Caribbean Princess in NY today

[resstation]

My understanding is the ship got in during the early evening when the rain was at it's hardest. Bear in mind Princess uses the Red Hook Brooklyn terminal not Manhattan. The pier is in an industrial area, nowhere near any of the NY tourist areas. Unless you knew where you were going, trying to find a bus stop or subway station in a desolate area in the rain would not be a very wise choice. I've lived in the NY Metro area my whole life and know my way around the area very well. Regardless, I would not attempt to do it on foot.

 

So you are saying you can't call a cab and ask to be taken into the city? Even if Princess DID have cabs available sitting at the port, they would have to be told where to go. An extra half hour/hour of waiting for one couldn't have been that much of a problem. Of course, it was raining - darn that Princess!

[Mike A]

So you are saying you can't call a cab and ask to be taken into the city? Even if Princess DID have cabs available sitting at the port, they would have to be told where to go. An extra half hour/hour of waiting for one couldn't have been that much of a problem. Of course, it was raining - darn that Princess!

If you read my post again, I never said a cab could not be called. I only said, I would not reccomend walking through the pier area of Red Hook in a tropical storm to find a bus or subway if you have never been here before. I agree, Princess should have provided cabs. Unfortunately they did not. I was responding to the statement that there was no excuse not to go out and go somewhere.

[christicruiser]

Hopefully, the other passengers who sailed this week will be as understanding as my husband and I were. ;)

 

I was on the ship this week and am VERY thankful the Captain brought us into NYC early. There were high winds of at least 30 mph and driving rain once we docked in NYC so I don't think anyone was too terribly bent that there were not many cabs around. It was not tourist weather in NYC on Saturday.:(

 

Overall the cruise was GREAT! The ship is in good shape, the staff could not have been more competent, the ports were nice and other than hurricane Hannah - the weather was gorgeous!

 

I'm terribly sad for the family who lost their loved one on our day in Boston - my thoughts & prayers are with them. There was another seriously ill passenger on this trip - I met a lady in line at the Tour desk on our Boston day whose husband was going to be rushed to a hospital in NYC once we docked there. She said her husband had received excellent care from the ship's physician. I'm very thankful that my family was in good health this trip and overally we enjoyed our cruise.

[psupa]

I was on the ship the week before and even though it rained in newport, we walked around the town and met some wonderful locals. The shops were great and everyone was friendly. A little rain can't hurt anyone.

 

We'll be in Newport on Oct 11th and still haven't decided if we will do a tour or not. I love to shop and was wondering how far from the tenders town is located. I've been reading up on the mansions and cliff walk. Did you do anything like that? I'm taking ponchos and an umbrella so I'll be ready.

[Pyrad]

I just disembarked the Caribbean Princess today. To be fair, I was looking forward to a sea day to relax so coming into NY early wasn't a big deal for me.

 

The Cruise Director Dan put it aptly: "We'll be avoiding the storm and will soon be in the safety of Brooklyn".

 

However, I do know that the Norwegian Dawn which was following the same itinerary as the Caribbean Princess did stop at Newport. Perhaps Princess was just being extra careful.

[cmpiluso]

We just got off from this ship today. Unfortunately, the ship didn't dock and get cleared until after 5pm. I think if we were docked at the Manhattan pier more people would have gotten off, but there is really nothing surrounding the Brooklyn pier. Not really a place I would want to get off/on after dark. The ship was not providing much information about getting off and transportation options, it seems they were probably discouraging it due to the storms.

Since all the shops and casino had to close, you couldn't really compare this to a day at sea, however definitely better safe than sorry out on rough seas!

[margeg]

If you read my post again, I never said a cab could not be called. I only said, I would not reccomend walking through the pier area of Red Hook in a tropical storm to find a bus or subway if you have never been here before. I agree, Princess should have provided cabs. Unfortunately they did not. I was responding to the statement that there was no excuse not to go out and go somewhere.

 

Mike is correct. - (The captain absolutely did the right thing to protect the people on board ) - But anyone who has cruised from the Brooklyn port will tell you that it is in the middle of nowhere . We drive to the port from New Jersey and almost get lost every time. There is NOTHING close by.:eek:

 

However, that is not the fault of Princess. It was just unfortunate that the weather turned bad - but we all know we take a chance in hurricane season.

[AliceS]

How rough are the seas now there? I have friends who left today on that ship.

[Colo Cruiser]

My understanding is the ship got in during the early evening when the rain was at it's hardest. Bear in mind Princess uses the Red Hook Brooklyn terminal not Manhattan. The pier is in an industrial area, nowhere near any of the NY tourist areas. Unless you knew where you were going, trying to find a bus stop or subway station in a desolate area in the rain would not be a very wise choice. I've lived in the NY Metro area my whole life and know my way around the area very well. Regardless, I would not attempt to do it on foot.

 

 

 

I know the Brooklyn/Red Hook area too.

