GTJ

Overall, a good plan for enjoying a nice day in New York City. A few comments. If it is a nice day and you're traveling light, consider walking from Pennsylvania Station to the East 34th Street pier. It is less than 1-1/2 miles, about 30 minutes on foot. Note that the East 34th Street ferry pier is actually located between East 35th Street and East 36th Street. You would get to see much more up close by walking crosstown on 34th Street than you would by traveling any other way, and if something should be appealing (Macy's?) you could stop along the way. It is an easy walk and it would be my choice if I was not pressed for time and weather was not an issue. Alternatively, you could travel on the M34 crosstown bus. Buy your bus ticket before boarding from the machine at the bus stop ($2.75 each, coins only), on the south side of West 34th Street, just east of Eighth Avenue . . . the M34 bus (not the M34A bus) goes direct to the East 34th Street pier. You might also choose to travel by taxi . . . there are so many taxis it would not seem worthwhile trying to arrange for Uber and then trying to locate one specific car within a busy area to transport you such a short distance. Taxi fare should be about $10, assuming no traffic delays. At the East 34th Street pier do not be fixated on just the Soundview ferry route. The ferries along each route do not operate that often--on Saturdays the Soundview ferries come by every 40 minutes--so it might be best to just board whichever ferry comes by first. The travel times for the various routes, from East 34th Street to Pier 11, do not vary all that much: 17 minutes via Soundview route (every 40 minutes), 24 minutes via Astoria route (every 38 minutes), 36 minutes via East River route (every 19 minutes). Regardless of initial route, it is then a free transfer at Pier 11 to the South Brooklyn ferry, and a 15-minute trip (every 33 minutes) to Red Hook. The Keystone trains from Harrisburg, while as plain and nondescript as can be (and these days even lacking a café car), their timekeeping tends to be good (all is dispatched by Amtrak and rarely is there any interference with freight). I would expect arrival in New York to on or very close to schedule absent most unusual circumstances. The fare for the segment between Harrisburg and Philadelphia is relatively inexpensive, but the fare for the segment between Philadelphia and New York can be rather steep at times. Because of this some people choose to use transportation other than Amtrak between Philadelphia and New York.

There are many accommodations available all along the Alaska Railroad, so in providing a map of the railroad I would not want use the criterion of helpfulness to locate particular accommodations. Where I think the addition could be helpful is removing the ambiguity of McKinley station, given that there are no physical improvements at the station, and that unlike the other railroad stations, it is really only a waypoint--a transfer point--rather than an actual destination with some utility of its own. A parallel situation exists on the northeast corridor where the Amtrak-owned railroad between New York and Trenton--which also hosts trains operated by New Jersey Transit--has a station called Newark Liberty International Airport. That station is inaccessible other than by the two railroad service providers and a separate monorail service that connects at the station and shuttles passengers to the airport terminals (much like the motorcoach service shuttles passengers to and from the McKinley station in Alaska). The Amtrak national system map, including the inset showing the northeast corridor, does not show the monorail shuttle (see http://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/Maps/Amtrak-System-Map-1018.pdf), but the New Jersey Transit map does show the monorail shuttle (see http://content.njtransit.com/public/pdfs/maps/NJTRailSystemMap-Aug2022.pdf). I will have to think about this some more.

I do not mind it being shared for non-commercial activity, provided that the copyright notice remains intact. Do you think the version with the added motorcoach shuttle to and from Mt. McKinley Lodge helps or detracts from what is otherwise a railroad map?

I am unclear about understanding your plan. First I read that you will be taking public transportation from the hotel to the cruise terminal. Then I read about travel from hotel to cruise terminal via taxi/Uber. As to public transportation, the Jersey City waterfront is one of the best areas to consider. The light rail line serves the entire waterfront, and it is a simple trip on a light rail train from Jersey City to Bayonne. On the Bayonne end the train does not go directly to the passenger terminal, so you will need a taxi or TNC for the last leg from the Bayonne station to the passenger terminal (or a long and a bit unpleasant walk). Almost as easy doing the same thing from a hotel in Hoboken. Downtown Newark is a bit longer, requiring a ride on the PATH train from downtown Newark to Jersey City, and then the light rail train from there. The airport hotels in Newark would be the least satisfying choice, as public transportation does not serve those hotels very well, and it would require multiple transfers to get to Bayonne. By taxi or TNC any of the hotels would not be inconvenient. No significant travel time difference, about 20 to 30 minutes from anywhere (Jersey City, Hoboken, Newark, Elizabeth).

