Unfamiliar w/ Newark/Bayonne Port...

[TheMettins]

Our April cruise was canceled last night, so we've narrowed it down to 3 Bermuda itineraries leaving from Bayonne.... this will be our first time flying into Newark and leaving from Bayonne.  The flight from Florida will take just under 3 hours, landing before 9am- and we plan on taking the cruise line transfer to the port.  I see no issues, but my husband says Newark is a zoo.  For those familiar w/ the airport/area/port, is this feasible?  We always fly into San Juan the afternoon of our cruises w/ no issues- but my husband has me worried about Newark.  

 

 

[njhorseman]

35 minutes ago, TheMettins said:

Our April cruise was canceled last night, so we've narrowed it down to 3 Bermuda itineraries leaving from Bayonne.... this will be our first time flying into Newark and leaving from Bayonne.  The flight from Florida will take just under 3 hours, landing before 9am- and we plan on taking the cruise line transfer to the port.  I see no issues, but my husband says Newark is a zoo.  For those familiar w/ the airport/area/port, is this feasible?  We always fly into San Juan the afternoon of our cruises w/ no issues- but my husband has me worried about Newark.  

 

 

It's not a question of "Newark being a zoo", it's a question of the advisability of flying in the day of the cruise.  If your flight arrives a couple of hours late you'd still make the cruise with no problem, zoo or no zoo, but many of us believe it's too risky to fly in on the day of the cruise because flights can be outright canceled for so many reasons . But if you're comfortable with it go ahead.

 

The "zoo" really affects your return flight from Newark more than your flight to Newark. It's the security process at EWR that's the biggest zoo so you have to arrive at the airport well ahead of your scheduled departure to allow enough time for TSA screening.

[TheMettins]

26 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

It's not a question of "Newark being a zoo", it's a question of the advisability of flying in the day of the cruise.  If your flight arrives a couple of hours late you'd still make the cruise with no problem, zoo or no zoo, but many of us believe it's too risky to fly in on the day of the cruise because flights can be outright canceled for so many reasons . But if you're comfortable with it go ahead.

 

The "zoo" really affects your return flight from Newark more than your flight to Newark. It's the security process at EWR that's the biggest zoo so you have to arrive at the airport well ahead of your scheduled departure to allow enough time for TSA screening.

Hope I didn't offend you, that wasn't my intention.  Sounds like it will be similar to Sea Tac-  TY for responding.

[njhorseman]

10 minutes ago, TheMettins said:

Hope I didn't offend you, that wasn't my intention.  Sounds like it will be similar to Sea Tac-  TY for responding.

I wasn't offended. EWR isn't exactly the best airport in the world. Seattle-Tacoma handles a similar number of passengers per year, but in some qualitative measures would rank much better than EWR. For example in this ranking, SEA ranks as the 6th best US airport, while EWR is well down the list at #34 of the 50 biggest airports. https://thepointsguy.com/news/tpg-best-and-worst-airports-of-2019/

Edited March 26, 2020 by njhorseman

[Nitemare]

April this year?  I wouldn't expect ships to be sailing in April, and likely not in May either.

[njhorseman]

2 hours ago, Nitemare said:

April this year?  I wouldn't expect ships to be sailing in April, and likely not in May either.

OP's original cruise was scheduled for April. Royal Caribbean has already announced an extension of the suspension of their cruises through May 11.

 

The OP didn't say what dates they were looking at for a replacement cruise. I'm booked on Empress of the Seas from Cape Liberty to Bermuda in mid August so they could be looking at something in that time frame.

Edited March 26, 2020 by njhorseman

[Nitemare]

That's a good possibility.

[TheMettins]

On ‎3‎/‎26‎/‎2020 at 7:04 AM, Nitemare said:

April this year?  I wouldn't expect ships to be sailing in April, and likely not in May either.

 

No, Our 4/11 cruise was canceled- so we were considering a cruise to Bermuda in July/August w/ Celebrity or RC.  Agree about May too, I'm waiting to receive an email that our 5/16 cruise is canceled :(  

 

We've decided to keep it easy and leave from Florida instead- 8 night Eastern Caribbean on the Equinox.

 

 

[Got2Cruise]

I would push the cruise as far away as possible. I would do 2021. Are you aware the Caribbean islands now are infected with COVID19 also. You want to wait as long as possible go get everything cleared. 

 

That said, I’ve taken many cruises and have flown in day of on all. Even to Europe. Never missed one. Due to circumstances out of our control we couldn’t fly in earlier. 

[Noxequifans]

On 3/28/2020 at 5:09 PM, Got2Cruise said:

I would push the cruise as far away as possible. I would do 2021. Are you aware the Caribbean islands now are infected with COVID19 also. You want to wait as long as possible go get everything cleared. 

 

That said, I’ve taken many cruises and have flown in day of on all. Even to Europe. Never missed one. Due to circumstances out of our control we couldn’t fly in earlier. 

Agree on pushing cruise out to 2021. Impossible to predict if all cruise lines survive current crisis or run same number of cruises if they do.
 

While we were lucky in flying same day for Europe cruises, always did day before domestically... felt they were more prone to delays, etc.

[AF-1]

I don't see any cruises going anywhere prior to late fall to early winter.  Anything prior to Oct would be a win/win; but not too practical.  The cruise industry has to jump through a lot of hoops in order to comply with the CDC requirements.  This is going to take some time.  Right now the CDC has stopped all cruises thru mid July.