The Brooklyn Red Hook Terminal - A Photo Essay

[Paul NH]

If you park in the Red Hook Terminal parking lot, here is the view of the Queen Mary 2 as you walk from the lot to the sidewalk along the waterfront. Not bad!

[Paul NH]

This is the front of the terminal. The entrance is to the left, just out of the picture. There are porters ready to take your bags when you pull up to the curb.

[Paul NH]

A view facing the main entrance of the terminal, in the distance. The line to the left consists of crew who were just dropped off from a bus and are entering the terminal through a separate worker's entrance.

[Paul NH]

If you drive just a few feet along around a curve in the road in front of the terminal, there is an area where you can pull in from the road and drop off your bags. This is the area where the porters take all the bags to anyway, so we pulled right up in front of this spot and handed them over here. By the way, we are not in any of these pictures - all strangers to me.

[Paul NH]

Again, the crew is heading through a separate entrance at the left. Just beyond them is the baggage drop-off point. It is taken through that black chain link fence.

[Paul NH]

The gangway to Deck 3, port side Main Lobby.

[Paul NH]

The view from our starboard side Deck 5 in-hull balcony, looking north to Governor's Island and the southern edge of Manhattan.

[Paul NH]

The view from the same balcony, looking southwest. That is the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

[Paul NH]

The view of the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal from above. The main entrance is just below the blue emblem, and the main baggage drop-off is the white building just to the left of the three white arrows. Porters, however, will take your bag anywhere along the sidewalk in front of the terminal. As you can see from this picture, it is very quiet at this particular moment. Other times it would be very active, especially if a bus, or several buses pulled up at the same time.

[Paul NH]

The roofs of the terminal can be seen in the foreground and the parking lot for the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is just beyond their profile. It is a close walk from the lot to the terminal, especially if you make sure to drop your bags off before parking.

[Paul NH]

The view of the terminal as we are sailing away. Good-bye Brooklyn.

[pepperrn]

Great series of pictures, I now know what to expect when I arrive.

 

Thanks for taking the trouble to post,

 

Pepper.

[deck chair]

HI Paul:

 

Thank you so very much for the photos. THey are really wonderful....I'm considering sailing on QM2 on 7/24/06 round trip and am wondering if getting second sitting in the DR is difficult. DId you notice one sitting was more in demand than the other? Any help appreciated. Thanks again for your great contributions.

 

Patrick

[guernseyguy]

The view of the terminal as we are sailing away. Good-bye Brooklyn.

 

Paul,

 

Great photo-essay - thanks - your envoi to Brooklyn is more charitable than I would have chosen (nothing against Brooklyn - just against Cunard iconoclasts who market a line on heritage, then ignore it!) - but then again, I gather Gloria was sick on the train on Monday.....;)

 

Peter

[tandemtourer]

Interesting pictures Paul and very helpful for all of us who anticipate using the new facility. Is that the Water Taxi in the foreground of your Statue of Liberty photo? You may have previously mentioned this but can you estimate how far away from the new Terminal the Water Taxi docks are located?

Would it be a similar distance from Town Quay to the QEII terminal in So'ton?

[CruiseFever]

Thanks for posting these photos

[cruiser don]

The view of the terminal as we are sailing away. Good-bye Brooklyn.

super job on all of the photos Paul...Hello from Brooklyn.......

the Brooklyn Duo.

[Paul NH]

HI Paul:

 

Thank you so very much for the photos. THey are really wonderful....I'm considering sailing on QM2 on 7/24/06 round trip and am wondering if getting second sitting in the DR is difficult. DId you notice one sitting was more in demand than the other? Any help appreciated. Thanks again for your great contributions.

 

Patrick

Patrick,

 

Five out of the six of us traveling preferred second seating, and for this reason, that was the sitting we requested and received. I believe the first seating is the most popular since most people do not want to wait until 8:30 to begin dinner - and finish around 10 to 10:30 p.m. That is at odds with a lot of people's personal time clocks. First seating starts at 6 or 6:30 - I cannot remember which. So to answer your question, I do not think you will have trouble getting the second sitting.

 

I find second seating to be a much more civilized, relaxed way of taking the voyage. It allows time for tea, then a late-day walk on the deck, then getting dressed, and even pre-dinner cocktails. Although I would welcome more time after dinner - which you would get with first seating, I cannot imagine getting myself into the dining room by 6 or 6:30.

 

Paul

[Paul NH]

Interesting pictures Paul and very helpful for all of us who anticipate using the new facility. Is that the Water Taxi in the foreground of your Statue of Liberty photo? You may have previously mentioned this but can you estimate how far away from the new Terminal the Water Taxi docks are located?

