How is parking at the Brooklyn Pier?

[KatWag]

We live a bit north of Philadelphia and would prefer to drive and park. But I have this horror of getting there and finding no place to park. How is the parking there? Enough spaces? Are there other options if the lot is full? Thanks!

[Leslieswiger]

You may want and have a look at the thread "Crown Photos From The Luncheon Today" by Sunprincess. They do have some pictures taken from the ship of the pier and the parking area. May give you some idea what to expect. Happy Sailings...Leslie Swiger:)

[Studebaker59]

We were on the Crown's Inaugural Sailing!

 

Getting to & from the Brooklyn pier was easy. We used the directions on the pier's website, www.nycruiseterminal.com and had no problem. There's plenty of parking!

 

My husband dropped me & our luggage off before he parked the car.

It was easy to get to & from the the terminal building. We paid $164 for the nine day cruise. We got a ticket when we arrived, and used a credit card to pay the machine when we were about to leave the terminal when we returned.

 

We both walked with the luggage to the car because it was so close to the terminal building.

 

No problems!

[JAKE3337]

We also used the on-site parking. We drove from Canada the day before but wanted to make sure that we got a parking spot so we arrived at 8:30am. There was very few cars there at the time, maybe 20 or so but when we picked up our car at the end of the cruise, the parking lot appeared quite full. I don't know where we would have parked had it been full as it was not in a very nice area.

 

I used instructions from Mapquest and had no problems getting to the dock.:)

[LunaMoon]

Dear Kat,

 

There is some information about the parking on this thread (hope it helps):

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=368219

[madelinerose]

Do taxis drop off at the entrance? If so, are there people right there to take luggage or do you have to schlep it yourself? Thanks.

[LunaMoon]

Yes, we saw taxis and car services having easy access to curbside right in front of the terminal entrance at Red Hook yesterday.

 

The only caution I will give (again, I guess :p... sorry) is that you must be patient while waiting in that single-file-snake-line of cars that slowly proceeds from the main entrance up to the doors of the actual terminal building.

 

If you jump-the-gun and leap out of your taxi or car too soon at the parking areas that appear first, you WILL end up unnecessarily dragging your bags a distance.

 

Also, the distance between the drop off curbside and the main terminal building's doors is very very short (literally from here to there :-). Even I, a person who is old and completely out of shape! could have pushed my tons of luggage from a cab to the entranceway, and then through security to the waiting room.

This makeshift terminal building was clearly built to be compact and to serve the needs specifically of these huge cruise ship passengers.

[madelinerose]

Thank you, Luna. We'll be doing a taxi from Lower Manhattan. ;)

 

 

Yes, we saw taxis and car services having easy access to curbside right in front of the terminal entrance at Red Hook yesterday.

 

The only caution I will give (again, I guess :p... sorry) is that you must be patient while waiting in that single-file-snake-line of cars that slowly proceeds from the main entrance up to the doors of the actual terminal building.

 

If you jump-the-gun and leap out of your taxi or car too soon at the parking areas that appear first, you WILL end up unnecessarily dragging your bags a distance.

 

Also, the distance between the drop off curbside and the main terminal building's doors is very very short (literally from here to there :-). Even I, a person who is old and completely out of shape! could have pushed my tons of luggage from a cab to the entranceway, and then through security to the waiting room.

This makeshift terminal building was clearly built to be compact and to serve the needs specifically of these huge cruise ship passengers.

[smeyer418]

After the ship left the parking lot was half full, must be the employees are parking. It really hasn't come close to being full so stop worrying about it. Less full than the one in Manhattan. After the Golden left it was empty(it wasn't returning to the Red Hook Piers). There was a line but no more so than anyplace where many cars are dropping off. Its actually set up very well. Better than Bayonne or Manhattan...

[RASHOPPER2]

We Were There For The Luncheon Yesterday And There Appeared To Be Plenty Of Parking.

[LunaMoon]

Thank you, Luna. We'll be doing a taxi from Lower Manhattan (madelinerose)

------------------------------------------------------

 

Hi mad,

 

Are you New Yorkers? (if you are, then you know this already...:) )

 

If not, may I kindly suggest that you not allow your cab driver to convince you to hop out of the cab too soon. You can politely, but firmly, let him know that you'd rather wait until you've reached the front of the terminal doors (his meter is running, so it is a fair request).

[madelinerose]

No, Luna, we're from Baltimore, but we do visit Manhattan frequently.

If we think it will make a difference (not sure how), we can also arrange for a car service from the hotel.

