mjkacmom

2 hours ago, princeton123211 said:

Consider stopping a little further out and you have some nice options that are in less urban areas but still an easy ride into NYC in the morning. The Westin Governor Morris is under the Marriott banner and is closeby to Morristown and Madison NJ which have great dinner options and the ability to walk around. A little down the street is the Hilton Short Hills which is right across from the Short Hills Mall, one of the nicer malls in the country, with a ton of options to eat and hang out. HSH is one of the nicest Hiltons I've stayed at and a great value. 

Secaucus isn’t what I’d consider urban, or in a desolate area. http://www.harmonmeadow.com/Pages/index.html

17 hours ago, jsn55 said:

Just to be clear, I don't think luggage would be unsafe, I think luggage could get loaded on to the wrong ship.  Consumer Rescue just had a case about luggage cruising on its own because it had been loaded on the wrong ship.  

Is this a Europe problem? In the US bags get dropped off with porters and then you don’t see it again until it gets to your cabin hours later, so it makes no difference if you enter the terminal or go off to explore.

IT glitch, offered a full refund after final payment. You also could’ve paid what the cruise actually costs. I really don’t think you have a legal case, they gave 2 options (or 3 if you just sailed with 2).

2 hours ago, mimi05052012 said:

We drive in from south central PA. We’ve stayed at Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn in Ridgefield Park, NJ. Both have (or at least they used to have) a cruise package that included parking and transportation to/from the cruise terminal. Cost was about the same or less than parking at the pier. We’ve also stayed there and driven to pier. Easy trip. 
 

for our trip next week, we’re staying at Homewood Suites in East Rutherford for the first time and driving in and parking at pier. Group of 5 this time and they were one of the few hotels that had two bedroom/two bath option. Should be easy trip to pier from there also. 

Rutherford/secaucus have hotels a 10 minute drive from the Lincoln tunnel, this would be a good area to stop for the night before driving in (I’m local so never stayed anywhere).

52 minutes ago, dbrucern said:

To be honest we took the shuttle once, had to load and unload our own suitcases and then stopped at every terminal to pick up other passengers, we won't be doing that again.  However since the bus company contracts with Carnival I am sure they would allow you on the ship just like they hold the ship for excursions that are late but personally I would fly in the night before, stay at a hotel near the airport and uber or taxi to the port the next morning

I don’t think this is the same as an excursion, if the shuttle was delayed yes, but if the shuttle departed on time but without the OP the ship isn’t waiting. The shuttle wasn’t delayed.

If you make the 1 pm shuttle, no issue. The problem is that there are no guarantees your flight will be on time (my daughter was just on a flight with a medical emergency and missed her connection, had to take another flight to get another flight to get to her destination, she was hours late. Even her last flight landed 10 minutes late, even a short delay will mess up your plans).

15 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

 

So I can't toss the bar keep an extra $1 if I want to?  Damn....

After a little research it looks liek the law changed in 2014 and automatic gratuities are now technically considered a servcuie charge and must be paid,  Oh well, I'm glad I only drink soft drinks now! 🙂

Y'all have a great time on your next crusie...

You can always tip a $1 or 2, even if gratuities are charged. You will be charged 20% on soda, or any purchase onboard.

34 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

"Back in the day", a neighbor teen and her friends would rearrange the lawn ornaments, gnomes, fake deer etc during the night... could be picnic-ing on a lawn together, or in different yards...never destructive. Just silly teen pranks. 

Those said teens are now in their 60s... so maybe the magnets travel too? 😆

My friends and I might’ve driven around rearranging statues and garbage cans, fortunately homes are very close together so not hard to fix.

9 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

 

It's 20%, and has been for years.

lol I thought it was 20% but then I saw a previous reply with 18% so doubted myself.

18% will be added to the cost of each drink without the FAS.

Notice the word “from” before the prices.

You might be too late.

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

There definitely was flooding at Cape Liberty from Sandy. If you look at page 22 of this study https://www.nj.gov/dep/docs/flood/final-studies/stevens-hudson/hudson-river-waterfront-sandy-surge-mitigation-analysis-final.pdf  you'll see "Two hours before the peak surge in the Harbor, the Military Ocean Terminal Pier was overtopped" . The Military Ocean Terminal is the location of Cape Liberty Cruise Terminal.

