Terrible experience boarding NYC pier on 5/7

[blandadi]

We left NY 5/7 Legend and it was a real nightmare. We got to the pier in plenty of time but we waited 2-l/2 hrs to board. We were traveling with a 5 yr old boy and it was too much for him and all the parents waiting with small children. Friends of ours left on 5/l5 Legend the day we returned and sure enough they had the same experience. Exactly 2-l/2 hrs to board. I wonder how long this is going to go on and what exactly Carnival is doing about it. If anyone leaves NY in the next few weeks please post your experience. Thank you.

[sea-cruise]

I'm looking forward to reading about anyone's experiences as well because we'll be going out of NYC in 4 weeks. Yikes...What are we in for???

 

 

 

Celebrating 30th cruise soon....

[blandadi]

In case you are not sure about the problem maybe getting there very early is the answer because they started boarding both weeks at 1PM instead of 2PM and anyone there really early got on right away at lPM when they started boarding. Hope that helps.

[sea-cruise]

Thanks a lot...We'll do that!!

 

 

 

Celebrating 30th cruise soon....

[Mar]

Never sailed out of NYC, but we learned something in March that could be helpful to some. Our tickets had Skipper's Club on them and I honestly had NO clue what that meant and found no info (though I really didn't try much!). Lines were long when we arrived at the pier in New Orleans for the Conquest and I had NOT planned on asking about it till facing a Carnival Rep (as in AFTER standing in LINE!). But something made me ask and we were rushed to a small room and ON the ship with NO wait-even got apologies for a delay we never noticed! Not sure if the pier in NYC offers this but worth a shot to anyone IN the Skipper's Club.

[jerseygirl3]

The problem with boarding in NYC isn't Carnival's fault, it's the Port Authority of New York City. We had a driver bring us up there last year for our Legend cruise. From the time we pulled up in front of the pier until the time we were actually allowed to vacate the van and walk into the terminal, close to 3 hours had passed. The traffic was horrendous (it didn't help that it was the beginning of Fleet Week). I don't mind the security, but one hand didn't know what the other hand was doing. They kept directing our driver back out onto the Westside Highway, and that put us past where we had to go, so we'd have to circle around the block again, only to arrive at the place where we started, but it took us 45 minutes to get around the block because of horrendous traffic tie-ups. Finally, although it was pouring rain and we had 8 kids with us and tons of luggage, we told the driver to let us out on the Westside Highway, and we darted cars and ran across the street carrying our luggage. We swore after that fiasco we'd never cruise out of NYC again. Even though we live only 1 1/2 hours from NYC, I'd rather fly to Florida.

 

caribbeanqueen3@comcast.net

[mirrajay]

So any advice for us sailing out of NYC in the future? We plan on getting their at 11:00am for a 4:00pm departure. Should this spare us some of the hassle?

 

Thanks!

 

Carey

 

Carnival Victory, here I come!

[cruisn4evr]

sea cruise, by any chance are you sailing on the Legend June 24th? We are, and we usually get to the pier around 11 am and have no problems.

[sea-cruise]

Hi cruisn4evr! No, we'll be sailing on the Miracle on June 26th. Do you think that 11:00 is a good time for a 4:00 sailing? The last time we sailed out of NY was even before Desert Storm, and the security then was just about zero. Don't know WHAT to expect now.

 

 

 

Celebrating 30th cruise soon....

[richard1226]

I cruised out of NYC on the Legend (5/15 sailing) Embarkation was a nightmare! We arrived at the pier at about 12:30----exactly the same time as about another 2000 folks on the same cruise. I can't blame Carnival or NYC for that. We waited over 2 hours to board, but wound making "cruise friends" with the people around us. It was a blast hanging out and meering these people on the ship all week.

[goofycruiser]

We cruised out of NYC last June and we arrived at the pier at noon and were in our cabin by 1.

The traffic getting there was awful-we arrived by cab. This year we are going on Victory June 19th and will also arrive by cab but we will get dropped off across the street and walk in. It is a 5 day cruise so we should be able to carry our stuff. Arrive early!!

[Bunkie103]

We are doing the Victory CTN on June 17th and will definitely let the cab leave us off across 12th avenue from the pier. Hopefully this will make it easier for us.