 

We have no problems dealing with the taxi drivers. ;)

 

We always use Amtrak to NYC. Out of the blue, DH asked about driving. Well, bottom line, with AMEX pointsand AAA discounts, it's a no brainer. We still may decide to leave the day of the cruise, 9-3, rather than spend the night. But, I think checking in a day early and relaxing around the hotel may be the best idea. We like to ease into our vacation.

 

Thank you, Luna. We'll be doing a taxi from Lower Manhattan (madelinerose)

------------------------------------------------------

 

Hi mad,

 

Are you New Yorkers? (if you are, then you know this already...:) )

 

If not, may I kindly suggest that you not allow your cab driver to convince you to hop out of the cab too soon. You can politely, but firmly, let him know that you'd rather wait until you've reached the front of the terminal doors (his meter is running, so it is a fair request).

[bluefintuna]

Two things that have really put my mind at ease: first, reading that QM2 will be sailing from Bayonne when the Crown sails from Red Hook on 9/30 (that's a good thing!) second, reading the reassuring posts that there is ample parking.

[Spender Nui]

We live a bit north of Philadelphia and would prefer to drive and park. But I have this horror of getting there and finding no place to park. How is the parking there? Enough spaces? Are there other options if the lot is full? Thanks!

 

We drove from Valley Forge to attend the luncheon on the 23rd. It took us a little over 2 hours to get there. The last 1/2 hour of the drive started about 15 miles from the pier.

 

We arrived about 11:15 AM and the lot was maybe 10% full. When we left about 3:00 PM the lot was probably less than 40% full. The ship was to sail at 5:00 PM. I wasn't checking this specifically but these are my best estimates of what I noticed.

[Merion_Mom]

Two things that have really put my mind at ease: first, reading that QM2 will be sailing from Bayonne when the Crown sails from Red Hook on 9/30 (that's a good thing!) second, reading the reassuring posts that there is ample parking.

blue: I doubt that the QM2 will be sailing from Bayonne, since that facility is owned by Royal Caribbean. I assume that it will sail out of Manhattan.

[smeyer418]

Its out of Bayonne officially announced...I can give you a link . RC doesn't "own" the pier...the cruise terminal does scroll down to the bottom of the page..

 

http://www.cunard.com/Planner/Default.asp?plan_active=Connect

[Merion_Mom]

We were on the Crown's Inaugural Sailing!

 

Getting to & from the Brooklyn pier was easy. We used the directions on the pier's website, www.nycruiseterminal.com and had no problem. There's plenty of parking!

 

My husband dropped me & our luggage off before he parked the car.

It was easy to get to & from the the terminal building. We paid $164 for the nine day cruise. We got a ticket when we arrived, and used a credit card to pay the machine when we were about to leave the terminal when we returned.

 

We both walked with the luggage to the car because it was so close to the terminal building.

 

No problems!

Studebaker, would you mind explaining how nine days' parking cost $164? It's not divisible evenly by 9.................:confused: :confused: :confused:

[Merion_Mom]

Its out of Bayonne officially announced...I can give you a link . RC doesn't "own" the pier...the cruise terminal does scroll down to the bottom of the page..

 

http://www.cunard.com/Planner/Default.asp?plan_active=Connect

Wow, that is VERY interesting. I could have sworn that RCI had a long-term lease and controlled the pier.........it's lucky that I DIDN'T swear, isn't it? ;)

[smeyer418]

They do have a long term access lease but while it gives them priority they can't block someone elses use. Such a monoply would be illegal since a port is an essential facility....goes back to the railroads in the US trying to block a competitor from a train station...and isn't this more than you wanted to know about that :) be well its too late and we are all tired :)...sorry I won't be joining you..

 

Sid

[Studebaker59]

Merion_Mom,

 

The cost for the 9 day cruise was $164. I've read that other CC members reported that they paid $164 also. I guess it includes taxes so the number may not be evenly divided by 9.

 

The transaction was all done very easily by a machine at the terminal exit. We put our credit card in and got our receipt. We brought our luggage (on wheels) easily to the car. When we exited the parking lot, we simply showed the receipt to the human attendant.

 

No problem!

[sunprincess]

I found the Red Hook Terminal to be quite easy to access.

We visited the Crown Friday. Of course there were pax disembarking when we arrvied, so there was some traffic entering. You go into the area single lane. Having views of the beautiful Crown helps the wait go by.

We paid $19 for the day when we were there Friday.

 

I have taken some photos of the area that you can view in my webshots album:

http://community.webshots.com/myphotos?action=viewAllPhotos&albumID=551660991

 

You can drive right up to the terminal building & drop your luggage off curbside. There are porters there. The place where they scan your bags is right there too.