First get into the taxi, then give the destination. It does not matter that the taxi driver does not want to take a passenger to Pennsylvania Station--the driver has no choice about it--and so if you're already in the taxi it will be more difficult for the taxi driver to act unlawfully. No driver wants to appear before TLC for denying transportation.

Ordinarily, yes. But if something happens, then change the reservation from 11:00 a.m. to a later time . . . just do so before the 11:00 a.m. train departs.

Revised with motorcoach shuttle to the Mt. McKinley Lodge added. Alaska Railroad Map and Service 2.pdf

"McKinley" refers to the McKinley station of the Alaska Railroad. It is located where Woodpecker Avenue intersects the railroad, just south of Talkeetna. There is not much there, physically, but it is the location that Holland America-Princess uses, instead of Talkeetna itself, and where their motorcoaches meet their trains to transport passengers between the trains and the various lodges used by Holland America-Princess. You might notice that Holland America-Princess uses the train name "McKinley Express" to denote their train between Whittier and McKinley station. The origin of the name "McKinley" as the name of the railroad station might indeed be related to the nearby McKinley Lodge--since the station was established specifically for Holland America-Princess--but that would be speculation on my part. I had though about adding a dotted line connecting McKinley station with a new point labeled McKinley Lodge (which, indeed, would be located between Talkeetna and Hurricane!), the dotted line representing the motorcoaches used by Holland America-Princess to make that connection. But I am not certain if adding such a dotted line would confuse people into believing that there is an actual train making that connection. (I had also though about adding a dotted line connecting the Seward Railroad Station and the Seward Cruise Port, not to show a motorcoach connection but rather to indicate that the two points are so close to each other and are easily walkable.) Comments welcome.

Many questions and much confusion has arisen in this forum with respect to the various passenger train services operated by the Alaska Railroad between Seward, Whittier, Anchorage, Denali, Fairbanks, and intermediate points. This is understandable given that several train names are similar, different service providers are involved, there are three different types of "dome" cars in service, and there is otherwise uncertainty as to what services are available. In an effort to clarify the situation, I have drawn a color-code route map and train service table that should answer most basic questions about these train services. Click on the link below to download a PDF file. It is a first draft, so comments and corrections are welcomed. Hopefully this information will be useful to those persons planning a land-based extension to their Alaska cruise plans. Alaska Railroad Map and Service.pdf

In Alaska, it is the same railroad that operates the passenger trains and the freight trains, so the tension that exists between Amtrak and the host railroads is absent. And with passenger trains in Alaska being profitable (or at least some of the passenger trains), they can be prioritized. In short, all the incentives are in place in Alaska, but are missing in the lower forty-eight.

Are you visiting Saint John or St. John's? (There is no Canadian port known as "St John.") Big difference between the two.

In years past, the west side was filled with piers serving all sorts of ferries and oceanliners. The railroads sought to dump their passengers onto the Hudson Tubes and rid themselves of their ferries, and the jet age sealed the fate of the oceanliners. With a truck and automobile falling onto the street below when the west side highway failed, the entire west side was ripe for redevelopment . . . a redevelopment without piers. Even with a subsequent uptick in cruise travel, the environmentalists and parks supporters will never allow the former maritime traffic to return to Manhattan. At best there will be relatively small and not very substantial passenger ferry terminals for relatively tiny ferries, but nothing like the ocean liner terminals that once existed (and were they to be returned, allowing vessels to tie up parallel to shore so as not to interfere with the channel). Traffic exceeding the minuscule capacity of the Manhattan Cruise Terminal seems relegated to Bayonne and Brooklyn, and least within our lifetimes.

