njhorseman

I'm fixated on NY because it's a prime example of a major NCL embarkation port where it would be essentially impossible to move to another port that could serve its huge cruising market and where the operational Hydra makes it extraordinarily difficult...indeed next to impossible for NCL or any cruise line to do very much about improving conditions.

Having done dozens of cruises from Manhattan on at least 6 different cruise lines, yes some were not problematic but some were total nightmares at embarkation, disembarkation, or both. To put it bluntly, your lone cruise is meaningless as a measure of the experience of cruising from the port. On another day your experience could have been completely different. NCL runs relatively few one way trips beginning or ending in NY. I recall one or two in the past being scheduled to depart Brooklyn, but the overwhelming percentage of NCL cruise passengers are on roundtrip voyages. Moving a few cruises doesn't address the core issues that affect probably 95% of NCL's NY passengers. Did you forget what I documented for you about NCL having to deal with the same service providers regardless of whether they sail from Manhattan, Brooklyn or Cape Liberty? Moving a few cruises is going to do nothing to address the problems caused by having to deal with that Hydra...and I need to add the Coast Guard and USCBP, which can delay any embarkation and disembarkation.

The complaints about lack of cruises from NY are about the reduction of the number of sailings and lack of variety in itineraries, not that there aren't cruises from NY. We used to have two NCL ships based in NY most of the time. That is no longer true. The situation here can't be compared to San Diego and San Pedro. The substantial port facilities in San Pedro were already in place. There's no comparable port here that could replace NY. Plus, by moving the San Diego cruises to San Pedro they were moving closer to the center of the cruising population. Moving from NY would be moving operations further from the center of population.

If you haven’t seen complaints about NY you haven’t been paying attention. If I were the type of poster who wanted to air my gripes I could have started a dozen threads myself. Yes, since you're from NY I assumed you had cruised from here fairly often. The fact that you haven’t probably explains why you haven’t seen complaints...you simply haven’t looked very hard for them. Threatening NY with a 5 year plan to move elsewhere ignores the reality that there is nowhere else on the east coast that could serve the huge NY area market, where so many millions are just a short drive, train ride, or bus trip away. While it might work elsewhere I doubt it could work here.

How would you suggest that NCL replace the Manhattan Cruise Terminal as a homeport ? Cape Liberty has only one berth and is controlled by Royal Caribbean. Brooklyn has only one berth and is controlled by Carnival Corp. for its Cunard and Princess subsidiaries, with now MSC leasing berthing rights. Oh...even if adequate docking space were available at either Cape Liberty or Brooklyn, it's going to be pretty much the same cast of characters running them. All three are under the general auspices of the Port Authority of NY and NJ. Brooklyn and Manhattan are both managed by NYCEDC (New York City Economic Development Corporation), which has contracted day-to day management of both to Ports America, which subcontracts out the check in services at the pier...last I saw to a company called Intercruises that pretty much has a monopoly on those services in this area. Parking facility operations are subcontracted out to other operators. Stevedoring labor is provided by the local longshoreman's union, the ILA...no choice there. The above should also tell you why it's next to impossible for NCL to have any control over what happens at the port...no alternatives are available and you have at least five organizations involved in port operations: PA of NY & NJ, Ports America, Intercruises, a parking operator and the ILA.

As already noted, hotels in the LAX area have shuttles from the airport to the hotel, but no hotel has a shuttle to Long Beach. Take an Uber from any hotel in the LAX area to Long Beach. Likely price is in the $50 to $60 range.

In addition to what others have said, it appears to me that the $150 price quote is for an Uber Black. An UberX or Uber Comfort from LAX to the Long Beach Cruise terminal will be in the $50-$60 range.

I answered your question on a different thread.

https://widget.arrive.com/index.html?ui-components=event-list,location-list,checkout,purchase-confirmation&capture-plate=always&coordinates-marker=false&destination-location-id=51217&destination-venue-id=517845&enable-google-pay=true&enable-apple-pay=true&parkwhiz-opens-in-new-tab=false&pricing-access-code-exclusive=true&pricing-access-codes=f8107238&t-and-c-override=true&title-override-text=Manhattan Cruise Terminal Official Parking&utm-source=https%3A%2F%2Fnycruise.com%2Fmanhattan-terminal%2Fparking%2F

They're the parking operator for the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. It doesn't matter what cruise line you're on.

The point is that being represented by a maritime union doesn't mean you're not a government employee. I also checked job openings on the Washington State Ferry. Again they are state employees but may be represented by various unions. You are correct...we have gone far afield from the original question, but that often happens .

There's a job opening on nyc.gov as a marine oiler for the Staten Island ferry. The job description clearly states that the person will be an employee of the City of New York.

The privately-owned water taxis and ferries in NY City can't exist with the approval of their franchise by the city government. None would be allowed to directly compete with the Staten Island Ferry. In any event I am not talking about for-profit corporations. I'm strictly addressing the politically unacceptable scenario of government-owned operations such as the Staten Island Ferry operating foreign-flagged vessels crewed by citizens of other countries. The media outlets are going to feast on stories like "Mayor Adams Plans to Replace XXX New Yorkers Who Work on the Staten island Ferry with Panamanians" Maritime unions may be weak, but not unions representing government employees. You may not be aware of the influence that union leaders in this area of the country have. My son happens to be president of a union representing several thousand government employees in this county. He has the ear of every politician from our town's council and mayor to the county executive to our state legislators to the governor. He and his union worked on their behalf to help them get elected. Believe me if his rank and file were in danger of losing their jobs to citizens of other countries those politicians would be instantaneously reminded of how many votes that would cost them the next election. BTW, the Staten Island Ferry is already free, so foreign-flagging isn't going to reduce the fare.

The bad optics and negative publicity generated by a government agency operating foreign-flagged and foreign-crewed ships could be a political nightmare costing politicians their jobs. Unions representing the ferry workers would campaign against this.

Chief, while as always I appreciate and respect your knowledge and experience, I think you may be exaggerating the likelihood of government owned and operated ferry systems such as the Staten Island Ferry and Washington State Ferries reflagging to a foreign country such as Panama. Certainly the comment about not having to pay corporate taxes to the US is not accurate because as government agencies they don't pay corporate taxes. The Circle Line sightseeing boats are a different story as they are owned and operated by a for-profit corporation, not a government agency.