Any Long Island folks here? Tips for Brooklyn Terminal?

[exm]

I live in Nassau County, and have a 10 day cruise out of Brooklyn coming up. Parking is an outrageous $45 a day (or $450). We are driving a relatively "nice" car (2021 SUV, nothing too fancy!), I don't want to park it on the street somewhere, and are with a party of 6. So we should all fit in the car. Our options are to drive and park (for $450), or we can have a car service drive us for about the same amount ($200 each way + gratuity). So both options are a wash.

 

Questions:

- Any other options? Don't see us take public transportation by the way.

- Thoughts on self park vs car service out of Brooklyn?

Edited December 23, 2023 by exm

[njhorseman]

12 minutes ago, exm said:

 

live in Nassau County, and have a 10 day cruise out of Brooklyn coming up. Parking is an outrageous $45 a day (or $450). We are driving a relatively "nice" car (2021 SUV, nothing too fancy!), I don't want to park it on the street somewhere, and are with a party of 6. So we should all fit in the car. Our options are to drive and park (for $450), or we can have a car service drive us for about the same amount ($200 each way + gratuity). So both options are a wash.

 

Questions:

- Any other options? Don't see us take public transportation by the way.

- Thoughts on self park vs car service out of Brooklyn?

If car service and parking at the port are about the same price I would park at the pier because you'll likely get a little easier and earlier start to your trip home not having to wait for your car service and looking for your particular ride. Just disembark, walk to your parking spot load up your luggage and you'll be on your way.

 

If you won't take mass transit then you have no other options.

[NYcruzzer]

Don't think there is any free street parking available anywhere near the pier. You could all drive the car to Brooklyn Navy Terminal. Pretty sure parking is free there. Then all take the $4.00 ferry to cruise terminal.. South Brooklyn route https://www.ferry.nyc/routes-and-schedules/landing/brooklyn-army-terminal/

[GTJ]

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

If car service and parking at the port are about the same price I would park at the pier because you'll likely get a little easier and earlier start to your trip home not having to wait for your car service and looking for your particular ride. Just disembark, walk to your parking spot load up your luggage and you'll be on your way.

I would come to the opposite conclusion because, the price being equal, having someone else do the work of driving--and assuming the liabilities for driving--constitutes a better value, compared to you having to perform that work.

 

1 hour ago, exm said:

- Any other options? Don't see us take public transportation by the way.

There is really no alternative to private transportation--be it your own vehicle or that of someone else--If public transportation is not practicable. Maybe it is time to call in a favor from a friend who has a vehicle or who could drive yours there and back.

[Got2Cruise]

Take the car service and relax. There is no other easy way. 

[njhorseman]

7 minutes ago, GTJ said:

I would come to the opposite conclusion because, the price being equal, having someone else do the work of driving--and assuming the liabilities for driving--constitutes a better value, compared to you having to perform that work.

Coming from someone who, IIRC, doesn't drive? Can you honestly say you know anything about "the work of driving"?

To me driving up to 90 minutes requires almost no effort on my part. Others may prefer less time behind the wheel before taking a break and others can comfortably drive for a much longer time, as I could when I was younger.

 

As to liability, I'm well-insured, and I feel much safer behind the wheel than as a passenger who is depending on the skills of the person driving. 

 

To each his own, but as someone who has both driven to and parked at a cruise terminal and taken car or limo service to a cruise terminal, my decision is virtually always based on price...which boils down to how long the cruise is. When there's no meaningful difference in price I always drive, because I'm always on my way home sooner than if I were taking a car or limo service. The only times I would consider breaking that general rule is if the weather forecast called for significant snow during the cruise and I would be parking in an outdoor lot such as the facilities at the Manhattan and Brooklyn cruise terminals, or if there were a special event on embarkation day or disembarkation day such as the New York Marathon that was going to significantly disrupt traffic on my route to and from the cruise terminal.

[GTJ]

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

Coming from someone who, IIRC, doesn't drive? Can you honestly say you know anything about "the work of driving"?

Yes, I do. I have manage bus transportation systems for the past 40-plus years, paying individuals for the "work" of driving. It is work that I respect highly, the dedication and care that most professionals put into their job of driving. On the other side, I do get rather disappointed with the carelessness of many (not all) non-professional drivers who do not respect the speed, power, and inertia of the vehicles they are operating, and who succumb to distraction. They treat their vehicle as an office, engaging in cell phone meetings, eating and drinking, fiddling with the radio, putting on make-up, etc., all with attention to the road being secondary. I do wish that the driving standards required for a CDL were applied to all drivers, even the higher skill level would not mean much if drivers don't take driving seriously and allow themselves to get distracted. (I have encountered some people in this forum who actually support distracted driving!) Driving is work that requires skill and attention, attributes that I know that I do not possess.

 

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

I feel much safer behind the wheel than as a passenger who is depending on the skills of the person driving.