Probably overkill for a city metro system--the city bus is more than adequate--but as an intercity railroad it it overbuilt and underused. There would be greater utility if, for example, the Denali Star and the Aurora began their northward treks at the airport, stopping in downtown Anchorage as an intermediate stop, and then continuing to Fairbanks (and vice versa). Or the railroad could do as most North American railroads have done historically, and operate one fast train, making all the main stops as the Denali Star does now, and also one local train, making all stops, including the airport and replacing the Hurricane Turn. Indeed, in the summer there are no local trains serving intermediate stops (such as, for example, Healy). There really ought to be an examination of the railroad's passenger services, all of which at present are just a hodge-podge of largely incoherent . . . one cannot even travel the full route, from Seward to Fairbanks, in any reasonable manner but for a hotel overnight somewhere. It is only by chance that the passenger schedules fit together operationally. Any comments on the attached map and service table for the Alaska Railroad? Alaska Railroad Map and Service.pdf

Earlier today I had been reflecting on the fact that there are many similar questions, and I started to sketch out a map that could show the various services available. I think it is doable using Inkscape, so I may try doing that over the next few days. I am thinking of the style that graphic artist Massimo Vignelli used in 1972 for showing New York City subway routes, given that the confusion over railroad trains in Alaska is related to the operational routes, more so than the geographical relationship (for which the current New York City map, designed in 1978 by my personal friend, the late Michael Hertz, aimed to do). Let's see if I can make some progress on this! The branch line has been a bit controversial given that money from the Federal Transit Administration was used in its construction, and yet it is vastly underutilized. Not only that but the only trains that use it are charter trains, which flies in the face of federal law and FTA regulations that effectively prohibit the use of federally-funded transit facilities for charter purposes (the Alaska Railroad gets away with it because the statute, 49 U.S.C. § 5323(d), technically applies only to charter bus service, not charter train service, coupled with the politics involved). Given that taxpayer dollars were spent on the airport branch line, there really ought to be train service available to everyone, and not charter train service available only to the patrons of cruise lines. The cruise lines probably like the exclusive nature of the charter train service, and I imagine that the bus lines (i.e., Alaska Cruise Transportation, Park Connection, Seward Bus Line) would not like to have train service available to everyone that would create more government-subsidized transportation competing against them. It would have to be some public interest organization, like the ACLU or the Sierra Club, to push or litigate for train service on the airport branch being available to everyone.

Actually, it does not matter if one books the train through the Alaska Railroad or through the cruise line. Both trains travel the same tracks, ad both trains offer the same scenery, between the junction of the railroad main line and the airport branch line, in Anchorage, and the railroad yard in Seward.

A good explanation, though I will add a few minor caveats. First, the morning train from downtown Anchorage to Seward, and its return in the evening from Seward to downtown Anchorage, is "direct" in the sense that this train does not travel along the branch line going to the Anchorage airport . . . it stays on the main line. (Details: The main line begins in Seward at milepost 0, with the downtown Anchorage station at milepost 114.30. The branch line to the airport is 2.45 miles in length, and joins the main line at CP 1102, located at milepost 110.13.) This train to and from downtown Anchorage is direct but not non-stop between downtown Anchorage and Seward. On the other hand, the chartered train does travel along the branch line going to the Anchorage airport. This train is direct and non-stop between Anchorage airport and Seward. Also, not all cruise lines at Seward will arrange for charter train service, but all the primary mass market lines do so. Generally, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises offer this service, but check with your cruise line to be certain. Finally, it should be noted that the charter train is also used for the vessels docking at Whittier (i.e., Princess Cruises and Holland America Line), though not to or from Anchorage airport.

It is difficult to do so without knowing what travel attributes are important to you? Speed? Cost? Scenery? Comfort? Privacy? Reliability? And how should those attributes be balanced? There are multiple trains, buses, and cars, any of which could be "best" depending on personal preferences. My choice might not be your choice.

I assume that you traveled by taxi from the hotel directly to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, having abandoned the plan to travel by ferry (if you did travel by taxi from the hotel to Pier 11, then you would have been massively overcharged). Going off the meter was, of course, unlawful. The highway distance from the hotel to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is 4.2 miles. The meter fare for that distance would be $2.50 flag drop, plus $10.50 mileage (at $2.50 per mile), plus $0.50 MTA surcharge, plus $0.30 improvement surcharge, plus $2.50 congestion surcharge, plus $6.55 tunnel toll, for a total of $22.85. Had there been traffic that caused the taxi to charge for time, then the charge might have been higher. While the driver did not cheat you, by going off the meter he might have cheated someone else (including tax man). There are regularly instances of taxi drivers cheating their unknowing passengers. I don't regularly use taxis--public transportation is almost always a much better alternative--but of those New Yorkers I know none of them go off the meter. Even without cheating going off the meter works against the integrity of the system. Almost always best to use the meter.