 

Mary

Triumph Eastern 10/03

Victory CTN 6/17/04

Sensational Cruise from the Bayou 10/23/04

[Krusty]

Drivers need to let you off on the uptown side of 12th. DON'T wait in the line of traffic on the downtown side!! Just walk across 12th to your ship and voila!! Avoid 12th until you can cut across at around 48th or lower and come uptown. You've been warned!!!

[bnbcruisers]

We were on the Legend on 5/15.here are some of the problems some carnival some port of NYC. Embarking and debarking the ship are on the same level. People get dropped off at street level instead of the upper level People get pickup on the upper level instead of the lower level.Since we are just cattle to them both, you would think they would find a way to keep the incoming herd away from the outgoing herd!

I learn something new everytime we do this. We have sailed out of NY 3 times.

Find a spot (usually next to the plexiglass windows away from the curb) Leave one of your party with the bags and go find someone to take your bags.

Next find someone from Carnival to direct you to the next place.

We have boarded all 3 times before 1PM.

Keep reminding yourself that 2 hours of craziness will soon be over!

Have as much of your paper work filled out before you get there and register online as they request.

In debarking we have learned to have the driver pick us up across the street and not get involved with the pier traffic at all.

 

Bill

[PattiD]

HI

I was on the 5/15 sailing too. We got there around 11AM and was on the ship at 1PM. I think they need more communiction...I didn't see any signs? Maybee I missed them. We kept asking questions and found the right lines. We did not have any problem with droping off,we got there there early. I did say to my husband that if we would have brough my daughter(6), I would have had a problem keeping her busy. But that is my problem. I hope that the work that they are planning to do to the port will help. It was so nice not to have to drag all our stuff on and off planes.

[blandadi]

I would say yes definately get there early as that seems to be the answer to this problem at the moment.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mirrajay:

So any advice for us sailing out of NYC in the future? We plan on getting their at 11:00am for a 4:00pm departure. Should this spare us some of the hassle?

 

Thanks!

 

Carey

 

Carnival Victory, here I come!

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=9400d3&cdt=2004;10;02;16;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[blandadi]

I know what you mean Richard because we met great people on line however it was my 5 yr. old boy that was making us crazy.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by richard1226:

I cruised out of NYC on the Legend (5/15 sailing) Embarkation was a nightmare! We arrived at the pier at about 12:30----exactly the same time as about another 2000 folks on the same cruise. I can't blame Carnival or NYC for that. We waited over 2 hours to board, but wound making "cruise friends" with the people around us. It was a blast hanging out and meering these people on the ship all week.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[bob&karen]

Glad to see at least a few positive posts about the "Port of NY experience", amidst those of the poor souls that had problems. Special thanks for the couple of great suggestions posted here on how minimize the NYC port terminal hassles. Every other post I'd read to date described uniformly bad experiences, and I'd ruled out cruising from NYC. Sounds like there are a few tricks to avoiding the problems, that's why I love this board.

 

B.

 

"Good God, he's talking with parrots - Painting his dreams in the sand

Piling up beaucoup demerits, Doing it just 'cause he can

But Peter Pan would understand His schemes and dreams and ploys

Best keep an eye on his slight hand, He's such an altered boy"

-- James W. Buffett

 

Carnival Triumph, April '02

Carnival Sensation, January '04

Golden Princess, April '04

 

Carnival Sensation, Golden Princess / Caribbean Princess pix at: Cool Cruisin' Pix

 

e-mail: bobandkarenny@yahoo.com

[HOSKI]

I hope they fix it soon. We had the nightmare experience of boarding in NY in 2000. It may be close to us but I'm not sure I'm willing to repeat it.

 

Fascination 1997 Destiny 2000

Victory 2000 Sensation 2001

Norway 2002 Legend 2002

NCL Dawn 2003 Inspiration 2003

Victory 2004 Holiday 2004

[Cruising89143]

I just finished reading a review on the RCI board from someone that just returned from the Voyager's nine day sailing. She stated that both embarkation and debaration were miserable. I know that this is a different port area but it sounds like they all need work.

 

Gordon

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/cruisingator

 

NCL Starward-86, Starship Atlantic-91, Caribe-92, Seabreeze-93, Fantasy-93, Norway-94, Celebration-94, Sensation-95, Imagination-96, Destiny-97, Celebration-98, Triumph-99, Victory-00, Majesty of the Seas-01, Fascination-01, Carnival Pride-02, Majesty of the Seas-02, Carnival Legend-02, Fantasy 7-03, Glory 9-03, Fantasy 11-03, Triumph 3/04.

