How early is too early?- Brooklyn

[grimace95120]

Good day all,

This is our first cruise out of Brooklyn, so hoping you can help us out with something. We are flying into LaGuardia day of . I know its always risky day of, but we are coming in from Toronto and there are multiple flights that would get us there in plenty of time if something was to delay/cancel our 6:15 am flight.

My question is, we will be through customs and have bags collect by 8:30 ish I suspect. What time should we plan to leave the airport to head to the terminal? If we leave the airport at 9:30 and arrive by 10/10:15 is that way too early? Will we be in the way of the disembarking Passengers?

And if we do arrive at that time, is there a place to hang out a bit in the terminal ?. Not looking for a lounge or anything, just a waiting area that we can sit and read a bit while waiting for embarkation to begin. This is a Princess cruise and we have no status nor are we in a regular suite.

 

Thanks !

[TheOldBear]

Terminal services like baggage handling and security are handled by the cruise port, not by the cruise line. In general, passengers are not admitted to security until all disembarking passengers are accounted for and the ship is 'zeroed out'.  The boarding time on your check in documentation _may_ be enforced.

Checked baggage for the sailing is usually accepted at the terminal even while the arriving passengers are picking up theirs and heading to customs.

Once the doors open, your next stop is security - after security there are lots of fairly hard chairs in a waiting area. There are restrooms, but recent reports say there are no vending machines.

Your boarding pass will likely acquire a few stamps and stickers before you are ready to board.

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, grimace95120 said:

we are coming in from Toronto and there are multiple flights that would get us there in plenty of time if something was to delay/cancel our 6:15 am flight.

My question is, we will be through customs and have bags collect by 8:30 ish I suspect.

If you're flying out of Toronto Pearson (YYZ) you'll be preclearing US Customs and Border Protection in Toronto before you board your flight so you'll be treated as a domestic arrival at LGA . As a result you may be ready to depart LGA earlier than you're thinking.

 

1 hour ago, grimace95120 said:

If we leave the airport at 9:30 and arrive by 10/10:15 is that way too early? Will we be in the way of the disembarking Passengers?

I'm not sure about Princess's procedures but most cruise lines assign you an arrival time on your boarding documents...or you select a time yourself upon doing on line check in. What do your documents say ? However, there's no telling whether the assigned time will be enforced.

The porters should be able to accept the bags you're checking by that time even if your check in time is later than 10 or 10:15...but you may have to wait in line outside the terminal to actually go through security and check in.

[grimace95120]

ahh right yes, you are correct, customs clearance is done in Canada ( been a while since we've done USA travel) . No times provided by princess, and i need to wait somewhere, so might as well stick around the airport for a bit longer , where at least i can be assured of a seat 🙂

 

Thanks

 

[lx200gps]

24 minutes ago, grimace95120 said:

ahh right yes, you are correct, customs clearance is done in Canada ( been a while since we've done USA travel) . No times provided by princess, and i need to wait somewhere, so might as well stick around the airport for a bit longer , where at least i can be assured of a seat 🙂

 

Thanks

 

Princess no longer assigns arrival or boarding times, you can show up as early or as late as you want. Brooklyn isn't really different from any other North American Port in that respect. The last time we sailed out of Red Hook we arrived VERY early. I misjudged traffic (we drove down the day before) and arrived at the terminal around 9AM; our bags were among the first to be dropped off. We had to sit in the terminal until security opened around 10AM. Once through security and checkin (which is very fast thanks to the Medallion) we sat in the Lounge until boarding started around 11AM.

[grimace95120]

Thank you, this is very helpful. I have to wait somewhere, so if i can park myself at the terminal outside of security, then I may just do that . Appreciate everyone's feedback here !