Brighton Line

Wrong thread

I thought this was another thread about how bad MSC is.. 🤣

Do you actually think MSC read that novel of a letter? Complaint letters need to be succinct and to the point. Sure it probably felt better as you vented into pages and pages of text but you should have deleted it and kept it to a couple of paragraphs at most.

Thanks to Covid and remote learning plus the free internet connected devices given to students parents have no issue taking their kids out of school during the semester. Teacher can give the kid list of the covered topics and homework assignments for them to work on while on vacation. Going after the school breaks is no longer a way to avoid children, avoid the mass during winter/spring recess sure.

Prestigious or Mass Market? I thought in the US Mass Market lines were Carnival, Royal and NCL and MSC is trying to, in the United States, break into the Mass Market umm Market? Targeting the people who sail Mass Market or those lines. Yes NCL has a ship within a ship concept but that is not where their advertising money is spent. Also all have Casinos and again that market, the Casino customer is not the main focus so is the Yacht Club, not the main focus or target audience of MSC in the United States

Circle Line Harbor Lights cruise in the summer months sometime even ends before the harbor lights appear. Took some family visitors on the cruise and it ended before sunset. I then took them to the East River and took the last east river ferry from 34th St. down to Wall St. for (then) $2.75 each (now $4) and it was at 9:30p departure so they experience at least the East Side of Manhattan the lights of the city. While not the Hudson River they enjoyed the trip. YMMV, but this was my experience.

MCT Terminal parking is usually only open when a ship is calling and only open on the pier that the ship is docking at. Though I had the luck of leaving from one pier and returning to a different one but with a little extra incentive the porter brought the bags over to the other pier we were parked at. Left Pier 90 arrived 88. Rare occurrence, it was Fleet Week on return and the Navy was taking up a lot of berths at 90/92.

All hotel shuttles are supposed to pickup/drop off at AirTrain's Federal Circle Station and not the individual terminals. Federal Circle Station is serviced by the Jamaica Air Train or the Howard Beach Air Train. The Air Train that just runs between terminals does not stop at Federal Circle.

MSC does not sail from Brooklyn until the end of April. Come April housing can go back to Tent Cities like they had on Randalls Island. Even though this is the warmest January in a long while its too cold for tents.

And three ports use Pilots from Sandy Hook Pilots Association based on Staten Island. https://www.sandyhookpilots.com/

You are correct, we were supposed to clear the Narrows and turn south for Bermuda and the Royal ship from Bayonne did that and encountered heavy seas that caused some trouble onboard and actually ended up in Boston with us since all the ports south of Boston were closed due to the Hurricane. When we arrived in Boston it was the height of the hurricane, we had 19 lines and two tugs holding us to the pier. Princess said they were trying to arrange buses back to NYC and even stated the problem was PSVA. They closed all the shops, people complained they were out of cigarettes and aspirin etc. They eventually got exception to PSVA but had to wait for port staff (handle pax not ship handling) to get into the city. They also were allowed to sell sundries and cigarettes and setup tables but didn't open the shops. We we allowed into the city about Wednesday but had to be back on the ship by 5p. Then they did get buses and you were given choice of taking the bus or staying on the ship to wait for the Port of NY to reopen. We stayed on the boat and our 5 day turned into 7 day cruise. Sailed up the Hudson at 6am to the entire blacked out city to MCT the first time the ship had called at MCT. We debarked off crew deck with no baggage service. Crew carried your bags you brought down the gang way. Customs was there video taping with handheld cameras and a glance at your documents. Took the subway "bridge" back to brooklyn and had longer walk home dragging my bags from a further subway line that was running (mine wasn't). Got a half fare credit for the trouble but it would expire in 6 months. Anyone who parked at the Brooklyn pier had their car totally submerged and couldn't access for a few weeks I found out from a co-worker on the cruise with us. Car was totaled, found it with the trunk and windows open. Seems late model the car does that when submerged. So yes PSVA played an issue but the emergency override it. We did watch various cruise ship arrive in Boston that were not scheduled to take on fuel and provisions including that Royal ship.

Flew into PBI to visit the family and did one way rental to rental office near the port and they drove me to the ship. Had a late flight on return did one way rental from that office that picked us up at the ship to MCO and we did Kennedy Space Center during the day.

And MSC doesn't start until April so the port building is not being used. With it too cold for a tent city on Randall's Island and buses continuing to arrive from southern states the Brooklyn port building will be used for housing.

Before the MCT was modified for the Breakaway class, Brooklyn was used for the larger ships Cunard and Princess uses. Recall the first time the NCL Breakaway called at MCT they had to lower lifeboats as the gangways could not reach the embarkation deck and they used the boat deck. There is also the issue of the aft of the ship extending into the Hudson a Captain once told me which still exists but I guess not so much of a concern. Brooklyn and Bayonne can only handle once ship at a time. Frequently see Carnival, Princess and Holland America calling on the same day pre-pandemic. I remember the nightmare with NCL thrown in at MCT and since I live in Brooklyn sure wish there were more ships calling there. Though I was on the Princess Hurricane Sandy cruise that left Brooklyn, sailed to Boston and then returned to MCT talk about rare ports of call.

Wouldn't it be up to the line minder the person who checks your document as you enter the pre-security line? Most of the time that is someone that works for the contract company that staffs the port. Sure they could be following directions of the Cruise company or they could not. I sail out of NYC and Brooklyn and its been hit and miss for 3 different lines, same line different times even if they are checking times. Last time I was told I couldn't enter not my time, but went to a different entrance and was let thru. Go figure, YMMV

The ship has stabilizers, look at any closeup picture of the side and the required markings for them are on her hull midships.