Would it be a similar distance from Town Quay to the QEII terminal in So'ton?

Tandemtourer,

 

Sorry, I do not know if that was the water taxi. I thought I heard from one of the crew during the voyage that the water taxi did not start running until May. I never checked on where its terminal is. Maybe someone else reading this knows the answer?

 

Paul

[Paul NH]

... your envoi to Brooklyn is more charitable than I would have chosen (nothing against Brooklyn - just against Cunard iconoclasts who market a line on heritage, then ignore it!) - but then again, I gather Gloria was sick on the train on Monday.

Peter,

 

Well I tried to figure it out, but I have *no* idea what the reference to Gloria being sick on the train on Monday is about. Maybe it will click with me after you tell (and you must tell me!).

 

Regarding the Brooklyn versus Manhattan issue within the realm of Cunard tradition, I can easily get myself angry about that issue all over again, but decided to disconnect it for the time being and just provide some objective feedback about the Brooklyn pier experience.

 

I am probably deluding myself by placing so much emphasis on one data point of information, but I was near a conversation between a passenger and crew member on the subject of Manhattan, and this crewmember said very matter-of-factly something like, "Yes, the pier will be ready by 2009." Unfortunately, I was not in the conversation to get a better clarification of what exactly he meant (and I did not want to get up and butt in), but it sounded very much like, as far as he knew, the QM2 was returning to Manhattan when the pier was refurbished by 2009.

 

You cannot get much more heresay-based than that, but for lack of any other hopeful signs out there, I can only blindly hope that Cunard will do the right thing and get this spectacular flagship back to Manhattan where it belongs.

 

This is no slight to Brooklyn, but let us all face it, Brooklyn does not have the cache that Manhattan does. It now has a very nice cruise pier and I wish it all the best, but the Cunard flagship belongs in Manhattan!

 

And while I am on my soapbox about tradition, get those Princess martini glasses out of the Commodore Club!!!!

 

Paul

[sppunk]

Nice photos, Paul. Simple question: How was the drive to the pier? We'll be coming up on the Gowanus from the Verrazano to the Hamilton Avenue exit and just was curious how hard the drive from this point will be. :)

[travel-to-go]

This is no slight to Brooklyn, but let us all face it, Brooklyn does not have the cache that Manhattan does. It now has a very nice cruise pier and I wish it all the best, but the Cunard flagship belongs in Manhattan!

Paul

Okay,

How about we all bombard Cunard with letters, asking it to take a quick jaunt and a turnaround (or backing down, one or the other) up the Hudson, just so folks can get that traditional feeling of sailing up or down the Hudson. Would that make everyone happy? We'd get the great new, clean, well-lit Brooklyn Pier, and the services which are bound to sprout up in and around it, and the uncrowded area, yet get the Hudson/Manhttan experience.

Failing that maybe we could convince New York to dig out the reef at the North end of Governor's Island and sail around the island on the way out (negating the need for the backing around and in) and get the experience of Eastern Manhattan Skyline.

 

Karie,

who will get to experience Brooklyn later this year.

[deck chair]

Paul:

 

Thank you so very much for your guidance regarding first and second sitting....NIce to know I probably won't have a problem securing second.

 

PAtrick

[Captaintandem]

Originally posted by Paul NH

And while I am on my soapbox about tradition, get those Princess martini glasses out of the Commodore Club!!!!

Paul, just thought I'd mention,

 

I have a pair of those glasses (story on another thread). Like you, I have seen them on QM2 (actually carried two on board, but that is another/the other tale). I also saw them in a shop on QE2 during the crossing this January. This March, we saw identical ones in the bar at Embassy Suites, Portland Maine. I would question their "Princess" identity, but would certainly agree they are ubiquitous, not unique to Cunard. When I bought them - not on a Cunard ship - I thought they were unique. Guess I was mistaken; just wanted to share this observation with you and others who may care to know.

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

[Paul NH]

Tom,

 

Thanks for the observation. I guess my hostility towards this style is its functionality. As I mentioned on an earlier thread, the waiter spilled my martini in this type of glass as he served it at our table, and then I spilled it when I picked it up. The curvy stem does not help with stability (of course, the contents of the drink does not either) and leads a person to palm the glass under the drink itself, which warms it faster. It is definitely an interesting looking glass, but seems a bit trendy looking for the Commodore Club, and not very functional for holding.

 

Life must be good if this is the most serious issue at hand (I wish it actually was).

 

Paul