Considering the Gem out of Manhattan, advice and ideas are welcome.

[loladuvall]

Hello!

 

I will be cruising with a large family group (19 people so far) in 2014. Right now we are considering taking the Gem out of Manhattan on 03/17/14. One of the big selling points of the cruise for us is sailing from New York. Most of us have never been to NY before and would like to do some sightseeing while we are there. However, I will admit I am a bit overwhelmed by the logistics of Hotel, parking, shuttle, etc. We will be driving from Ohio. Currently the plan is to drive to New York on Saturday and stay in a hotel Sat & Sun. We embark on Monday, disembark on Wednesday and plan to stay in a hotel Wed, Thurs & Friday nights. We will drive back home on Saturday. I've read through several threads of NY cruise planning and I'm very impressed with the helpfulness of the more seasond NY cruisers and local residents. Thank you already for the advice I've read so far. I thought I'd throw some ideas I'm considering out here and ask for any input that you feel would be helpful.

 

I've read that the Hampton and Hilton Garden Inn both do offer a cruise & park package, but the included shuttle is to Bayonne. I was considering booking this hotel, leaving our personal car at the hotel and paying for car service to the pier.

 

I also checked Stay123 to see what they offer. I found 2 NJ hotels and the holiday Inn LaGuardia. No offense to NJ, but I ruled those 2 out due to inconvenience for sightseeing in NY. I'm considering staying at the Holiday Inn, leaving our personal car at the hotel and booking a car service to the pier for embarkation and disembarkation. The hotel website says it is convenient to the train to Manhattan, so we'd utilize that for the sightseeing days. I did notice that the website does limit the parking to 10 days, but I'm hoping to work something out as we're staying for 5 nights total. I'll even book the pre cruise stay and post cruise stay separately if that helps get more parking days included.

 

The last option I'm currently considering is staying in Manhattan and parking at Alliance. This one would obviously be most convenient for sightseeing, but I do have some hesitations. I've read that the hotels in Manhattan tend to be expensive and smaller rooms. Several families are travelling in my group and planning on booking 4 people to a room. With small rooms, that sounds like it could be pretty cramped, and having to book extra rooms could become pretty pricey.

 

Any thoughts on these ideas, or other suggestions are all welcome. We are traveling with a somewhat limited budget. We'll pay what we have to pay, but want to use the money wisely. Cruising is not something any of us in the group get to do every year, and we usually plan the trips well in advance so we can plan & save. Since we are staying 5 nights in a hotel, I'm hoping to keep it under $200 a night. I'm not opposed to going over if it is really worth it, but I also want to make smart decisions. I'm also not opposed to staying in different hotels pre and post cruising.

 

Thanks again for sharing your wisdom!

[Richpontone]

You may want to use hotwire.com for a cheaper rate for hotels. I have used them for years and have been happy with the results. Driving a car in Manhattan is difficult as the streets are crowded. Usually most Manhattan hotels are near subway and bus if you need to get around in Manhattan where most of the tourist places of interest are located. You may want to wait for responses from 138east and njhorseman as they have provided in the past a great deal of information of where to stay. You may want to search the east coast departure message board for some of their past advice. They may recommend a hotel in NJ that is convenient to NJ Transit bus or subway to Manhattan. A tip if you want to visit ground zero, you need to get passes through a website.

 

Hope that helps. Good luck.

 

 

[Twickenham]

My first thought is that, given the large number of people involved, I would seriously look into chartering some sort of bus/minibus for the trip to NYC. The savings on parking fees alone could make it cost-effective.

[138east]

Could you describe your party of 19 a little better? How many cars are coming? How many hotel rooms are required and how many people per room? It's a bit soon to get the best prices for March 2014.

 

Perhaps we can get some feedback from the New Yorkers about the Holiday Inn LaGuardia and exactly how easy it is to get into Manhattan from there.

 

Have you considered doing a park/sleep at Newark for just one night and leaving your cars there for 14 days? Once the cars are taken care of you are free to stay anywhere you can find accommodations that fit your budget. This would include the entire Secaucus area and Jersey City which have excellent transportation into Manhattan via bus and Path. Depending on the prices you might also be able to score Manhattan hotel rooms. Driving in from Ohio you may find it a lot easier to quit traveling in NJ at a hotel near the turnpike and not get involved with going through NY to LaGuardia.

