Brooklyn disembarkation: What is best time to have car meet us?

[sppunk]

Next year a group of friends and us are taking a WB TA. We will be utilizing a car service to drive us the three hours home from the cruiseport. My question is - and search wasn't too helpful - what's a good time to give them to meet us?

 

Is 9:30 a.m. reasonable or should we aim more toward 10 a.m.? We won't be doing self-disembarkation but would like to get on the road somewhat early instead of sitting around a terminal waiting for our car to arrive.

 

Any suggestions?

[Underwatr]

More thought in the port design was put into giving the car service drivers a place to wait for you than there was into giving you a place to wait for the car service. Ideally you and the driver would be in communication so you could tell him/her that you've cleared immigration.

[MarkBearSF]

More thought in the port design was put into giving the car service drivers a place to wait for you than there was into giving you a place to wait for the car service. Ideally you and the driver would be in communication so you could tell him/her that you've cleared immigration.

Unfortunately, the times for customs and immigration have increased in the past year or so. WIth early disembarkation this May, it was less than a half hour, the previous year it was almost two hours. Complicating matters is that you are forbidden to use your phone in the customs area (Although I have discretely texted in the luggage collection area which is less stringently patrolled than the queue to the agents.)

 

If you request priority debarkation (or have it included as a diamond CWC or grill-class booking) or self-debarkation, 9:30 would be reasonable, even allowing for a bit of delay. (IIRC, you can debark around 8:30 in that group)

 

How has customs/immigration been at Red Hook this summer?

[sppunk]

Thanks everyone. No priority or Grills here (first Cunard trip) but I'll ask my group to request priority and set a 9:30 am pickup.

[tv24]

Unfortunately, the times for customs and immigration have increased in the past year or so. WIth early disembarkation this May, it was less than a half hour, the previous year it was almost two hours. Complicating matters is that you are forbidden to use your phone in the customs area (Although I have discretely texted in the luggage collection area which is less stringently patrolled than the queue to the agents.)

 

If you request priority debarkation (or have it included as a diamond CWC or grill-class booking) or self-debarkation, 9:30 would be reasonable, even allowing for a bit of delay. (IIRC, you can debark around 8:30 in that group)

 

How has customs/immigration been at Red Hook this summer?

 

Mark: On June 15, we left the ship around 10:30 and were through customs/immigration in about 30 minutes and did not use any tricks to get expedited processing. It was pretty smooth at that time for everyone. No computer meltdowns on that day.

[Salacia]

Next year a group of friends and us are taking a WB TA. We will be utilizing a car service to drive us the three hours home from the cruiseport. My question is - and search wasn't too helpful - what's a good time to give them to meet us?

 

Is 9:30 a.m. reasonable or should we aim more toward 10 a.m.? We won't be doing self-disembarkation but would like to get on the road somewhat early instead of sitting around a terminal waiting for our car to arrive.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Hi sppunk. Frankly, what conditions next year will be is anybody's guess. Difficult enough to predict best time to request pick up next month. Plus you haven't mentioned category you and your friends have booked (disembarkation goes from the top decks down, with World Club (WC) Diamond and Platinum having priority after Grill categories).

 

My suggestion is to ask the question closer to sail date with more particulars, if desired.

 

Regards,

Salacia

[HelloKittysMum]

We are doing Westbound TA next month so I can give you an idea then but as other people have said things change. We did a roundtrip out of Brooklyn Christmas 2015 and I think we were all off the ship by 10.30 but two of us did self disembarkation to go and collect rental cars and the other four had a wheelchair passenger. We are pretty low category on our TA in August.

 

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[thenoflygal]

Disembarkation times depend on the floor your room is on in QM2. It is very organized. They let you off by floor. Each floor has a lounge area on the ship that you sit in after 8:30 am, and you are let off QM2 in order from the highest floors to the lowest (meaning floors 12 & 11 and priority guests get off at 8:00) We just got off in Brooklyn yesterday. Our room was on the 5th floor. Our scheduled time to disembark was 11:00 am. They dismissed us a bit early, at 10:30 (in our experience, this is frequently the case). By the time we picked up our luggage and went through immigration/customs it was 11:10 am.

