Disembarkation in New York and Tours.

[rob linda]

Please could some of you fine people give me some advice.

We are sailing to New York, New England, Canada, New York and back to Southampton.

Our cruise departs on Oct 14th.

Could someone tell me roughly the time that we will disembark in New York, Which tours work best given the limited time available? Do you have to clear US immigration again after visiting Canada on the return leg. I could list a thousand places that I want to visit but my top four would be. The Empire State building, Ground Zero, Helicopter Tour and Central Station.

Any advice re Newport, Boston, St John and Halifax would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Bob

[ToadOfToadHall]

It's fairly early in the morning if you are returning later the same day ( as you are ). As I recall, last summer when we did back to back TA, we just got the Cunard transfer. It drops you outside Macey's and we then walked up to Central park and were there by 8:30, so that gives you some idea.

[Classiccruiser777]

The ship will most likely arrive in NY around 5 or 6 AM. You will have to clear immigration both when you arrive from Southampton and return from Canada.

 

For a quick tour of NY I suggest taking a taxi from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to Rockefelller Center then walking down to 42nd Street, Grand Central Station (also nearby is the NY Public Library - well worth a look). This will give you some good sights of mid-town. At Grand Central you could take the #4 subway to City Hall - Brooklyn Bridge and walk to the World Trade Center site. Nearby is Wall Street & Battery Park. From there it is a quick taxi ride back to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

 

In Boston I like the Freedom Trail and/or a visit to the USS Constitution if you are interested in American History.

[Chunky2219]

You don't say if you are on QM2 or one of the smaller queens. It sounds like you are doing something very similar to our QE voyage in Sept/Oct last year.

 

It will be wise to check where you will be docking in NY. QM2 is usually Brooklyn but our QE visit was at the Manhatten which is brilliant. Brooklyn is a journey over the river to get to the best bits, whereas Manhatten is a 15 minute walk to Times Square and the rest. You can find out by googling "NY Cruise Terminal" and looking on the calendar.

 

New York was our first stop and immigration clearance was murder. Scheduled times off the ship by deck, with a wait of up to 1.5 hours once you were off. Because of the queues, disembarkation for the later decks (us) was delayed and there were regular announcements with revised timings. EVERYONE had to get off on the first day, even if they did not plan to go into town that day and no-one was allowed back on ship until everyone had cleared. The scheduled tours were supposed to get off earlier but even then, some of them were waiting over an hour for the buses to fill.

 

My advice would be to take it easy on the first day, soak up the view of Manhatten from the top deck until things have settled down and book your tours for the second day (if you have one). Day 2 was a doddle.

 

Arrival in NY had us passing the Statue of Liberty as dawn broke and it was another hour or so until we were berthed. We departed the next evening as the lights were coming on. I suspect it will be similar if you are going to Brooklyn. Unless arrival in New York is commonplace for you, you'll want to be outside throughout.

 

We had a New York "expert" on board who was doing lectures on the way across which were repeated on cabin TV. They should give you plenty of ideas for what to see that meets your tastes. Ground Zero was universally rated as a massive disappointment - not much to see beyond a distant barrier and if you wanted to get any closer you needed a ticket, which involved advance booking.

 

The good news is that after NY, customs and immigration was easy and trouble free. The other US ports were straighforward and although passports were required they were not always checked. Canada was even easier. No formalities and as far as I could tell, the only check was a quick visual to make sure your shoelaces were tied.

 

My review of the cruise is over on the review section in case you have the same ports. If they swap one of the Canadian ports for Corner Brook (as they did to us) then I recommend taking a tour to the National Park because the town itself is the absolute pits. We loved Newport and Halifax. Boston was okay, but the $10 one way shuttle from Quincy Market was a massive rip-off, a taxi would have been cheaper.

 

My final bit of good news is that you are about 3 weeks later than we were last year. The full colours of New England were not yet out because of the warm summer but you should get the best of them. I hope your itinerary includes Bar Harbor - it it does I'd send anyone to the National Park there.

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[lodge172]

We did this cruise a couple of years ago. I would say do the Mansions in Newport they are fabulous. Bar Harbour has a lovely main street lots of shops, then take a ride to the National park. Both are easy and quite inexpensive to do on your own. We walked the freedom trail in Boston, There is not much to do in St Johns and Halifax so l would book an excursion fot those ports. In New York l think the Top of the rock is better than Empire state we have done both. Central park is wonderful at that time of year. If you have not been to New York before anything you do will be fantastic. You will l am sure want to go back.