[loladuvall]

Thanks for the helpful advice and ideas! I'll have to check into the charter bus, I'd love to let someone do the driving for all of us.

 

Thanks also for the parking in NJ/staying for one night. That might be a great idea to get a discount on parking and then maybe splurge on a Manhattan hotel the next night. I guess I shouldn't have been so quick to rule out the NJ hotels.

 

Thanks for the hotwire tip and the passes for WTC tip. Good things to know.

 

At the moment we're looking at booking 6 rooms on the cruise, and that's probably what we'll need for hotel rooms. It will probably also be 5-6 cars, since we mostly all have sedans. We're looking into van rentals, but haven't had much luck so far.

 

Family 1 - 2 adults & 1 child

Family 2 - 2 adults & 2 children

Family 3 - 2 adults & 2 children

Family 4 - 4 young adults

Family 5 - 1 adult & 1 young adult

Family 6 - 2 adults

 

The adults are in the 30-40 age range, the young adults are in the 18-21 range and the children are in the 10-16 age range.

 

Thanks again for your help, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around what I'm getting into before I officially book the cruise. I'm OK if I have to wait to get specific prices, I'm just really trying to make sure that there are some doable options and it looks like there are plenty of good possibilities.

[138east]

For Newark you probably want to look at stay123.com for Country Inns which includes breakfast. This year it is about $143 incl tax. Another site is trinityreservations.com which quotes tax included, so if you are comparing prices, be sure you are looking at the final price with tax. PLEASE DO NOT PICK a RANDOM HOTEL FROM THESE SITES. You must be picky about where you stay and where you choose to leave your cars for 14 days. For a more budget offering, Trinity has the Ramada for $117 including tax but no breakfast.

 

If you require transportation for your group, check out Independent Driver at 888-816-0973 for a group rate. This is a company that lots of Cape Liberty cruisers use and they should be able to accommodate 19 people in a small bus.

[loladuvall]

Thank you everyone very much for your help! We decided to take the bus to NYC and leave the cars at home. We found a company (often recommended on this site) that offers direct trips from Columbus to NYC.

 

With that concern satisfied, we're having a booking party tonight to book the cruise! YAY!

 

Thanks again!

[138east]

Sounds like you made a good decision to have everyone take the bus. You can all party to New York and not have to worry about the logistics of caravanning and parking 5-6 cars. Everyone can pick their own cabins on the ship. You have plenty of time to find hotels for everyone. Trying to coordinate 19 people is an awesome effort.

 

Have you discussed travel insurance? Before you all just buy the cruise insurance, you may want to look at private policies that cover both the cruise and your travel to and extra time in NY. It might also allow you to take advantage of prepaying hotels because it would be covered under your umbrella travel policy.

 

Post back and let us know how it works out.

[njhorseman]

I'm curious about which bus company that is often recommended on this site offers direct trips from Columbus to NY City.

 

It would be helpful to have that information should anyone need it in the future.

[loladuvall]

I'm curious about which bus company that is often recommended on this site offers direct trips from Columbus to NY City.

 

It would be helpful to have that information should anyone need it in the future.

 

The site I used to find direct routes was gotobus . com. It is too early to search for my 2014 travel dates, but when I search for 2013 travel dates it shows two available bus operators bus2nyc and sky horse.

 

I can't, of course, vouch for the company because I haven't used them yet, but I'm glad to have the option.

:D

[loladuvall]

Sounds like you made a good decision to have everyone take the bus. You can all party to New York and not have to worry about the logistics of caravanning and parking 5-6 cars. Everyone can pick their own cabins on the ship. You have plenty of time to find hotels for everyone. Trying to coordinate 19 people is an awesome effort.

 

Have you discussed travel insurance? Before you all just buy the cruise insurance, you may want to look at private policies that cover both the cruise and your travel to and extra time in NY. It might also allow you to take advantage of prepaying hotels because it would be covered under your umbrella travel policy.