The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal parking lot on the New York side was also flooded...in fact at the time the official port website nycruise.com confirmed that all vehicles parked there were damaged and would have to be towed.

Sandy was a whopper, largest power outage in US history. So many homes and vehicles destroyed. I believe the airport long term lots are also uncovered and on the ground.

24 minutes ago, valereee2000 said:

Where can I get cash? I didn't bring any. 

ATM.

20 hours ago, Crazy planning mom said:

Our cruise is during hurricane season.  Is it safe to leave our car at the port?  

Is there covered parking?  We haven't cruised out of NJ in a dozen years.

Lived in NJ for over 50 years, experienced several hurricanes, own 4 vehicles but not a garage, I haven’t heard the parking in Bayonne is prone to flooding so cars should be fine. 

33 minutes ago, jsn55 said:

My automatic 'disaster meter' just went off the scale.  Seems that dropping luggage when there's so much going on at the port means that your luggage might end up anywhere.  But maybe I worry too much.  It would be wonderful to be free for several hours after a long flight but not at the cost of never seeing my bag again.  If you depart at 4, you'll need to check in before 2, and you may be held up by the formalities when you land.  So you really might be talking about a couple of hours.  One solution is to hire a car and go for a sightseeing trip with your luggage safely stowed.  My take on this is that I've paid thousands for a cruise, what's a few more hundred dollars.

What is the difference between giving it to a porter and then entering the terminal, vs. giving it to a porter and leaving the area? We always drop off at 9. Now, I wouldn’t be comfortable planning on checking in at the absolutely last minute.

So you expected your son and friends to lose their vacation money so you don’t have to worry? My son and friends traveled to Colombia for 2 weeks last year (they did hire some guards, 1 of them lives there for half of the year). They can decide if they want to get off of the ship.

2 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

May not be kids

NCL has a rule against putting any kind of decoration on the outside of your cabin door.  Some Hotel Managers are better at enforcing the rule than others.

In our case it was a white board, other magnets were left. 

8 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

NCL is known for sometimes sticking customers with crappy air and they don't have a choice about it. With Carnival you can pick airlines and flights from their list.

 

In my experience, NCL tends to drop fares just after final payment and tell people who booked at higher fares too bad. One time we had two adjoining balconies booked and just after final payment the fare dropped. NCL wouldn't budge on our price. We could have canceled, paid the penalty, rebooked and still saved money, but there was no guarantee we would be able to get two adjoining balconies again.

If you mean connecting you are probably correct. I’ve always watched fares on NCL, I book early, not once have I seen a price drop, even after final payment. We usually booked weeks when the kids were off from school at least one day.

I’ve had them stolen, figured it was just kids.

Keep in mind Uber rates are fluid, and you are in rush hour (which is several hours). I’d say $80 is average, my daughter and 20 friends Ubers into the city last night, I think $70 going in, but a lot more coming home at 2 am. Where are you putting luggage? Daughter’s boyfriend is flying back to Florida today, flight already delayed an hour. Being local, we tame trains during rush hour, 10 miles west and it’s a good hour with traffic.

17 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

If the kids are outdoorsy types, I would look at the older (but not the oldest) Carnival, the older ships of Royal and NCL.  With children that young I would not look at Princess or Celebrity.  I don’t recommend the newest ships of the lines because there lots of attractions for older kids and adults, but most of them wasted on your kids.  There will not be pools for the 18m old unless he is potty trained.  No swim diapers allowed.  There will be kids programs on all of those lines.  EM.  

NCL doesn’t have nurseries. I’d look at RCL shops with nurseries, plus a handful have small splash areas for diapered kids (depends on the ship). DCL is the only line that has splash pads for all.

2 hours ago, BoatSkipper said:

It was clearly stolen as if it had been mistaken identity another similar case would have been left behind and it wasn't.  Nor was a case returned.

I am sure it is rare. Which is why we thought NCL would st m show some compassion

We stole a bag once, party of 9 and grabbed an extra. Fortunately we were close to the airport the person was flying out of. NCL does not employee the folks who work at the port, and the folks working at the port can’t prevent people from taking bags.

Nope.

Since cruises don’t guarantee destinations we cruise more for the ship.