What to do with bags in NYC

[MariahJ]

The roll call for my cruise is pretty dead so I thought I'd ask here. We are taking a cruise out of NYC leaving Sunday, 9/2 at 3:45 pm. I haven't seen anything yet but I'm guessing we're going to want to get to the cruise terminal around 12:30 pm. We fly into LGA at 9:30 pm the previous night and we'll probably book a hotel very close to LGA since we'll be getting in late by the time we get bags, etc. We'd like to spend the morning in Central Park. My question is, can we take a cab to the cruise terminal at say, 8 am to drop off our bags and then head over to Central Park? Or will we need to pack them around with us? TIA.

[guitargal168]

That is a GREAT question! We sailed on the June 17th cruise out of NY. If you are on the south end of Central park, you're probably only a 20 minute cab ride to the port. Since Disney sends those luggage tags out to you, I imagine you can drop off the luggage at the port earlier than your embarkation time with no problem. I would call the cruise line just to make sure about the earliest time you could do the drop off. Remember, all the folks already on the boat are disembarking right at that time so the port may be hectic and a little crazy at 8AM. Maybe if you waited until about 9:30-10 or so? You could still head over to Central Park...one of my favorite spots...btw;)....and enjoy a nice walk before heading back to the port to check in! I didn't know they had an embarkation time of 3:45...are you sure that's right? It seems a little close to the 4PM time they do the lifeboat drill.

[guitargal168]

Whoops!! just realized that you said you would get to the terminal at 12:30! Sorry!! Even if you dropped off your bags at 10, you could still have 1 1/2-2 hours to putter around. One option would be to tour the Intrepid! She is docked right at the Manhattan terminal and the Space shuttle is there now too! The Magic had the dock literally right next to the Intrepid when we left port in June. I was fascinated by it and would have LOVED to check it out. (got some great pictures though!)

[MariahJ]

Whoops!! just realized that you said you would get to the terminal at 12:30! Sorry!! Even if you dropped off your bags at 10, you could still have 1 1/2-2 hours to putter around. One option would be to tour the Intrepid! She is docked right at the Manhattan terminal and the Space shuttle is there now too! The Magic had the dock literally right next to the Intrepid when we left port in June. I was fascinated by it and would have LOVED to check it out. (got some great pictures though!)

 

Wow, great idea! I checked out their website and it looks like something my 2 y/o would love! That may be the perfect thing - drop off bags as soon as possible (I guess I better call and find out when that is) and hang out at the Intrepid until 12:30. Thanks!

[guitargal168]

You are very welcome! I think I took about 20 pictures of the Intrepid after we had lunch on the boat. The whole time I kept thinking that it would have been a GREAT way to get in a little "extra" NYC sightseeing in the AM without worrying about getting to the boat on time! Have fun...you'll get to see all the cool exhibits about the Space Shuttle too!