Eastern US port departure

[teejaywalker]

Greetings,

Have cruised twice before (from Fla to carribb) and am thinking of taking wife and 3 yr old on wife's 40th birthday cruise. We want to cruise out of an eastern port as to avoid airfare. Suggestions as to which port: Baltimore, Bayonne, or Phila to get the best rates. We are quite flexible to destination and dates as well. 3 or 5-night length is first choice and like Royal Carrib and Holl Amer as favorite lines. What do you say?

[Snoofer]

Whatever works! Have been out of Bayonne last year -- the port is not like you'll find it FL -- new and not quite structured properly yet. You check in to what looks like a covered dock area - then you go outside and board a bus that takes you across the huge lot to board the ship. Reverse it when you get back - so if you are taking your own luggage off the ship, you have to carry it up the steps of the bus and back down again - then you have all the cruisers on the bus with all their luggage as well... Could be a little smoother... Also - remember the new ships don't go out of these secondary ports... just be prepared for that.

[K&RCurt]

Greetings,

Have cruised twice before (from Fla to carribb) and am thinking of taking wife and 3 yr old on wife's 40th birthday cruise. We want to cruise out of an eastern port as to avoid airfare. Suggestions as to which port: Baltimore, Bayonne, or Phila to get the best rates. We are quite flexible to destination and dates as well. 3 or 5-night length is first choice and like Royal Carrib and Holl Amer as favorite lines. What do you say?

 

 

I'm pretty sure no cruise line sails out of Philly anymore. The channel in the Delaware is too shallow. (Hence all the Drama between Delaware, PA and NJ over the proposed dredging).

 

HAL sails out of NYC, not Bayonne and would be a minimum 7 day.

 

Royal Caribbean sails out of Baltimore and Bayonne. Not sure about how far you are willing to drive, or where in PA you are from, but my DD and her Fiance' are sailing out of Charleston, SC on Carnival next month.

 

I would suggest you do a search on an on-line TA for departures from the ports on the Lines you are interested in and go from there. That should at least give you an idea of the relative costs and itineraries available.

[johneeo]

Whatever works! Have been out of Bayonne last year -- the port is not like you'll find it FL -- new and not quite structured properly yet. You check in to what looks like a covered dock area - then you go outside and board a bus that takes you across the huge lot to board the ship. Reverse it when you get back - so if you are taking your own luggage off the ship, you have to carry it up the steps of the bus and back down again - then you have all the cruisers on the bus with all their luggage as well... Could be a little smoother... Also - remember the new ships don't go out of these secondary ports... just be prepared for that.

 

The least of concerns about going out of Bayonne is the port.

 

I would not suggest anyone take their own luggage, with the exception of a carry on with all of the valuables.

[Keith1010]

I would look into New York City, Bayonne and Baltimore.

 

I don't think you will find anyone sailing out of Philadelphia and if I remember correctly it is soon not going to be use for cruise ships.

 

Keith

[isujim]

Based on your post I would suggest Baltimore......but not sure about shorter cruises. Keep in mind, depending on where in PA you are coming from.......and if you choose to go in the day before........Baltimore will be a lot less expensive than NYC.........

 

We sailed on the Granduer when it was based in Baltimore and found it to be very easy to embark and disembark vs. Bayonne.....

[runner15km]

Greetings,

Have cruised twice before (from Fla to carribb) and am thinking of taking wife and 3 yr old on wife's 40th birthday cruise. We want to cruise out of an eastern port as to avoid airfare. Suggestions as to which port: Baltimore, Bayonne, or Phila to get the best rates. We are quite flexible to destination and dates as well. 3 or 5-night length is first choice and like Royal Carrib and Holl Amer as favorite lines. What do you say?

No 3-5 night cruises reach the Caribbean. A 7 night will get you to the Bahamas and the 8-9 night cruise reach the Caribbean. Royal offers a 5 nighter out of Baltimore to Bermuda.

[dolittle]

Done both N.Y and Balt.(not bayone) Balt. is easy but you have to pay to park. If you live in Phila. area you can take Septa to N.J and switch to N.J . trainist train to Penn station in New York and take cab or walk to ship.( not Bayone)

[shipgeeks]

Baltimore is great. Very smooth and friendly terminal operations at both ends of the cruise. RCI or Carnival there; unfortunately, Celebrity has left. Parking is expensive, though. Many drive down the day before, and stay at an inexpensive motel that has shuttle to the port, and free parking while you are on the cruise.

No more Philly cruises. Too bad.

Manhattan is wonderful to cruise from, but I would not recommend driving there. Maybe go on Megabus or Greyhound the day before, have a midtown hotel room booked, then walk to the terminal on cruise day.

Brooklyn is a good terminal operation, but fairly expensive to park.

[Bonnie J.]

Some one mentioned Charleston, SC as a drivable port. Yes it is but you'd need to get there the day before. The only ship using it is Carnival's Fantasy, an older, smaller ship - 2100 passengers. We have been on her many times - last May there were almost 1,000 kids but we never saw or heard them!

Once we got on an old, no longer NCL ship in Philadelphia and, after 14 days, ended up back in Charleston. We live in NC so drove our car to Charleston so it would be there when we got to Charleston at the end of the cruise.

Well, my fantastic husband looked at ALL the ways to get to Philladelphia. We ended up taking Amtrak! Got on the train at 10:30 Thursday morning in Charleston after leaving our car, for free, at our hotel, and got off in Philly at 10 that night, and went to our hotel . In the morning we got on the ship. We LOVED Amtack and it was only $75 each.

[navybankerteacher]

Carnival has 5 night cruises to Canada fro New York, Royal Caribbean has 5 or 6 night cruises to Bermuda from Bayonne and Holland America has 7 night cruises to Bermuda from New York. I think both Carnival and Royal Caribbean sail from Baltimore to Bahamas and Caribbean - I think they are all 7 nights -- as are NCL's from New York

[Traveling Library]

We cruised from Bayonne. Took the Acela train from Boston to Newark Penn Station and taxi to the ship. Home we took a shared taxi to Newark Airport and picked up the regional train (yes, at the airport) back to Boston. Best way to travel and we'd do it again.