EWR hotel to Manhattan terminal - Uber or black car service?

[MarKay525]

Hi - on Sunday, Oct 29 DH & I need to get from the Marriott at Newark Airport to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. We need to arrive at the terminal at 1:30 pm.

 

Which would be a better choice:

 

Pre-arrange pickup from Carmel Car & Limo 

 

Arrange an Uber Black the morning of the 29th (unable to pre-arrange right now - don't use Uber enough to know if I will be able to pre-arrange closer to the actual date.)

 

For an added cost, would either of these give us a "45 minute tour" of Manhattan on the way to the terminal?

 

Thanks so much - Kay

[njhorseman]

9 minutes ago, MarKay525 said:

Hi - on Sunday, Oct 29 DH & I need to get from the Marriott at Newark Airport to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. We need to arrive at the terminal at 1:30 pm.

 

Which would be a better choice:

 

Pre-arrange pickup from Carmel Car & Limo 

 

Arrange an Uber Black the morning of the 29th (unable to pre-arrange right now - don't use Uber enough to know if I will be able to pre-arrange closer to the actual date.)

 

For an added cost, would either of these give us a "45 minute tour" of Manhattan on the way to the terminal?

 

Thanks so much - Kay

It hardly matters whether you use Uber or a car service, There's likely to be little difference in the cost for comparable vehicles.

 

Carmel Limo is not a "black car" service unless you book a higher end vehicle at additional cost. It's similar to using Uber X. You can  book Uber Black if you want a higher end vehicle from that source.

 

No...you're not going to be able to get a tour. Uber and Carmel limo drivers aren't tour guides. They provide point to point service.

[princeton123211]

6 minutes ago, MarKay525 said:

Pre-arrange pickup from Carmel Car & Limo 

 

Arrange an Uber Black the morning of the 29th (unable to pre-arrange right now - don't use Uber enough to know if I will be able to pre-arrange closer to the actual date.)

Either or. They are both going to be from the exact same pool of cars/drivers. Carmel doesn't own any cars so they outsource to the same group of folks that drive Uber/Lyft. Personally I would Uber but thats mainly just because its what I usually do. There would be no need to prearrange the Uber on a Sunday. 

 

8 minutes ago, MarKay525 said:

For an added cost, would either of these give us a "45 minute tour" of Manhattan on the way to the terminal?

Uber will not-- mainly point to point. You can put in intermediate stops but its not a great way to use it. 

 

Carmel might offer you an hourly "as directed" rate which would allow you to tell the driver where to go-- you have to call them to ask, you cant book a by the hour reservation outside of NYC on the phone. But they're not going to give you a tour-- not to generalize but a large portion of them speak very spotty English. 

 

You could also use an app I like called Blacklane. These are going to usually be higher end cars than Carmel or UberBlack. You can book their "business class" which is usually a Cadillac sedan or Mercedes E Class. Or they have "First Class" which is usually a Mercedes S Class or Cadillac Escalade. You can prebook "by the hour"-- their pricing is nice because it includes all taxes, fees, and gratuity. I checked for the 29th and Biz Class is $188 for 2 hours and First is $314. 

 

Again-- I wouldn't expect their driver to be able to give you a tour but they can take you to anything you want to see before dropping off at the MCT. 

[MarKay525]

Thank you! This is so helpful.

[megr1125]

I'd go with Uber and skip the tour.  TBH I used Carmel Limo once and NEVER again.  The driver barely knew how to get from Manhattan to JFK and he was, to put it nicely, a jerk.  (With a filthy, stinky car.  My cat's litter boxes never smell that bad)