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we are doing the April 7 Norwegian Gem out of Manhattan....which ferry should we take??? By the way, thanks for all the great tips!!

Well, you probably would not want to do the NYC Ferry from Pier 11. Here is a page with a picture of the routes, notice it seems to only follow East River area routes. This works great for a Manhattan stay and the Brooklyn cruise port at Red Hook. but not so much for the Manhattan port Click here for the route map

NY Water Taxi does not operate the ferry from the pier next to Brooklyn Cruise peir, they operate from Ikea which is several blocks south of the cruise pier.And NY Water Taxi does NOT charge $2.75. Their Ferry;s are YELLOW, East River Ferrys are White with Blue accents. I should know, take one every day.

 

You want Hornblower cruises that operates NYC Ferry, that's the name of the service. NYC Water Taxi is a different company, even lost the bid to operate the East River routes.

 

Here is the direct link to the schedule https://www.ferry.nyc/routes-and-schedules/route/south-brooklyn/

Sorry, I stand corrected. I got it wrong. It is the NYC Ferry and your link is correct. I'll try to get an admin to allow me to edit the top post for accuracy.

Most NY'ers refer to it as a ferry and not taxi.

Anyway, this is the South Brooklyn route and the stop at Governor's Island is weekends only ending on October 29th. They haven't posted when the stop will come back in spring of 2018, so its two stops non-weekend and come November.

Just to be clear, the extra stop at Governor's Island goes away soon, meaning it arrives at Red Hook a bit sooner!

I view the bags situation as similar to hauling them from parking at an airport to getting them checked. I f you can handle that, then this is similar.

My wife had 2 "checked" pieces of luggage (one was a large piece of luggage) and I had one piece. I decided to haul her two and I did not have any problems, she could have done it herself easily. I'd say, hauling bags around an airport is similar. You are crossing streets, so look for the handicap sloped areas so you don't drag a bag off a curb. I did see another couple hauling bags too.

When sailing out of the Brooklyn Cruise Port, consider the option of staying in one of the hotels in Lower Manhattan and walking a few blocks to Pier 11. For $2.75 a person, The NYC Water Taxi will pick you up at Pier 11 and drop you within a few hundred feet of the cruise port entrance. We did it in October 2017 and liked it so much, we used the service to go back to Manhattan when the cruise was over.

Please see my picture trip report here.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2554096

When sailing out of the Brooklyn Cruise Port, consider the option of staying in one of the hotels in Lower Manhattan and walking a few blocks to Pier 11. For $2.75 a person, The NYC Water Taxi will pick you up at Pier 11 and drop you within a few hundred feet of the cruise port entrance. We did it in October 2017 and liked it so much, we used the service to go back to Manhattan when the cruise was over.

Please see my picture trip report for the Water Taxis here.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2554096

We are back from our trip. I posted a picture review of the NYC Water Taxi experience (BTW, it was Great!)

Click Here for the Review

This was taken from the ship, the Ferry stop is very close.

This was taken from the Ferry stop. Yep, it's not very far away!

I hope this little visual trip report helps someone when making plans for a future cruise.

One more thing, for dinner, we walked a few blocks from our hotel to the South Street Seaport area and had out choice of several restaraunts and a nice view of the East River from another pier.

Double Check it is the right boat/route!

The inside of a ferry. Very nice and clean

On the way, you can see some great views! here's the Brooklyn Bridge near the first stop. You can get up on top for a better view if you want.

Here's another view, this one from the end of Pier 11

To get in line for the ferry, go around the building

The line forms to the left of the Astoria stop. i think we had 10 people in line this morning, not crowded at all!

Look for this sign

On the weekend, the boat will make three stops and then go to Red Hook. You will be right next to the Cruise port, like 150 feet away.

Map view

Here's one of the Ferry Boats coming in to the pier

Thanks to user "138East" for suggesting to stay inLower Manhattan and taking the NYC Ferry over to the Cruise Port in Brooklyn(Red Hook). This added a new "excursion" to our trip, so I decided todocument it for other travelers benefit.

We flew in to LGA a day early and used Lyft to get us to the Holiday InnExpress on Water Street. The Lyft ride during rush hour cost us about $45. Fromthe hotel, just two blocks away is Pier 11 where the NYC Ferry runs betweenlower Manhattan and several stops in Brooklyn (Including the cruise port stopin Red Hook) This is my trip report for this little excursion. It was easy todo and we liked it so much, we reversed the trip to get back to Manhattan whenthe cruise got back!

This is what one of the Ferry boats look like:

From Pier 11, you can see the Regal Princess across the East river

From our hotel, we walked a couple of blocks and crossed under the bridge to Pier 11

Tickets can be bought either in this building on the pier or at one of several kiosks on the pier

The Ticket Window inside

We took the 9:30am trip and got to the cruise port early. Too early as we stood around for over an hour. Next time, I would take the 10:25am trip

Many thanks to all the helpful replies to my original post. Last weekend, I booked the Holiday Inn Express in Manhattan. After careful review, weather permitting, we will be riding that NYC Ferry from Pier 11 to the Red Hook stop in Brooklyn, right next to the cruise port building. What a great way to get to the cruise port! If weather is not good for the three block walk from the hotel to the pier, then we will Uber/Lyft to the port.

When the cruise returns on Saturday, we are planning on spending another night in Manhattan, staying at the Millennium Hilton NY Downtown, and will spend all day Saturday exploring the 911 memorial site and museum. This hotel is right across the street from 9/11 ground zero.

Many thanks to everyone for your responses. It's been a busy weekend, I'll review in detail tomorrow.

I'm shopping for a hotel. Currently, the Hotel Le Bleu is at the top of my list.

Appreciate any suggestions of places you've stayed and been happy with. Bonus for safe walking distance to a few dinner restaurant choices nearby, otherwise we will Uber/taxi somewhere.

1) dates: 1 night, Friday September 29th

2) # of people: 2 (Wife and I)

3) budget: $250ish, pre-tax.

4) airport you are flying into - date and arrival time: LGA, same date, 5pm arrival if on time. Uber/Lyft to hotel

5) sightseeing plans in New York: none really, only dinner for that night.

6) Ship you are sailing on: Regal Princess

Thanks!