barnaby2you

We are no longer taking this cruise, sadly. Enjoy!

That sounds amazing and we would hope to do exactly the same with the group, if everyone's agreeable? Judy & Seamus

Thank you, all! We are now booked for Sept 13-18 in Midtown East and will plan for either a car service or taxi early morning to take us directly to LAG for our 7.30 flight. You've all been incredibly helpful and we are very thankful.

Thank you, that is clear and sensible. If we did stay on in Manhattan is there a pre-bookable car service that you could recommend? With such an early start we wouldn't have much wiggle room if they came late!

You meant LGA as in LaGuardia Airport in Queens ...

I don't know if you would find any decent hotels near LGA to be better/cheaper vs. what you have in Manhattan - and at 5:30 or 6 AM, their hotel might be or might NOT yet be up & running yet, at 30 minutes interval, maybe less - some have only 2 or 3 vehicles in the fleet and it's easily 20+ minutes for them to loop around the airport before coming back.

 

For a 7:30 departure, you probably wanted to be curbside at the airport by 6 AM, as even Pre-Check, if any, might be open. LGA's current phrase of development/reconstruction - should begin to payoff with better services for flyers by then, Delta investing as partners in their Terminal C and T-D. T-B or Central Terminal is supposed to be\gin to shine then. For the pre-dawn, early morning hours - you can book a car service (Carmel or Dial7) for a quick, flat-rate ride to LGA instead of counting on flagging a cruising taxi outside the hotel for a 30 to 45 minutes ride out to LGA, weather permitting, traffic will still be light enough at 5:30 AM.

 

If also depends on your Monday evenings, as there is absolutely NOTHING to see or do near LGA - chain hotels like the HI Express are further away and I don't believe they start their AM shuttle until 6 AM - thus, you will need to pay for another car service ride over to LGA, their are no cruising yellow taxi to be found at 5:30 AM, the "green" color taxi found are typically local car service approved to run their metered fare when hailed or flat rate with radio dispatched by calling.

 

Personally biased, I am not a fan of so-called car riding services like Uber or Lyft b/c of their business practices - if you choose to consider them, odds are that you can find one within 10 minutes both in Manhattan and in popular areas near LGA's offsite hotels.

 

September, historically speaking, is high season for booking and rates for hotels in NYC, right around the annual United Nations General Assembly, followed by Fashion Week that stretch into mid/late October for all those popular Fall foilage, New England/Canada cruises - cruise terminals in all 3 NY-NJ piers are quite busy & full ... car services are smiling as they are busy doing these runs.

 

Book a hotel that you are comfortable with now to lock it in - continue to shop around for better deals & locations, etc. Last minute cancellations & rate drops are possible ... consider using all those popular hotel booking engine/services like Hotwire and/or TripAdvisor.

Thanks so much for your reply. So, on balance, do you mean we might be better to stay in our (Manhattan) hotel the night before flying and book a car service or taxi from there to La Guardia very early the next morning? We are flying to Canada at 7.30 a.m., so assume must be there 2 hours ahead, i.e. 5.30 am. Easier to achieve from Manhattan with a pre-booked car service, or from a hotel near La Guardia with 24 hour shuttle service? Sorry, could you please clarify? Many thanks!

Hello everyone. Now that we have hotel bookings, another question. We fly out from La Guardia Tues Sept 18 at 7.30 am. Would it be advisable to stay near airport the night before and depend on shuttle/taxi, or is it reasonably easy to get to LAG early in the morning from a Manhattan hotel? Any advice on this, and/or on inexpensive hotels near LAG, would be deeply useful to us! Thank you all!!

We have fully cancelable bookings made at three hotels:

1. Crowne Plaza HY36 Midtown Manhattan

2. Courtyard by Marriott at Times Square West

3. La Quinta Inn & Suites Manhattan

Any votes for or against any of these? Any comments? It will be hard to decide which one to keep, but at least we have backup now in case prices rise further. Thanks everyone!

Looking at La Quinta Manhattan on 32nd St. Any comments from anyone? Thank you all!

Did you book a placeholder reservation at the Courtyard? It's cancellable so you have nothing to lose until Sep 10, 2018. When is your flight home and from which airport? In the case of the Marriott, you could save some money by moving to an airport hotel for the last night. Sep 13-17 is $1037 whereas Sep 13-18 is $1416.

 

Hotel rates are likely to go up for your dates. You could get lucky, but the reality is that your expectations to get a decent hotel in midtown during this time period for $200 is unrealistic. Something has to give like location or king bed. Did you consider the Wall St area? All the subway lines are close downtown and will take you wherever you want to go.

That's an excellent idea about booking an airport hotel for the 5th night. We'll be flying from La Guardia early in the morning, so that would make sense and save costs. I do see that the Monday night is way more expensive than over the weekend. Thank you!

Excellent and super helpful advice, thanks so much! I'll keep digging and watching... :)

I guess we're hoping to find somewhere under 200 US per night, but that may be too optimistic. We are seniors but well able to do lots of walking. Hadn't realized it will be peak season, alas. This becomes even more of a challenge!

I should add it will be a 5 night stay and we'd like one bed, king if possible. Arriving by ship Sept 13 and departing from La Guardia on Tues Sept 18. Does any of that help?

Prices in NCY tend to be high that time of the year.

 

I know you will get input here but I also find Trip Advisor to have a wealth of information.

 

You can search on it based on various factors including location and price.

 

Keith

Thank you Keith, we'll certainly be watching TA too.

What is your hotel budget? Are you seniors? Are you 2 people? Unfortunately you will be in NY at the peak season because of Fashion Week and the UN opening.

I guess we're hoping to find somewhere under 200 US per night, but that may be too optimistic. We are seniors but well able to do lots of walking. Hadn't realized it will be peak season, alas. This becomes even more of a challenge!

Hello, we will disembark in NYC on Sept 13/18 and hope to spend four or five nights there at a moderately priced but well located hotel. Sticker shock is occurring, plus I don't know where to begin! Any suggestions for a comfortable hotel in a convenient area for sightseeing, that will not break our retirement bank??? Many, many thanks for any and all suggestions. We've never been to NYC and would like a comfortable base for visiting art museums, going to a show or two, and just generally seeing as many of the sights as we can without wasting a lot of time on transit. With 11 months lead time, I'm hoping we might find somewhere good at a reasonable price, with your help!