 

9/02/2004 Fantasy

 

Navigator of the Seas 12/04/04

 

 

 

 

[tlynnie]

I'm going to guess that this is only made worse when more than one ship is leaving? We leave NYC on 6/19-one of FOUR ships sailing that day (including QM2-eek). We're parking on the NJ side and taking the ferry across, hoping to be at the pier by 11:00. I'm really not looking forward to that part of the afternoon!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Too many days since the Legend (10/03)

Looking forward to Victory...6/04!!!

[fgresko]

Hi, we are also on the June 19 victory,we have gone out of ny twice and never had a problem, but there were never 4 ships there at once! We are taking the train to NY and then get a cab to the pier. NJ transit from trenton is only 15.00 round trip and cab is 5.00 I plan on getting there early, by 11 at the latest, would rather be there in line than fighting the masses later.

[ihhk]

AVOID MIAMI, TOO! It's horrible for traffic, embarkation, etc. Too many ships sailing/arriving at the same time makes for nothing short of chaos, crabbiness, and constraint.

 

We've embarked at three ports... Canaveral, Miami, and San Juan.

 

San Juan was an organizational DREAM!!!!! San Juan was nothing if not calm, organized, quickly moving, and prepared with plenty of staff. Once they opened the doors, it was 1/2 hour to the cabin.

 

We arrived on the pier early (after brunch across the street) and had a great time just hanging out, making our "LAST" cell calls ("ha ha, I'm boarding a ship and you aren't" calls), etc. No discomfort whatsoever.

 

Even the pier was a nice place to wait...shaded, close to 'amenities' (potty, booze, food) if you needed them, etc. Staff was friendly and helpful, working the line of people waiting to make sure all luggage tags, S&S cards, etc. were in order to make the line move more quickly once they opened the doors. They stopped to answer questions and give direction, didn't make you feel you were 'distracting' them, and really wanted embarkation to be a less than horrible experience.

 

Canaveral was so easy (and before I had experience to compare it to or other experiences to read about), I wouldn't have known a problem if I saw it. It was VERY smooth and easy. We had NO discomfort there whatsoever. I thought it was 'normal', but now know differently.

 

I would sooner fly to San Juan to board a ship than to do so in Miami, though. Between the heat, lack of direction, excrutiating crowds, gas fumes from every type of transport, everyone having their hand out for a tip, etc., Miami would only be considered in EXTRAORDINARY circumstances (like a free cruise).

 

We wouldn't go from NYC just because we only travel in the winter months and wouldn't waste 4 days of a cruise in cold weather.

 

That said, you would think NYC would be a little more organized for the crowds. The tips about starting out from across the street sound good, though. Very similar to how we started in San Juan - we walked it from the Wyndham to the pier (EASY walk), rather than get caught up in boarding traffic.

[chewy]

I just returned from the Legend 5/23 - 5/31

 

EMBARKATION

We drove from Southwest, CT to the pier using the West Side Highway. The exit ramp was PACKED, and it took us a good 20-30 minutes to get to the pier. There was another ship leaving that day (Norweigien Dawn) so that definitely didn't help matters.

Once we got to the pier, we had a porter within a few minutes and BREEZED our way thru the lines and onto the ship. We were never in line longer than 10 minutes, and that was to get on the ship itself. It was painless!

(We got to the pier around 11:45 and were on the ship by 12:15). I would recommend arriving at the pier around 11:30-12:00...

 

DEBARKATION

We left our luggage out the night before and were let off the ship around 10:30. Going thru customs and claiming your luggage takes a good 15-20 minutes, and there were many lines, but it wasn't horrible. Just be patient, you'll get there.

Due to it being "Fleet Week" in NYC this week, there was TONS of extra security and only cabs were allowed on the upper level of the pier, and this was after they were sniffed by bomb smelling dogs. People were waiting in long lines for cabs and it appeared they would be there for a long time. We were being picked up and called them and told them to meet us across the street from the pier on a side street.

 

OVERALL EXPERIENCE

Terrific. A little hectic with the extra security today, but that shouldn't be an issue in the coming weeks and months (I HOPE!)

[ihhk]

I have NO PROBLEM with security waits, demands, etc. I'd rather wait for each and every person before me to take off their shoes and have them scanned than to risk the unmentionable.

 

Security lines are HAPPILY waited on... The traffic, check-in, porter, etc. lines are ones I have low tolerance for. These are the lines that can be improved upon with a little thoughtful consideration.