A number of years ago there was an interesting paper published about the illusory superiority. See Ola Svenson, "Are We All Less Risky and More Skillful Than Our Fellow Drivers?" 47 Acta Psychologica 143 (1981). The author explained her research: "Do people engaged in a risky activity where skill plays some role, have an unbiased view of their own skill and risk taking? More specifically, do they have a correct conception of their own skill and risk taking behavior, e.g., in comparison to others? One of the most common and best known risky activity in modern society is that of driving a car. Therefore, some observations of drivers' notions of their own driving skills and risk taking behavior will be presented in this paper." In the study that was conducted, with respect to drivers in the United States, 60 percent of the survey respondents believed themselves to uppermost quintile of drivers with respect to their ability to drive safely; 87.5 percent of believed themselves to be safer than the median driver. Nearly one-half, 46.3 percent, considered themselves to be in the most skillful quintile of drivers, and 92.7 believed themselves to be more skillful than the median driver. In discussing these results, the author observed: "Very clearly, the present results illustrate a strong tendency among the subjects to believe themselves to be more skillful and less risky than the others in the groups."

 

The perception that you--and many others--have with respect to the safety of one's own driving is consistent with this study. The combination of controlling the movement of a vehicle by oneself, coupled with the self-belief of most drivers as having above-average driving skill, naturally leads to the perception that driving oneself is very safe. Yet, the statistics show otherwise. Driving is exceptionally dangerous, especially among non-professional drivers. The psychology here--of our abilities to accurately self-assess-is absolutely fascinating.

Edited December 24, 2023 by GTJ

[Salty11218]

I do not recommend going to the Brooklyn Army Terminal to park on the pier at 58th St. There is a free municipal parking lot there, but overnight parking is prohibited, so you will most definitely get ticketed or towed. Wherever you go, the challenge you face with street parking is street sweeping, so if you’re gone for more than 6 days, you’ll get a ticket, but probably not more than $65. So this might be worth it! If you can deal with the hassle of finding a street space, the South Brooklyn ferry opens up more options for parking, if you’re willing to lug your stuff to the ferry from wherever you parked. You can park on the street around the stops at 69th St, 58th St, or Atlantic Ave. Lastly, I would not be too concerned about parking on the street, especially in residential neighborhoods. I park my car on the street in Brooklyn and haven’t had a break in in 15 years. 

[mjkacmom]

We live 20 minutes from the Manhattan cruise terminal, family of 7. Car service and parking cost about the same, we’ve done it both ways, we prefer to drive and park.

[njhorseman]

16 hours ago, GTJ said:

Yes, I do. I have manage bus transportation systems for the past 40-plus years, paying individuals for the "work" of driving. It is work that I respect highly, the dedication and care that most professionals put into their job of driving. On the other side, I do get rather disappointed with the carelessness of many (not all) non-professional drivers who do not respect the speed, power, and inertia of the vehicles they are operating, and who succumb to distraction. They treat their vehicle as an office, engaging in cell phone meetings, eating and drinking, fiddling with the radio, putting on make-up, etc., all with attention to the road being secondary. I do wish that the driving standards required for a CDL were applied to all drivers, even the higher skill level would not mean much if drivers don't take driving seriously and allow themselves to get distracted. (I have encountered some people in this forum who actually support distracted driving!) Driving is work that requires skill and attention, attributes that I know that I do not possess.

 

A number of years ago there was an interesting paper published about the illusory superiority. See Ola Svenson, "Are We All Less Risky and More Skillful Than Our Fellow Drivers?" 47 Acta Psychologica 143 (1981). The author explained her research: "Do people engaged in a risky activity where skill plays some role, have an unbiased view of their own skill and risk taking? More specifically, do they have a correct conception of their own skill and risk taking behavior, e.g., in comparison to others? One of the most common and best known risky activity in modern society is that of driving a car. Therefore, some observations of drivers' notions of their own driving skills and risk taking behavior will be presented in this paper." In the study that was conducted, with respect to drivers in the United States, 60 percent of the survey respondents believed themselves to uppermost quintile of drivers with respect to their ability to drive safely; 87.5 percent of believed themselves to be safer than the median driver. Nearly one-half, 46.3 percent, considered themselves to be in the most skillful quintile of drivers, and 92.7 believed themselves to be more skillful than the median driver. In discussing these results, the author observed: "Very clearly, the present results illustrate a strong tendency among the subjects to believe themselves to be more skillful and less risky than the others in the groups."

 

The perception that you--and many others--have with respect to the safety of one's own driving is consistent with this study. The combination of controlling the movement of a vehicle by oneself, coupled with the self-belief of most drivers as having above-average driving skill, naturally leads to the perception that driving oneself is very safe. Yet, the statistics show otherwise. Driving is exceptionally dangerous, especially among non-professional drivers. The psychology here--of our abilities to accurately self-assess-is absolutely fascinating.

Having spent more than 20 years as a property/casualty actuary I'm quite confident in my ability to identify my driving experience, skills and behaviors as putting me among the safest drivers on the road.

