from France & they've been here on several occassion recently. If do you, download & install the App, once your trip is booked - and within 1 hour or 30 minutes before your scheduled pickup time/location, you can view the car & driver info/details assigned by the dispatcher or "base" and ETA in real-time, its location en route, etc. so there's virtually very little chance of mis-communicating or not knowing the ride is not on time or late ... as they are typically 5 minutes earlier if not on-time, sometimes when we aren't even ready do last-minute checks around the house, etc. All that is on their websites (and, that of Dial 7)

 

If for some reason, there's a problem - Dial 7 is your backup to get to Cape Liberty or whatever - I assume you've provisions in your timing that a 15 or even 30 minutes delay of an unexpected nature isn't going to result in missing the check-in and sailing. When we disembark/return to NYC port - we don't even pre-book or reserve our ground transportation, sometimes - we take a yellow taxi (not crossing state lines between NJ and NJ) and would just request Carmel for a pickup in about 15 or 20 minutes - never a problem ... to head for LGA in Queens as we go beyond that for a few miles extra.

[framboesa]

 

I don't know where you are reading those reviews - some of those could be "fake" as you labeled them, sometimes possibly written by competitors, non-verified reviews. Both Carmel & Dial 7 each have a fleet of several hundreds, something like 600 or 700 assorted vehicles and drivers in service daily, with their own garages & lots (waiting areas, including airports) and do thousands of trips each day - the odds are pretty low, as far as I am concerned ... even read about flight delays while flying and cruise ships being late, things happened (read them yet in your "research" ;) )

I'm reading bad reviews in sites like yelp, tripadvisor...but I know that normally when we have something bad to say we say it and the other 1000 that have good things to say don't say it ;)

Carmel does NOT required pre- or full payment when reservation, unless you wanted to in advance. You reserve or book in advance - pay the driver at the end of the ride, no "refunds" to deal with in the highly unlikely case of a "no-show" ... all the years I am here on CC, don't personally recall reading a negative review especially NOT with a no-show. If you do a search of some of the posts here specific & filtered for Carmel and Dial 7, you will see almost all CC'ers using them have post-cruise/trip feedback of a positive nature and recommended them to others. Thank you :) I guess that we pay more attention to the bad reviews because we must be on the ship ...there is no time for mistakes! We must give our credit card number, even when we pay to the driver...we were worried that we have to take a taxi because of a big delay from Carmel and they use our credit card to pay for the ride, like if we were the ones who were late :rolleyes:

 

Access & use of Carmel's free App (iOS & Android) - it sounded like you will NOT have access to mobile (cellular) smartphone and/or WiFi data, as that would facilitate & make your travel easier - I must be mistaken that most/many/almost all Euro travelers have free incoming voice calls even when roaming in the USA as well as data ... as in the case of our relatives from France & they've been here on several occassion recently. If do you, download & install the App, once your trip is booked - and within 1 hour or 30 minutes before your scheduled pickup time/location, you can view the car & driver info/details assigned by the dispatcher or "base" and ETA in real-time, its location en route, etc. so there's virtually very little chance of mis-communicating or not knowing the ride is not on time or late ... as they are typically 5 minutes earlier if not on-time, sometimes when we aren't even ready do last-minute checks around the house, etc. All that is on their websites (and, that of Dial 7) We (portugal) have to pay for the incoming calls when we are in roaming.I'm not sure how will be our internet access....we have been to USA before and sometimes everything work fine, other times it doesn't work at all...But if they are late of course we will call them...I even have the cruise port numbers! (control freak, I know)

 

If for some reason, there's a problem - Dial 7 is your backup to get to Cape Liberty or whatever - I assume you've provisions in your timing that a 15 or even 30 minutes delay of an unexpected nature isn't going to result in missing the check-in and sailing. When we disembark/return to NYC port - we don't even pre-book or reserve our ground transportation, sometimes - we take a yellow taxi (not crossing state lines between NJ and NJ) and would just request Carmel for a pickup in about 15 or 20 minutes - never a problem ... to head for LGA in Queens as we go beyond that for a few miles extra.The 15 or 20 minutes late would give us time for plan B

 

Thank you for your input ;)

What do you think it's the better option: pay total before our ride (with tolls and tip) or wait to pay when we arrive. We thinking about paying total, so we can be sure what we will spend...but maybe it's not the best option!:confused:

 

Thank you again...and I'm sorry for so many questions!

Edited January 13, 2017 by framboesa

[mking8288]

[ ... What do you think it's the better option: pay total before our ride (with tolls and tip) or wait to pay when we arrive. We thinking about paying total, so we can be sure what we will spend...but maybe it's not the best option!:confused: ...

You are sailing AOS on a Sunday, leaving from midtown Manhattan in the morning - there's very little chance of NOT getting on the ship ... maybe later than you wanted to due to an unexpected major accident, roadway constructions or presidential motorcade traffic with full frozen zone :D - unplanned, but nobody can predict those. You allow extra time to get there - it's a 30 to 45 minutes trip on average, maybe 1 hour to 90 minutes - why become unreasonable anxious, you are staying in NY and not flying in on the date of and rushing to the port (and, you are not totally new as a visitor to NYC) Take 5 deep breath slowly & relax, chill out as we say.