 

Post back and let us know how it works out.

 

That is an excellent point about the travel insurance, thanks! I did decline the cruise line's insurance because I wanted to price my own, but I didn't even think about needing to cover the NYC portion of the vacation too. Thanks for the tip!

 

And now that we're booked, we have plenty of time to make the other arrangements & just be excited that we're going on a cruise.

[njhorseman]

The site I used to find direct routes was gotobus . com. It is too early to search for my 2014 travel dates, but when I search for 2013 travel dates it shows two available bus operators bus2nyc and sky horse.

 

I can't, of course, vouch for the company because I haven't used them yet, but I'm glad to have the option.

:D

 

OK...that's what I thought, but neither that booking site nor those two bus companies could be described as as being recommended on this site. Both of these lines are "Chinatown" buses that as the name suggests arrive and depart from a street corner in NY City's Chinatown .

 

I would be concerned about booking some bus company of unknown legitimacy (and unfortunately those types of bus companies do exist, and we usually end up reading about them after some tragic mishap), that offers one trip a day when you absolutely have to get your large group to NY for the cruise.

 

I'd think very carefully about depending on this for your transportation.

[Richpontone]

They are inexpensive to ride. But their drivers are not screened about their safety records and the buses are not insured. Don't gamble with your safety. Use Greyhound or their discount line, Bolt bus. Also look at Mega bus.

[Got2Cruise]

If you are taking the bus into Manhattan, you do not want a bus that takes you to Canal Street. You want a bus that takes you to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, or Penn Station.

[HUBison2008]

If you are taking the bus into Manhattan, you do not want a bus that takes you to Canal Street. You want a bus that takes you to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, or Penn Station.

 

May I ask why? We're thinking about Megabus and it drops is off about 4 blocks I think from Penn Station.

[njhorseman]

May I ask why? We're thinking about Megabus and it drops is off about 4 blocks I think from Penn Station.

 

The primary concern is with the bus company. Where it drops you is secondary. Megabus is a legitimate company owned by CoachUSA. The buses the OP was considering are sketchy operations of questionable legitimacy. The only concern about Megabus' street drop off location is if you're arriving in a city you're not familiar with at night. You may not feel comfortable in such a situation.

[HUBison2008]

The primary concern is with the bus company. Where it drops you is secondary. Megabus is a legitimate company owned by CoachUSA. The buses the OP was considering are sketchy operations of questionable legitimacy. The only concern about Megabus' street drop off location is if you're arriving in a city you're not familiar with at night. You may not feel comfortable in such a situation.

 

This makes sense. Just want to be sure I didn't miss anything.

 

I love Megabus and are happy about their background. My father used to work for a public transportation system that brought them into their city. Glad they did because we took it down there to visit them this summer.

[Got2Cruise]

For those who are interested in why we advise against buses that arrive/depart from Canal Street in Manhattan. You can't make this stuff up. Canal Street is the heart of Chinatown and means that the bus is a "Chinatown" bus. Any bus that goes to midtown (near Penn Station or Port Authority Bus Terminal is fine). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown_bus_lines

[loladuvall]

Well, boo... that's disappointing news. BUT Thank you very much for delivering some disappointing news now and saving me a whole lot of disappointment later. I have no idea why I thought that gotobus was recommended here. I thought this is where I had seen it. However, that is obviously not the case and I thank you for setting me straight. I don't think MegaBus or Bolt are options for Columbus, OH to NY, at least I can't find any routes offered. But, Greyhound is an option. I was trying to avoid it mainly because the length of the trip. The cost of the ticket is about the same as gotobus if I pre-buy the tickets through Greyhound, which isn't a problem. But, the Greyhound routes involve transfers & layovers and take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours longer. But, I'm willing to spend a few extra hours on a bus if it means taking my family to a safe neighborhood instead of dropping us off on a street corner in Chinatown. And, having multiple routes to choose from (and serve as back-ups if needed, as pointed out below) is a plus for Greyhound too.

 

Thank you very much for saving me, my family and the rest of my group a whole mess of trouble!!