Best arrival Time for Manhattan Cruise Terminal driving from New England

[Lvspatime]

We are cruising in late October and driving in on a Wednesday morning.  We have no set boarding time.  What would be the best time to aim to arrive to increase the chances of parking and sort of limit how much traffic we sit in?  Our drive is 5+ hours before you factor in the traffic.

Thanks!

 

 

 

[princeton123211]

34 minutes ago, Lvspatime said:

What would be the best time to aim to arrive to increase the chances of parking and sort of limit how much traffic we sit in?  Our drive is 5+ hours before you factor in the traffic.

I would shoot to arrive at or just before noon. This will make sure you avoid the morning rush hour around New York and entering Manhattan (although you should factor in some time on your departure to account for traffic in Connecticut etc depending where in New England you are coming from).

 

11am-noon arrival also gives you some buffer time in case you are unavoidably delayed for some reason. Any earlier and you will run into the previous cruise shuffling out of the parking garage and any later you could run the risk of missing the ship if you have a car issue or major traffic. 

[navybankerteacher]

“5 + hours before you factor in traffic” sounds like southern Maine or mid New Hampshire.  Perhaps you should allow at least an hour to factor in traffic - meaning a 5:00AM or so start.   Why not consider starting perhaps 6:00 PM the day before - to get you to Stamford CT by 10-11:00 PM, get a good night’s sleep, and start for New York at about 10:00 AM embarkation day?