 

If you are traveling with a room on floors 4,5,6 I would actually schedule your car service for 11:30 am for peace of mind.

 

If you can manage to carry off all of your own luggage without assistance, you can apply at the front desk to self-disembark during your crossing, and you can likely walk off the ship in ny starting around 6:30 am.

 

*At the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, there is a covered walkway to the immediate left of the building with signs noting Area 1, Area 2, Area 3 where people get picked up. I highly recommend letting your car service know that you wish to be picked up in a specific area (i.e. please pick us up in Area 1). That will avoid the chaos of trying to find them in a sea of people and luggage and taxis.

[sppunk]

Disembarkation times depend on the floor your room is on in QM2. It is very organized. They let you off by floor. Each floor has a lounge area on the ship that you sit in after 8:30 am, and you are let off QM2 in order from the highest floors to the lowest (meaning floors 12 & 11 and priority guests get off at 8:00) We just got off in Brooklyn yesterday. Our room was on the 5th floor. Our scheduled time to disembark was 11:00 am. They dismissed us a bit early, at 10:30 (in our experience, this is frequently the case). By the time we picked up our luggage and went through immigration/customs it was 11:10 am.

 

If you are traveling with a room on floors 4,5,6 I would actually schedule your car service for 11:30 am for peace of mind.

 

If you can manage to carry off all of your own luggage without assistance, you can apply at the front desk to self-disembark during your crossing, and you can likely walk off the ship in ny starting around 6:30 am.

 

*At the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, there is a covered walkway to the immediate left of the building with signs noting Area 1, Area 2, Area 3 where people get picked up. I highly recommend letting your car service know that you wish to be picked up in a specific area (i.e. please pick us up in Area 1). That will avoid the chaos of trying to find them in a sea of people and luggage and taxis.

 

Thank you very much. We are traveling with friends who are on Deck 11, we are on Deck 5, and friends on Deck 3.

 

Where can we meet after disembarkation?

 

It's weird to me Cunard dies it this late. On HAL for instance policy is to zero out the ship by no later than 10:30.

[Norfolknights]

I heard that dog owners get property disembarkation. Does anyone know if this is still the case?

[Salacia]

I heard that dog owners get property disembarkation. Does anyone know if this is still the case?

 

Yes, I've read that too - and I think it makes perfect sense. My educated guess is that kennel passengers and their humans have embarkation/disembarkation priority over every other category, but I suppose that means their humans have to be up at the bark of dawn :D

Cheers,

Salacia

[Underwatr]

I heard that dog owners get property disembarkation. Does anyone know if this is still the case?

Well, not if the dog stayed home...

[Norfolknights]

Yes, I've read that too - and I think it makes perfect sense. My educated guess is that kennel passengers and their humans have embarkation/disembarkation priority over every other category, but I suppose that means their humans have to be up at the bark of dawn :D

Cheers,

Salacia

 

Our embarkation time is 14:30 so I don't think it's an issue on the way there. I guess getting off is easier if you're first though?

[david,Mississauga]

Because you are not using the "self help" disembarkation, another consideration is collecting your luggage. Do not assume that all your bags will be in the correct place. Last October one of our cases - as well as those of many others - was not where it should be. We were not in the Grills, but got an early disembarkation (8:15 or thereabouts) because we were taking a Cunard transfer to EWR.

 

The pier staff were sympathetic and tried to help several of us, but it was apparent the missing cases were in another fenced-off area. After a half hour I saw our missing case behind a fence. But we had to wait until it was time for the next disembarkation call for the fence to be removed so we could get it. To my relief, we proceeded through the immigration queue fairly quickly. We sat on the bus a further half hour while other passengers waited even longer to be able to find their luggage.

 

If you can possibly manage "self help" I recommend it for Red Hook.

[thenoflygal]

I think the friends on Deck 11 will likely have to wait for you on a bench outside (unless they are platinum or diamond level cunard world club members, which have access to a disembarkation lounge). The rest of you will likely disembark within 15 minutes of each other. I would select a specific area (area 1, area 2, area 3) at the pickup circle to meet up.