Mid-Atlantic ports

[NapTown Jim]

I've been thinking of ways to make cruising more affordable, the first thing that pops to mind is driving to the port rather than flying. Thats hard living in the midwest. I live in Indianapolis and the closest 3 ocean ports (in terms of drive time) are Baltimore, Philadelphia and Norfolk. Are iteneraries limited out of these ports because they're too far from New England and the Carribean?

 

Although Carnival seems to be sailing out of everywhere that has a deep water port they have little apeal to me. Do cruise lines such as HAL, Princess etc. listen to comments and requests to service certain ports?

[Krazy Kruizers]

HAL half listens and reads some of what we post on the HAL board.

 

HAL has had the Maasdam cruising out of Norfolk for the last couple of winters. Between the Maasdam having engine troubles and the bad weather, it is proving to be a costly adventure. The ship arrives late back to Norfolk - people miss planes - people have to be put up in hotels, etc. The last sailing for the Maasdam out of Norfolk will be the end of December 2006. Then she will be sailing out of Ft Lauderdale.

 

Any time you have a ship going out of New York or Norfolk, you can count on the itinerary be at 10 or 11 days - 2 days down to the Caribbean and 2 days back to the home port.

[NapTown Jim]

So what you're saying is (at least in the case of HAL) there is no way to directly contact the cruiselines with such a request? I've been thinking (hoping) that someday the mainstream lines could send some of the smaller cruise ships to do Great Lakes cruising. I'm not sure what size limitations the Great Lakes locks have. That way I wouldn't have to drive so far. ;) Chicago traffic sucks but I could put up with it if it would mean less drive time for a cruising vacation.

 

Anybody sail out of Philly or Baltimore? Are they easy to drive to? Are parking rates reasonable and is it safe?

[madelinerose]

We sailed from Baltimore on the Carnival Miracle in October 2004, but was a 15 minute drive for us. Parking was $10/day on a secured lot and a breeze. The current port is right off I-95. There is only 1 ship sailing from here in 2006, the RCI Grandeur. There's a new port in the works for Baltimore, so we may be getting more ships.

 

We cruising from NYC (Brooklyn) on the new Crown Princess in September and we'll use Amtrak to get to Manhattan. We'll then take a taxi to the port.

 

Here's the Baltimore port info:

 

http://www.mpa.state.md.us/cruises/index.htm

 

 

 

Anybody sail out of Philly or Baltimore? Are they easy to drive to? Are parking rates reasonable and is it safe?

[CecilCtyCruiser]

We also hate the hassle of flying, and look for cruises we can drive to. We've cruised on the Grandeur out of Baltimore, and would recommend it. It's been running 5 night cruises to Bermuda, and 9 night cruises to the Western Caribbean. We did the 9 night, and even with outrunning hurricanes it was wonderful. The port is an easy on and off from I-95, and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the ship. And when we returned we were able to wheel our own baggage off the ship, hop in our car, and were home within an hour.

 

Only gripe I have with RCI is their customer relations. We were scheduled to sail on the Grandeur last summer, and before we left port my husband suffered a severe injury in their pool, which he is still recovering from, and which was RCI's fault. They never contacted us even to say they were sorry or to see how he was doing, nor have they answered our letters, even though accident reports were written and medical attention was given at the time. This is a big negative in my book.

 

I know there are also a couple of cruises that leave from Philadelphia, but I don't know much about them other than I think they mostly go to Bermuda. One of them used to be a Celebrity ship, which I've heard is a very nice cruiseline. A friend of mine took the Celebrity Galaxy out of Baltimore a few years back, when it still sailed from there, and she said it was wonderful. We are sailing on the Holland America Maasdam out of Norfolk, VA next week. It does 11 night roundtrip cruises to the southern caribbean. In the fall they switch and do one-way cruises between Boston and Montreal, Canada. We've also considered sailing from Bayonne, NJ - there seem to be alot of ships that leave from that port.

[madelinerose]

Hi....CecilCtyCruiser...I checked out the Grandeur, but I found RCI's price was $500 more than our 9-nighter on The Crown, which will be 3 months old vs. the 10-year old Grandeur. Sure, I'd love to sail from Baltimore again, but the itinerary, personal choice dining, Movies Under The Stars, docking in Bermuda and a new ship with new everything won me over.

 

Also, we love NY and will find any excuse to visit.

 

We're planning to visit Bermuda for a week in 2007, but if there are any other cruises out there that we can drive or Amtrak to, (looking forward to hearing about the new ships coming out this year and next) we just may do a cruise in place of Bermuda. Enjoy the Maasdam! ;)

 

We also hate the hassle of flying, and look for cruises we can drive to. We've cruised on the Grandeur out of Baltimore, and would recommend it. It's been running 5 night cruises to Bermuda, and 9 night cruises to the Western Caribbean. We did the 9 night, and even with outrunning hurricanes it was wonderful. The port is an easy on and off from I-95, and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the ship. And when we returned we were able to wheel our own baggage off the ship, hop in our car, and were home within an hour.

[CecilCtyCruiser]

We looked at ships sailing from NY, but did not know how much of a hassle it would be to get there, and I've heard the parking is very expensive. The Crown sounds wonderful, we've never sailed on NCL. I'd be happy to hear how you make out!

 

Do you know if NCL offers bus service from this area to their ships?

[madelinerose]

Sorry, it's the Crown Princess,not the NCL Crown:

 

http://www.princess.com/ships/kp/index.html

 

I believe I read somewhere that NCL is no longer providing bus service to our area. The demand didn't call for it, or something. Sure wish Princess did, but the Crown won't be leaving from Brooklyn for long...it will move to San Juan.

 

Wow, you're even closer to NYC than us on the Amtrak route. I think it's going to be a breeze. Hop off the train, get in a taxi and go to the port. If we decided to spend the night before, we'll probably stay in lower Manhattan and take a taxi to the port, which is approximately 3 miles away. Princess has 2 hotels on their site, but, imho, it's much less expensive to just book on your own and taxi it.

 

Although we'll be leaving from NY during peak hurricane season, the chance of the Red Hook terminal being wiped out is almost nil. God forbid, but you just can't be sure about Florida these days.

 

Have a ball on the Maasdam! ;)

 

We looked at ships sailing from NY, but did not know how much of a hassle it would be to get there, and I've heard the parking is very expensive. The Crown sounds wonderful, we've never sailed on NCL. I'd be happy to hear how you make out!

 

Do you know if NCL offers bus service from this area to their ships?

[ILoveScotland]

Another option is Charleston, SC which is about the same distance from Indianapolis as Norfolk (I checked on Mapquest). As far as I know the only ship that goes out of Charleston is the NCL Majesty. Its itinerary can be checked on NCL's web site. Parking at the Charleston terminal is very easy and costs $15 a day. However, when we went on the Majesty in November we discovered that the Handicapped tag we have for my husband got us free parking.

[SheilaNC]

Charleston is a small, easy on/easy off port with parking nearby and buses to and from parking directly to the terminal. The terminal staff isn't as up to speed as some more often used ports but we had not complaints. We're just sorry that Celebrity couldn't make enough $$ there to stay since that's our favorite cruiseline. AND Charleston is a great city for pre and post cruise, one of our favorites. We can drive there in under 5 hours and have been there often including a pre cruise stay.