Explorer of the Seas - Bayonne Parking, Private lots?

[njhorseman]

Taking taxi from the pier to the parking lot can wipe out the few dollars in savings you get from parking off site, so it makes no sense to me to offer that as a solution or alternative. If you can't or don't want to use express disembarkation then park at the pier.

 

And that's in addition to other possible issues relative to ownership, insurance and licensing of this operation that might make one question the wisdom of using the facility.

Edited November 18, 2013 by njhorseman

[JimInBuffalo]

We just used Premier Parking for our Nov. 3 cruise out of Bayonne, and we'll never do that again. We arrived about 10:30 AM on embarkation day and it took 1.5 hours to get a shuttle from the parking lot to the dock. It started raining and the temp was in the 40's. No roof over our heads, and the shuttles were running slowly. They said the port changed something for security reasons and all traffic was running in 1 instead of 2 lanes, hence the delay. Whatever. Thankfully we had umbrellas in the car so we didn't get soaked while we waited. Eventually one of the 3 vans they had managed to get us to the dock.

 

Upon returning from the cruise, the ship had some delay and we weren't able to get off until 11:30 in the morning -- much later than we anticipated. The dock was jammed with traffic and the Premier Vans were running slowly. There were 50-60 people ahead of us in line for the Premier Shuttles. Granted, the traffic wasn't Premier's fault, but they only had 3 vans running that could carry like 6-8 people with luggage. It was taking forever for the line to go down. Finally, after TWO HOURS waiting for a Premier Shuttle, another company came over and said they had 2 twelve passenger shuttle vans and would take us to the Premier lot for $3 per person. HOOORAY!!! TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE!!! Hopped on the 3rd party shuttle and was at my car in 10 minutes. Finally, close to 2:00 PM we were on our way home -- no thanks to Premier. Saving the $70 seemed like a great idea at the time, but now I'd much rather spend the extra money and have 3 more hours of my life back. Getting to the lot early and getting off the ship early would probably have resulted in a much better experience for us using Premier, but as it was, it was a huge waste of our time. Never again.

 

Does it make more sense to get a cab and go directly over to the Premier lot to get you car or to wait 2 hours like MANOVBRD for the next van?

 

I suggested the cab in case you get stuck like MANOVBRD and there are 50-60 people ahead of you. The cab fare would be worth more than the wait.

 

-Jim

[manovrbrd]

Does it make more sense to get a cab and go directly over to the Premier lot to get you car or to wait 2 hours like MANOVBRD for the next van?

 

I suggested the cab in case you get stuck like MANOVBRD and there are 50-60 people ahead of you. The cab fare would be worth more than the wait.

 

-Jim

 

The cab would probably be a better option, but it would still have to fight the same dock traffic that the Premier Vans did. I think one of the main issues with Premier was that they dropped people off at parking spot 209, but picked people up at spot 109. That means the vans had to drive past the people waiting to get picked up, empty all the new people they were bringing over, then circle all the way around the building again to get back to 109 to pick people up. The dock setup is, essentially, backwards. If the drops offs were done before the pick-ups, it would save a lot of time. This is probably not Premier's fault, but it's still the way things are. If things are this bad now while trying to load and unload 6000 passengers on Explorer, I'd hate to see what happens when Quantum moves in and the crowd changes from 6000 to 8000 people trying to get on and off the ship all at the same time.

[MisterBill99]

I'd hate to see what happens when Quantum moves in and the crowd changes from 6000 to 8000 people trying to get on and off the ship all at the same time.

They're building a new terminal building and garage (!) for Quantum, so hopefully they'll also do something better than a 2 lane road into the terminal area.

[MisterBill99]

Well, I started this thread and in preparation for the upcoming cruise, I am re-thinking my decision to go with Premier Parking based on the info that the good members at CC have provided.

 

I have made reservations with Snap Parking in Newark.

 

Next question: We can get to Newark early in the morning. Would it be advisable to drive to the port first and unload our bags (we have a lot of stuff / 4 bags) and then go to Snap and park the car OR should we just go to Snap and haul the bags with us on the shuttle.

Is Snap charging for the shuttle to the pier these days, or is it still free?

 

I would suggest going right to Snap and letting them take care of your luggage on the shuttle. The only case where I would not do this is if there are a lot of you and you have a lot of luggage and there is some concern about fitting all of it and all of you in the van.

 

My father just booked a cruise for February and I don't think he wants to take a chance of getting back to his car and finding snow on it, so I was going to recommend that he use Snap. I used them in January and was very happy with them.

Edited December 24, 2013 by MisterBill99

[JimInBuffalo]

NOt to soudn like a broken record but: the previous posting was correct. If the pier does not improve the traffic patterns and capacity, there will be problems no matter what service you use.

 

It is easy to see that the early traffic in and out of the pier is light. I drove it myself when I arrived in Nov. for our cruise. At 9 am there was no delay.

 

As the traffic builds, the bottle-neck starts and there is nothing you can do to get in any faster.

 

Those departing have no problems (as we experienced) if you get off the ship early. Once the bottle-neck starts, the vans from all of the satellite lots are going to have the same problem I.E.: how to get to you.

 

I will be anxious to see how the pier resolves this issue. This was our first cruise through Port Liberty and even though we had no delays, if the timing is different on our next cruise we know we could be the ones waiting for a ride. If that happens, I will grab the first cab out instead of waiting for the van.

[manovrbrd]

One other thing to consider with Premier -- they double-park some of the cars in order to squeeze as many cars into their lot as possible. If your car is parked in front of another one, they keep your keys so they can move your car if needed to let the other car out. This is nice if you're the parked-in guy -- they can let you out. BUT the down side is that they don't have keys for the cars parked all along the edge of their lot (the ones that would have been parked in). So new people coming into the lot end up waiting for spaces until the owners of the cars parked on the edge of the lot get off the ship and pick up their cars. When we got off the ship and (finally) made it to the Premier lot (around 1:45 PM), there was a rather long line of cars waiting to be parked that couldn't park until Premier freed up spaces. I'm not sure how long those folks were waiting, but some of them seemed a bit unhappy with the wait. After all, you can't put more cars into a lot until you empty those already in it, and if there's a delay getting the cars out as there was with us, then there's going to be a delay getting cars in. Just something else to consider.

[Guest maddycat]

The cab would probably be a better option, but it would still have to fight the same dock traffic that the Premier Vans did. I think one of the main issues with Premier was that they dropped people off at parking spot 209, but picked people up at spot 109. That means the vans had to drive past the people waiting to get picked up, empty all the new people they were bringing over, then circle all the way around the building again to get back to 109 to pick people up. The dock setup is, essentially, backwards. If the drops offs were done before the pick-ups, it would save a lot of time. This is probably not Premier's fault, but it's still the way things are. If things are this bad now while trying to load and unload 6000 passengers on Explorer, I'd hate to see what happens when Quantum moves in and the crowd changes from 6000 to 8000 people trying to get on and off the ship all at the same time.

 

We always park at the pier. It's worth the extra expense to us for the convenience. FYI, according to RCI: the Explorer holds 3,114 passengers; the Quantum will hold 4,180 passengers.

Edited December 24, 2013 by maddycat

[manovrbrd]

We always park at the pier. It's worth the extra expense to us for the convenience. FYI, according to RCI: the Explorer holds 3,114 passengers; the Quantum will hold 4,180 passengers.

 

Exactly -- 3114 people trying to park and get on board while 3114 people are trying to disembark and drive away means 6228 people converging on the dock - as it is now. With Quantum, that will be 8360 people trying to move in and out all at once.

Edited December 26, 2013 by manovrbrd

[MisterBill99]

Exactly -- 3114 people trying to park and get on board while 3114 people are trying to disembark and drive away means 6228 people converging on the dock - as it is now. With Quantum, that will be 8360 people trying to move in and out all at once.

But they don't all show up at the same time, you know that. Yes, there's some overlap but if you show up earlier (or late) it's not as bad. And as I said earlier, given that they're building a garage along with a new terminal for Quantum hopefully they will do some improvements to the traffic flow at the same time. It would be very disappointing if they don't.

[mosherrskl]

I read all the reviews and did my research and decided to use SNAP parking near the Newark airport. I contacted them for any cruise parking peculiarities. They replied that due to delays on the Bayonne Bridge, that they no longer service the Bayonne cruise pier. By the time I found this out, the Yankee Trails bus from Albany was full. I parked at the pier ($17/day). While expensive, it was VERY convenient. We schlepped our bags maybe 100 yards each way, no waiting for a bus. We parked our car where we wanted and kept our keys. We were in and out very easily.

[njhorseman]

I read all the reviews and did my research and decided to use SNAP parking near the Newark airport. I contacted them for any cruise parking peculiarities. They replied that due to delays on the Bayonne Bridge, that they no longer service the Bayonne cruise pier. By the time I found this out, the Yankee Trails bus from Albany was full. I parked at the pier ($17/day). While expensive, it was VERY convenient. We schlepped our bags maybe 100 yards each way, no waiting for a bus. We parked our car where we wanted and kept our keys. We were in and out very easily.

 

Well, I guess we won't be recommending SNAP any longer. Thanks for the update.

 

But if that's their story, it's phony. You don't cross the Bayonne Bridge to get from SNAP to Cape Liberty...in fact you don't go anywhere near the Bayonne Bridge. If they're no longer shuttling patrons to the port maybe it might be because of traffic back ups between the port entrance and the cruise terminal itself.

 

FYI...just so future readers of this thread get accurate information, it costs $19 per day to park at Cape Liberty, not $17.

 

$19 per day isn't expensive for the NY City metropolitan area. Parking at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal costs $40 per day, and even that's not expensive compared to what it costs to park at many Manhattan parking garages.

Edited January 28, 2014 by njhorseman

[138east]

mosherrski is not from the area. Perhaps he was referring to the NJ Turnpike bridge to Bayonne as the "Bayonne Bridge".

 

Anyway the important point is that Snap Parking is no longer providing a Cape Liberty shuttle service.

Edited January 28, 2014 by 138east

[mosherrskl]

Here is the reply from SNAP: "Sorry, we don't provide this service do to the long wait in traffic on the Bayonne bridge."

 

You are correct, pier lot is $19/day

[MisterBill99]

That's too bad about SNAP. They were still showing it as of a few days ago. I guess their website has not been updated.

 

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