I did not say anyone should go out walking.

[Colo Cruiser]

Mike is correct. - (The captain absolutely did the right thing to protect the people on board ) - But anyone who has cruised from the Brooklyn port will tell you that it is in the middle of nowhere . We drive to the port from New Jersey and almost get lost every time. There is NOTHING close by.:eek:

 

However, that is not the fault of Princess. It was just unfortunate that the weather turned bad - but we all know we take a chance in hurricane season.

 

 

The Captian did what right??

How did he protect them??

 

Did he refuse to allow people off the ship??

[Mike A]

I know the Brooklyn/Red Hook area too.

I did not say anyone should go out walking.

Sorry Keith :( I meant to answer the quote from Birdstar who said that you could even get out with an umbrella and walk 3 blocks to the Bus Stop. Believe me it was bad here yesterday. Some areas got over 5 inches of rain in 2 hours. If anyone tried to walk to a subway stop or wait for a bus they would have been soaked by the rain and intense wind (40-50 MPH). With respect to no cabs being available, Princess certainly had enough time to make arrangements.

[Colo Cruiser]

Sorry Keith :( I meant to answer the quote from Birdstar who said that you could even get out with an umbrella and walk 3 blocks to the Bus Stop. Believe me it was bad here yesterday. Some areas got over 5 inches of rain in 2 hours. If anyone tried to walk to a subway stop or wait for a bus they would have been soaked by the rain and intense wind (40-50 MPH). With respect to no cabs being available, Princess certainly had enough time to make arrangements.

 

 

Didn't know it was raining that hard !! :eek:

[kc.cruiser]

I was on the CB. We arrived at 4:30 pm on Sat, Sept 6. We only saw crew leaving about 11 pm. At breakfast the next morning we saw the NCL Dawn arrive. They had the same itinerary. We talked to someone at the airport from the Dawn. They were able to tender in Newport, didn't start raining till afternoon. They had alot of rocking for the late dinners. I have mixed feeling. Yes, I want to be safe, but there was 12 hrs (4:30 pm till 5:00 am) they might have been able to take us to Newport. Our Captain new what was best for the CB since it isn't in the best shape (engine problems that will be fixed when it goes into drydock).

[tvaud]

It is my understanding that the gates are locked for security reasons to the pier area, when a ship is not in port. Since the CB was not due to dock in Brooklyn until the following day, anyone involved at the pier area wouldn't have been there anyway. It involves more than just calling a few cabs. I guess they could always hop a fence...:rolleyes:

[margeg]

The Captian did what right??

How did he protect them??

 

Did he refuse to allow people off the ship??

 

No, I meant he did the right thing skipping the port in bad weather.

[Elcruzer]

We were on this cruise. While we were disappointed that we didn't stop in Newport, I haven't read any real complaints from my fellow passengers as many here had predicted. We had a wonderful time with a great group of people. Some people did get off the ship on Sat for touring but we opted to just stay onboard since we come from NY. I do think Princess should have added more activities since everyone had to stay indoors because of the heavy rain and as a previous poster noted, since we were in port the casino and shops were closed.

[birdstar]

I guess I didn't realize that they arrived in the evening or that it was raining that hard. I would not have walked to the bus station in the dark. We did arrive at the ship by subway and buses from flatbush (a friend of my sons, who is a police officer, picked us up at the airport and took us to breakfast there before he had to get to his post). It was not a difficult walk to the bus at all, just about 4 blocks. The original post made it sound like they arrived much earlier, 4:30 was about the time we had to be back from ports almost everyday. It doesn't sound like much was missed, since Saturday night was spent mostly packing up and getting ready for disembarkment anyway. I guess for those who usually shop and go to the casino to spend any leftover inheritance, it may have been a bummer, but maybe now they will have enough money to cruise another time.

[JudyOh]

We were on this cruise also, I think other things factored into skipping Newport and going directly into NYC, one was we left Boston 3 hours late, and secondly we were running with one down engine. Overall it was a good decision. The problem was were we were docked in buffalo. When we originally went to the pier from Manhattan our cab driver had no idea were the pier was. Luckily we had directions and one person had to act as navigator for him. The cost was $30. So if you wanted to run into Manhattan Sat night and back the cab would have cost you around $60. Plus it was raining so hard and the wind was terrific, just not a night to be out on the town.

[Diane Rose]

We were on this cruise as well. I can definitely say that I was not at all disappointed with skipping Newport. I absolutely love sea days and can say that it was very much welcomed after 4 port days. We even finally got to see a show, since they had a 3rd performance of a show repeated from the previous evening.

 

What confused me was when we were sailing that whole last day toward NY is that the seas were the calmest (1-3 ft, I believe) out of any of the other days. The other days were still fairly calm (4-6 ft), but since there was such a large storm coming in, I would have thought it would have been a rougher day sailing.:confused: