Cape Liberty Debate?? Hilton Garden Staten Is or Ramada Plaza

[CruiserfromCanada]

My hubby and I are driving from Toronto area to board the Celebrity Summit to Bermuda next month. We have read some excellent info on park and cruise hotels in the area. Thinking of doing a bit of sightseeing before getting on the ship. We want to leave our car in a safe place for the week.

 

Options at this point are the Hampton or Hilton on Staten Island or the Ramada Plaza? We are a bit nervous driving around the NY area and want to make this as easy and fun as possible. Not looking for the cheapest deal just a nice safe place.

 

All advice would be helpful..

[138east]

We recommend all these hotels, but they are in very different kinds of areas. The Ramada is at Newark Airport in a highly industrialized area. The Hampton inn and Hilton Gardens are in a wooded corporate park on Staten Island. Cruisers have been happy with all of them.

 

Coming from Canada it will be an additional 20-30 minutes of driving plus a $13 toll to get to Staten Island. If you want to sightsee in NYC, you are going to have to rely on the hotel shuttle, a cab, or your own driving to get to the ferry terminal (about a half hour). Add on the half hour free ferry ride and you will be on the lower tip of Manhattan. Add on another half hour to midtown.

 

From the Ramada Plaza you can take the free hotel shuttle to the P4 Airtrain station, the free Airtrain to the Newark Airport Station, and the NJTransit train to New York Penn Station for a cost of $12.50/pp each way. This is about an hour. You can also hop in your car and go to Secaucus Junction at Exit 15X on the turnpike, pay to park, and take the NJTransit train to NY Penn Station for $3.75/pp each way. This will be about 45 minutes.

 

IMO if one of your prime objectives is to sightsee in Manhattan, it's can be a really long trip from Staten Island. The times given are only estimates and can run longer depending on a lot of factors, particularly missed connections.

[flowers44]

We are staying at the Hampton for our upcoming B2B. We have stayed there before and it worked out really well. The area seems really nice and we had no trouble with our car being there. The Hampton allows you to park for the duration of your cruise, gives you a great breakfast the day of the cruise, and the shuttle has worked out well for us. The Hilton has a park/cruise package that is a bit more expensive than the regular room rate. With the Hampton, you just reserve the room and everything else comes with it. There is a restaurant at the Hilton that you can eat supper at but it is quite expensive. We usually get supper before we check in and then just rest the night before the cruise. We are using the Hampton again this year with our B2B on the Explorer. I just called this AM and made reservations on the shuttle to get us to the pier. You do have to call the Hilton to make the reservations. After you have driven in from Toronto, I don't think another 20 minutes would make a whole big difference in choosing your hotel. We have also stayed one time at the Hilton and that was very nice also. They are next door to each other and share a parking lot and driveway in from the road.

[sitraveler]

Hampton and Hilton also share the same ownership

[Florida Fan]

I thought that someone reported that Ramada Plaza was now offering excursions into Manhattan. You might call the hotel to check. That might be the quickest way into NYC.

[Florida Fan]

I think this will take you to the site where there's info. on the Ramada excursion to Manhattan: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2046083&highlight=ramada+plaza. It shows the hotel has 3 trips to near Times Square 3 times in the morning, and 2 trips back to the hotel in the afternoon. The cost is $15 one way and $25 roundtrip per person. You have to reserve a seat. I hope this helps.

[138east]

That's an excellent suggestion to call and find out. The Newark Airport train station was closed from May until the beginning of July due to Airtrain repairs. This made getting to NYC from any of the hotels more expensive and/or time consuming. This service appeared at the Ramada to fill the gap. It would be nice to know if the hotel is continuing the service now that the Airtrain is fixed and the train station reopened.i