From a broad perspective, there are generally two types of mass market cruises scheduled on the east coast. First are closed-loop excursions, generally originating from Boston, New York, Bayonne, and less often Baltimore, usually heading north as far as Halifax (but sometimes only so far as Saint John), before turning-around and back. Second are one-way cruises, operating between, on the one hand, Boston or New York, and on the other hand, Québec or Montréal. More cruises begin or end in Québec, than in Montréal, and many cruises that begin or end in Québec include one in port in Québec, allowing for two days visiting that city. There are several ports along the St. Lawrence River that are visited by these one-way cruises, but rarely, if ever, visited by the closed-loop excursions. For one-way cruises, a comfortable return can be made using the Amtrak train, "Adirondack," a day trip between Montréal and New York (there are connecting trains and motorcoaches between Québec and Montréal), with Greyhound Lines motorcoaches providing day trips between Montréal and Boston. By far, Holland America Line offers the greatest number of one-way cruises, with departures about every two weeks between Boston and Montréal, from mid-May through early October. Other lines include Cunard Line, Hurtigruten, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, Silverseas Cruises, and Windstar Cruises, among others. These vessels are all relatively large. The peak season is autumn, with many lines operating only during September and October. Prior to the autumn season these vessels are often found doing cruises to and from Bermuda, or having been in Europe and making a late summer transatlantic crossing. After the autumn season these vessels typically reposition to Florida, and so the last one-way cruise from Québec or Montréal may be an extended voyage all the way to Florida. I have sailed with Norwegian Cruise Line, one-way from Québec to Boston, visiting the Saguenay Fjord, Sept-Îles, Charlottetown, Halifax, and Portland (all places I had been to before, overland, but pleasant enough to re-visit). Several smaller vessels also sail in and around New England and Canada, most stopping in more intimate ports that cannot be visited by the mass market lines. These lines include American Queen Voyages, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, Pearl Seas Cruises, Ponant, and Viking Expeditions. Usually these are one-way cruises. Typically these vessels begin the summer season in New England, and will make one or several cruises to Montréal. Later in the season cruises will operate between Montréal and Toronto, and in the middle of the season between Toronto and Chicago, Milwaukee, or the Great Lakes; after the middle of the summer these vessels then work their way back to Montréal and then to New England. There is also two Canadian lines, Saint Lawrence Cruise Lines (sailing out of Kingston to Gatineau and Québec) and Ontario Waterway Cruises (sailing out of Ottawa to Kingston, Peterborough, and Big Chute) All of these cruises are more expensive than the mass market lines, and the vessels being much small and with fewer amenities, so the attraction is the intimacy and the ports visited rather than the vessel itself. Finally, there are two distinct Canadian cruises along the lower St. Lawrence River, of which I have sailed on both. First is Coopérative de Transport Maritime et Aérien (usually shortened to C.T.M.A.), which operates between Montréal and the Magdalen Islands . . . I traveled on an extended itinerary that also included St-Pierre et Miquelon. The other is Relais Nordik, which operates between Rimouski (200 miles northeast of the city of Québec) and Blanc-Sablon (on the border separating the province of Québec from Labrador, and from which a ferry crosses the strait to Newfoundland). Both lines are important for the provisioning of freight to isolated communities, and these lines are alone in providing passenger cruise experiences to these ports. If I had to pick my personal favorite cruise line, it would be Relais Nordik, with the visits to the small ports being much different from anything the mass market lines can offer. The vessel upon which I traveled, the Nordik Express, has since been retired, replaced by the new Bella Desgagnés. My favorite port visited was Harrington Harbour, a picturesque small anglophone community with no roads but boardwalks criss-crossing all the rocks upon which everyone walks or uses ATVs.