 

There is basically 2 preferred way to get there, from Holland Tunnel downtown (shortest distance & likely faster) or Lincolon Tunnel, midtown and about 7 miles longer in distance but possibly also save time, if there's something going on downtown. Option 3 is a big loop, going uptown & taking the GW Bridge - just in case.

 

You are in NY and unless you plan to pay everything with a credit card and it's not accepted everywhere - you will need/have U.S. currency to pay for incidental and other things, regardless. Why not pay with cash instead and not worry about prepaying with credit card - the "exact" toll charges to be collected by the driver will be a little different depending on the above, option 1 or 2 or 3. In my opinion and that's how we do it, all the time, pay on arrival & deduct any online/digital coupon discount for the trip. The net difference (roughly $1 to $3 USD ???) on "knowing what you will spend for pier transportation" won't be finalized until the ride is over (that's how it is for ride-sharing with Uber & Lyft too, usually) If you prepaid and there's a difference, you will need to pay a 2nd. time anyway - cash or credit card with the driver.

 

Here are some extra tips/ideas - book your trip in advance, on the morning of sailing, call them by phone from the hotel to reconfirm the pickup at least 90 minutes or 1 hour before pickup, as you should be awake & getting ready, finishing breakfast & packing, etc. If you don't have/want to give them your Portugal phone # for whatever reason, you can let them know & use the hotel's front desk/lobby extension (don't use the hotel chain's 800-toll-free # as they will never get thru to anyone locally in NYC) when the car/driver is 5 minutes away. Check-out and get down to the lobby at least 5 minutes before pickup, 10 minutes is better as they can be real early (ours did ... my coffee was half-finished) and wait/be on the lookout. Carmel's vehicle are easy to "spot" and they have logo's & signs *** - luggage in the back, get in and confirm the destination, sit back & relax, enjoy the ride.

 

*** Like this mini-van with Dial7, different logo - obviously - usuallly visible from different angles/views. For hotel pickup - just make sure someone else didn't booked with them at the same time as they could be going to JFK instead of ...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64025118/Transportation/IMG160810_Dial7CS.jpg

 

And, using your own control freak logics, if you must be on the ship and cannot afford to be late, then, be rational with your demands in totality - you need to make sure that your smartphone & Portugal mobile # (and, maybe even data) is going to work here in the USA - it might cost you $5 or $10 USD extra for those extra 2, or 3 or 5 minutes of voice call - well worth the charges of not missing the sailing. When we're traveling in South Korea & had service issues, we called back stateside & resolved matters toll-free calling our mobile service provider & they fixed it. If RCI has last minute urgent messages, i.e. delayed arrival and boarding, etc. - they must have a way to contact or notify you, whether it's Robo calling or SMS texting - otherwise, you might be unplesantly surprised & mistakenly happy on being among the earliest to arrive at the pier.

[Got2Cruise]

I can't imagine the hotel not calling a free number if you ask. But you can also tip the bellman a couple of bucks extra if necessary. I would also call the day before to confirm this way you will be able to clear up any problems in advance

 

 

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[framboesa]

Thank you so much for all the help...We really appreciate it!I have no idea why I'm being so anxious this time! Normally we have last minute travels and plan everything in less than a month...sometimes in less than a week...This time we had 6 months for planning...Too much time!:D

 

I can't imagine the hotel not calling a free number if you ask. But you can also tip the bellman a couple of bucks extra if necessary. I would also call the day before to confirm this way you will be able to clear up any problems in advance

We will do it just to be sure ;)

 

 

 

You are in NY and unless you plan to pay everything with a credit card and it's not accepted everywhere - you will need/have U.S. currency to pay for incidental and other things, regardless.

We will have cash for sure.We normally put some cash in covers/envelopes for some situations where they don't give change (like the trolley in Port Canaveral) so we will do the same for the car.

 

Why not pay with cash instead and not worry about prepaying with credit card - the "exact" toll charges to be collected by the driver will be a little different depending on the above, option 1 or 2 or 3. In my opinion and that's how we do it, all the time, pay on arrival & deduct any online/digital coupon discount for the trip. The net difference (roughly $1 to $3 USD ???) on "knowing what you will spend for pier transportation" won't be finalized until the ride is over (that's how it is for ride-sharing with Uber & Lyft too, usually) If you prepaid and there's a difference, you will need to pay a 2nd. time anyway - cash or credit card with the driver. When we pay the "total" we hoped there would be no changes to the prices (like in Uber here, we know in advance what we will pay regardless to more tolls or more traffic).We will pay with cash ;)

 

Here are some extra tips/ideas - book your trip in advance, on the morning of sailing, call them by phone from the hotel to reconfirm the pickup at least 90 minutes or 1 hour before pickup, as you should be awake & getting ready, finishing breakfast & packing, etc. We will be awake for sure :)

 

 

And, using your own control freak logics, if you must be on the ship and cannot afford to be late, then, be rational with your demands in totality - you need to make sure that your smartphone & Portugal mobile # (and, maybe even data) is going to work here in the USA .We will use the phone to call home and try the data with wi-fi network...we will arrive 5 days before and it will give us plenty of time...Thank You once again!