[GTJ]

With so many people all believing themselves to be in that upper quintile, it is difficult to tell, objectively, who truly is. Some are, but most are not. It is not necessarily that less safe or less skillful drivers are trying to deceive others, for many have persuaded themselves of how good their driving is. Obviously, it is impossible for 88 percent of the population to be above average. Svenson says:

 

"These results may reflect purely cognitive mechanisms or may be mainly a result of lacking information about the others in the group which may lead a majority of the people to regard themselves as “better”. For example, the results may be explained by cognitive mechanisms, such as, low memory availability of negative events (e.g., accidents or near accidents) in the experimental situation. But there is also evidence pointing at greater generality of the findings. For instance, Preston and Harris (1965) compared 50 drivers whose driving involved them in accidents (serious enough to require hospitalization) with 50 drivers without accident histories but matched in relevant variables. When asked about how skillful drivers they were, the two groups gave almost identical means indicating that the average driver, irrespective of accident record, judged himself to be more skillful than the average on the nine point scale. According to police records 34 of the drivers in the accident group were responsible for the accidents. The accident group had a higher frequency of previous traffic violations. This seems to indicate that we have difficulties in learning from experience."

 

[Citations omitted.] Standardized tests might help, but even when available they're sometimes rejected because they do not give the results desired. (E.g., a substantial number of people and even universities are refusing to accept the ACT and SAT tests because they give "wrong" results.)

 

Many people in this forum who drive probably believe themselves to be safer or more skillful than the average driver, or to be in the uppermost quintile. How can we really tell them apart? Perhaps more importantly, how can we discourage the bad drivers from driving? Even those people who are, themselves, safer or more skillful with their own driving would not want those people who are less safe or less skillful to drive. For those persons who are bad drivers, they should, going to for from a port, and otherwise whenever practicable, use public transportation, use a hired car, or walk, instead of driving themselves.

[Brighton Line]

On 12/24/2023 at 8:23 AM, Salty11218 said:

Lastly, I would not be too concerned about parking on the street, especially in residential neighborhoods. I park my car on the street in Brooklyn and haven’t had a break in in 15 years. 

It's a ten-day cruise, I'm sure there would be at least one alternate side parking day the car would be illegally parked. All of NYC is a tow zone, you can be towed for any infraction including an expired meter. 
There are areas of NYC, sections of Staten Island, that do not have Alternate Side parking days but I don't know if Red Hook is one of them.

[lenquixote66]

On 12/23/2023 at 2:02 PM, exm said:

I live in Nassau County, and have a 10 day cruise out of Brooklyn coming up. Parking is an outrageous $45 a day (or $450). We are driving a relatively "nice" car (2021 SUV, nothing too fancy!), I don't want to park it on the street somewhere, and are with a party of 6. So we should all fit in the car. Our options are to drive and park (for $450), or we can have a car service drive us for about the same amount ($200 each way + gratuity). So both options are a wash.

 

Questions:

- Any other options? Don't see us take public transportation by the way.

- Thoughts on self park vs car service out of Brooklyn?

We live in Nassau County and whenever we cruise out of Manhattan we use a very reputable Car Service.The last time we booked the car service was in 2018 and it was $100.00 plus tolls and tip each way.The company is Affordable Limo Service ,located on the South Side of Nassau County but they service all of Long Island.

[lenquixote66]

On 12/24/2023 at 8:23 AM, Salty11218 said:

I do not recommend going to the Brooklyn Army Terminal to park on the pier at 58th St. There is a free municipal parking lot there, but overnight parking is prohibited, so you will most definitely get ticketed or towed. Wherever you go, the challenge you face with street parking is street sweeping, so if you’re gone for more than 6 days, you’ll get a ticket, but probably not more than $65. So this might be worth it! If you can deal with the hassle of finding a street space, the South Brooklyn ferry opens up more options for parking, if you’re willing to lug your stuff to the ferry from wherever you parked. You can park on the street around the stops at 69th St, 58th St, or Atlantic Ave. Lastly, I would not be too concerned about parking on the street, especially in residential neighborhoods. I park my car on the street in Brooklyn and haven’t had a break in in 15 years. 

I lived in Brooklyn 60 years and never had a break in .

[exm]

3 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

I lived in Brooklyn 60 years and never had a break in .

Brooklyn is big. Do you think that matters?

[exm]

3 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

We live in Nassau County and whenever we cruise out of Manhattan we use a very reputable Car Service.The last time we booked the car service was in 2018 and it was $100.00 plus tolls and tip each way.The company is Affordable Limo Service ,located on the South Side of Nassau County but they service all of Long Island.

Yep, not my first time out of LI either. Let me get some quotes out. $100+toll/tips is around $130. Let’s see if I can get $200 all-in.

[lenquixote66]

41 minutes ago, exm said:

Brooklyn is big. Do you think that matters?

Not necessarily

[exm]

I got a few quotes in. Can't seem to get below $200 all-in one-way (Nassau to the terminal), so I think I'm going down that route with a limo company I used before to Bayonne. It's cheaper, and I don't have to park my car in a public lot (not that it's not safe there, but I prefer my driveway). Thanks all.