tour of Manhattan from cape liberty?

We will be disembarking in Cape Liberty on a Sunday morning. Being so close to New York, we were considering instead of just flying back to Texas from Newark, hiring a car to pick us up at the cruise port for a driving tour through Manhattan for a few hours to see the highlights and maybe flying out of Laguardia. I know a driving tour wont cover a lot but as this is the first time we will be in the NYC area we would hate to miss the opportunity to see some of the city. Can anyone make recommendations about times? How long to allow to get to Manhattan from the cruise port? How long to allow from Manhattan to LGA on a Sunday afternoon? We've never disembarked at the port but I expect we would be off the ship via self-disembark by 8-830am but I may be niave. We are looking at a 3pm departure from LGA. How early should we be at LGA? Sorry to sound clueless just looking for some guidance or recommendations. We still have a few months to plan. Thanks in advance everyone. Happy cruising!

Have you thought about the ship tour? They usually do a tour leaving CL about 0930 and dropping at the airport (JFK, LGA or EWR) about 2pm. Its not too bad. Only one stop at Ground Zero...time enough to look at the pools etc (about 45 - 60 mins I think). Costs about $90pp, but at least your luggage is on the bus with you, so you haven't got to worry about it.

Simon

We will be disembarking in Cape Liberty on a Sunday morning. Being so close to New York, we were considering instead of just flying back to Texas from Newark, hiring a car to pick us up at the cruise port for a driving tour through Manhattan for a few hours to see the highlights and maybe flying out of Laguardia. I know a driving tour wont cover a lot but as this is the first time we will be in the NYC area we would hate to miss the opportunity to see some of the city. Can anyone make recommendations about times? How long to allow to get to Manhattan from the cruise port? How long to allow from Manhattan to LGA on a Sunday afternoon? We've never disembarked at the port but I expect we would be off the ship via self-disembark by 8-830am but I may be niave. We are looking at a 3pm departure from LGA. How early should we be at LGA? Sorry to sound clueless just looking for some guidance or recommendations. We still have a few months to plan. Thanks in advance everyone. Happy cruising!

Take a look at this post with a followup summary -

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2598579

Check on your RCL booking to see if LGA is a drop-off option. 138East/Carol saw it @ $99 p/p with the poster reporting $129 p/p.

Booking a car service by the hour is an option - I've seen that on Carmel & Dial 7's website - last time I looked, it's $50 per hour with a 2 hour minimum, plus tolls & tips.

With a 3 PM LGA departure, I would plan to be at the airline terminal's curbside no later than 90 minutes prior (or, 1:30 PM, just to be safe with the ongoing constructions & airport redevelopment) ... for a thru or connection back to Texas (not sure if there's a non-stop)

Not a regular or frequent RCL person sailing Cape Liberty so I defer to others about timing getting off the ship. Suffice to say, you are curbside & ready for pickup by the car service/driver by 9 AM ... you have 4 to 4.5 hours riding around town, allowing for some stops + a brief stop for lunch, on the go - to save time, i.e. Katz on Houston Street (since 1888) for a juicy Pastrami sandwich on Rye.

From CL into midtown/downtown Manhattan ... a little closer, on a Sunday morning - should be 30 minutes or so

From midtown Manhattan/upper East Side, allow 1 hour minimum to get out to LGA ... net yield of about 2.5 to 3 hours, enough time to do a good bit of drive-by with curbside photo-op stops, I think.

Car service drivers are trained tour guides and most, if not all, have no idea about where to take you to.

Do you have a short list of thing/stops to make ... places to see, maybe talk to the car service dispatcher/base station to see what they say ... as part of your planning.

MKing I think you meant to write car service drivers are NOT trained tour guides.

Also, English might be their second or even third language.

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MKing I think you meant to write car service drivers are NOT trained tour guides. Also, English might be their second or even third language.

 

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I had to use Lyft for a quick & short ride yesterday, got caught in Flushing's downtown CNY parade - driver barely said a word for the 10 minute trip ... he was moonlight, work for Tri-City car service's base otherwise.

Anyway, to see out better - a minivan or SUV would be better, comfortable & sitting higher up ... 4 hours + tolls + tips would easily run $350, a tad expensive for 2 but with 3 or 4 sharing the cost, not too bad. Only if the driver knows & can follow directions, communciate, etc. etc.

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It appears that the OP is on the Summit repositioning cruise from San Juan to Cape Liberty in April. I can't comment on what the timing of the disembarkation for a one-off repo cruise would be. The OP needs to ask Celebrity about possible post cruise excursions with airport drop off. The post cruise excursions that folks have been posting about are the ones being offered on Anthem.

It's really helpful to post your ship and sail date plus as many relevant details as possible. Adventure is arriving this spring as well and we have no idea what her embarkation and debarkation timings or boarding procedures will be. Cape Liberty will be much busier with 3 very different ships sailing from there.

If you google nyc limo tours a bunch come up. These are more executive limo companies not a car service. Contact them to see if they pick up at Cape Liberty.

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