It is representative of the tides at Hopewell Rocks, but the timing tides will almost certainly be far off. You will need to look at the tables for the precise date that you would be there. That table will tell you what you will be able to see and do. Here's the government's website that can show tide tables for Hopewell Cape for arbitrary dates in 2023. http://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/en/stations/00170 Set the "Starting on" date for the date that you would be there, and you'll be able to get the times of the high and low tides. It will the low tide times that you'll be able to walk on the beach. Generally, the beach is accessible three hours before, and three hours after, the low tide. When the tides are going in or out, the water level may change at a rate of 6 to 8 feet per hour. Note as well that the highest tides are when the moon is full.

That you should have found the tide tables for September of next year will make it very useful to determine whether this would be a good tour that day or not. In any case, this is not walking for hours. It is descending and climbing a staircase, with a stroll on the beach in-between. Not good for wheelchairs, but otherwise good for the 99 percent of the remaining group of people who are able to walk. I did a tour of Hopewell Rocks with Roads to Sea Tours of Moncton. http://www.roads2sea.com I was in Moncton for a convention, having arrived from Newfoundland sailing with Marine Atlantic, and later departing to Maine sailing with Prince of Fundy Cruises. But I was in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for several days, traveling overland, staying in and around Halifax and Moncton. It was on a free day that I did the all day tour. We visited the Hopewell Rocks site first thing in morning, did other things during the day, then returned later in the day, after the tide had come in. It was two visits that really made this a sight to see, and I would be hard pressed to recommend visiting if one is not able to make the two visits. Being at the site for only a single visit, from 10:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., would likely involve only a relatively short time on the beach (if it is even available, depending on tides), perhaps an hour or so. If the tide is in, then all you will see is some water. You would likely get a better experience doing as I had done, taking an all-day tour out of Moncton or Saint John. Doing this 2-1/2 hour tour might be okay if the tide is out, or if you simply want to claim to have been there.

I cannot give that confirmation, but others have reported that such is the case. The morning train is operated by, and marketed by, the Alaska Railroad, independently of the cruise lines. The railroad itself handles checked baggage on the train between the railroad stations in downtown Anchorage and Seward, but does not handle checked baggage to or from cruise vessels. It is my understanding that at least some cruise lines will dispatch a luggage truck to the downtown Anchorage railroad station, will take custody of passenger baggage there, drive the baggage to the cruise vessel in Seward, using the parallel highway, and deliver that baggage to the vessel for further delivery to passenger staterooms. Again, all of that baggage handling would be by, or on behalf of, the cruise line, not the railroad, though the taking of custody of baggage would be at the railroad station. If others can confirm my understanding, or expand upon it, then all the better.

It has been several years since I was there. I would never have classified it as "strenuous." Presumably, what the cruise line considers to be "strenuous" is walking down, and then later returning by walking up, staircase. If you use a wheelchair, you would not get anything out of this trip. If you always use the elevators on board the vessel, and would never consider using the staircases to go from one deck to another, then perhaps visiting the Hopewell Rocks would not be a good choice. But all other persons who are able to walk up and down stairs would not consider it to be "strenuous." Now as for the ocean floor, it is not a graded path, but a natural beach-like environment. There are stones on the ground, so if you walk without looking you might trip. If you find that walking along a beach is "strenuous," then once again, this would not be a good choice. You can get additional insight by going to Google maps and using the street view utility. As to timing, the tides are precisely predicable. Tours are typically scheduled around the tide schedule by moving the activities around. Typically a tour to the rocks area will actually encompass two visits, one visit when the tide is in, and another visit when the tide is out . . . it is the contrast between the two that makes the site fascinating. You can see the tide tables for specific days at NB Parks, http://www.nbparks.ca/en/parks/33/hopewell-rocks-provincial-park/26/tide-tables and other similar sites. As to the bus ride to the rocks, if you like travel generally, then it is a pleasant trip go there and returning. If you dislike travel, then the bus ride will be no fun. I do note your comment that you have not been on a cruise yet . . . the bus ride to and from the rocks will be more scenic than the travel on the cruise vessel itself (which ordinarily is nothing but an ocean with nothing to see but for the waves).

That last line above should have read, "Thus, there are similar, though not identical, features available to passengers in both classes of accommodations."

People who dislike paying the cost of parking should not drive.