Cruises out of Philadelphia-what cruise lines leave from here?

[suzieru47]

Hi-

I am 30 mins from Philadelphia so I am very interested in cruises that leave this port. From reading other's posts, I see that both Royal Caribbean and NCL have a ship to Bermuda out of Phila a few times a year. However, when I search Royal Caribbean's site, it appears that they no longer run cruises out of Phila. Can anyone confirm this? I have read posts as recently as June of this year describing Royal Caribbean cruises out of Phila.

Are there any other cruiselines out of Philadelphia besides NCL?

 

Any help would be great!

[familycruzer]

According to the cruisephilly website, NCL is going to be it for 2008 and Bermuda.

http://www.cruisephilly.com/PDF/CPSched.pdf

However, depending on what side of Philly you live on you could go to Baltimore and take the Granduer of the Seas.

http://www.cruisemaryland.com/2008Schedule.pdf

[smeyer418]

its 104 miles from Phily to Baltimore. Its 96 miles from Phily to the Manhattan Cruise terminal. I am driving from NYC to Phily to take the Majesty. None of these which are two hours apart are really that far. I have used Phily airport for some flights(especially to Spain for some unknown reason)....The parking is much cheaper in Phily it saves over a $100 per week...

[Essiesmom]

Shouldn't be that much farther to Cape Liberty/Bayonne and Celebrity/RCCL. Parking $15/day. EM

[madelinerose]

Are there any other cruiselines out of Philadelphia besides NCL?

 

Not at this time. Here are the current cruises advertised from Philadelphia between January 2008 and December 2009:

 

http://travel.travelocity.com/ecruise/CruiseSearch.do;jsessionid=A7DB82AEAD385F98519C44C3319017F6.p0733;jsessionid=A7DB82AEAD385F98519C44C3319017F6.p0733?org.apache.struts.taglib.html.TOKEN=0484613b332d1d9d03bf736eddf02746&pageName=CRZ_Z3101&resultsIndex=&pagerIndex=&promolink=false&geographicRegion=&cruiseLength=&dateType=DATE_RANGE&fromMonthYear=2008-01&fromDay=&toMonthYear=2009-11&toDay=&resSt=&price=&departurePort=455&searchNearbyPorts=true&allCruiseVendors=9-14-45-24-15-7-48-28-46-5-16

[kellygirl67]

I too was looking into cruising out of Philly this fall and noticed that RCI isn't cruising from this port in 2008. I had my DH and the group of friends going w/ us all convinced to drive from the Wash. D.C. area up to Philly to take a cruise to Bermuda (since we've all already taken the Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore and wanted to try a different ship). Now it looks like the closest port to us (other than Norfolk which is also the Grandeur) is the Bayonne, NJ port, which is further, so now no one wants to make the long drive up from D.C.

 

Does anyone in the DC/MD area know of any good transportation options (other than driving ourselves) to get to the Bayonne, NJ port from the DC area? There will be 6-8 of us so a chauffeured (sp?) van or something similar in size would be preferable? I thought I read on one of the threads that RCI offered ground transportation from either Wash. D.C. or from Baltimore to Port Liberty, but I can't find any info. about it on the RCI website.

Any assistance/advice is appreciated!

[kellygirl67]

duplicate post -deleted

[WelshieLover]

kellygirl67, Amtrak will get you easily up to Newark Penn Station, from there you can easily take a cab over to Bayonne.

[kellygirl67]

Thanks Welshielover for the tip.

I checked the Amtrak schedule from our area (Alex, VA just outside of DC) and the train won't get to Newark, NJ until 1:30pm (if it's on time) so by the time we took a taxi to get to the Cape Liberty port I think we'd be cutting it close (the price isn't bad though- $71 pp round-trip). My husband panics about stuff like that (he likes to get to the ship by noon the day of departure). Also, I don't think the group we're going with would want to go up a day early since we'd have to tack on the costs for 2 hotel rooms also.

I did a google search for "port to port ground transportation" and actually found a website (I can't tell how old it is though) that mentions that RCI provides (or at least used to provide) bus service from D.C. to Newark for $65.00 (I assume that's each way). I had e-mailed Royal Carribean to ask about it, but no response back yet.

[dolfinmusic]

I thought I read on one of the threads that RCI offered ground transportation from either Wash. D.C. or from Baltimore to Port Liberty, but I can't find any info. about it on the RCI website.

Any assistance/advice is appreciated!

 

Are you booked with a TA or through RCI direct? We used the bus service from Philly to Bayonne this past October. I do believe that their were people on the bus from D.C. I just contacted my TA about it and she set it up for us. The cost for us was $109 roundtrip per person.

[kellygirl67]

Thanks for the info. dolfinmusic-

We haven't booked yet but I was planning on going through RCI directly when we do since we're C&A members in order to get the room upgrade. The rest of our group wants to just travel out of Baltimore instead of dealing w/ the hassle of getting up to NJ, but I've already been on the Grandeur of the Seas, and wanted to try the Explorer of the Seas to check it out.

I emailed the RCCL customer service to find out if they have bus transportation from the DC area and they finally responded back after almost two weeks and told me to call the RCCL certified travel spe******ts (I guess this was too complex a question for the reg. cust. service staff to answer?), so of course when I called RCCL, I was on hold for 30 mins. before I finally gave up. I may call a TA I'm acquaintances with to see if she can find out for me.

Thanks again.

[MERLOTCHAMPAGNE]

Anyone have car service recommendations from Trumbauersville PA to PHL????

 

Need to get DD from her Habitat for Humanity project to PHL to fly to FLL for cruise... thanks!

 

Thanks