Brooklyn Cruise Terminal transfers.........

[Cosmic Rays]

Having just read a QM2 review, the reviewer states:-

 

"I took the transfer from Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to Manhattan (Penn Station). It's a cost effective and efficient way of getting downtown"

 

Do Cunard offer this as a matter of course because that would solve a big problem on our upcoming cruise next month as that's where we need to get to on our return?. Taxi/Limo companies are wanting upto $100 for this!!

 

Can anybody help me please?

 

Thanks

[Cosmic Rays]

QM2 to Quebec and returning to Brooklyn 18th October......

[bluemarble]

Yes, that's a standard post-voyage coach transfer from Brooklyn offered by Cunard. It's called "Station Transfer" with stops at Grand Central Station, Pennsylvania Station, and Port Authority Terminal. It's $40 per person when booked prior to the voyage and $49 per person when booked on board through the tour office.

 

Edit: Since you are from the UK, I can't speak for how that would work trying to book that transfer prior to the voyage and what the price might be for booking ahead in the UK.

Edited September 12, 2019 by bluemarble

[Cosmic Rays]

18 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

Yes, that's a standard post-voyage coach transfer from Brooklyn offered by Cunard. It's called "Station Transfer" with stops at Grand Central Station, Pennsylvania Station, and Port Authority Terminal. It's $40 per person when booked prior to the voyage and $49 per person when booked on board through the tour office.

 

Edit: Since you are from the UK, I can't speak for how that would work trying to book that transfer prior to the voyage and what the price might be for booking ahead in the UK.

 

Many thanks for your quick reply. I agree with your 'edit' as we are from the UK. I have scoured the cruise personaliser and can't find where to book the transfer following disembarkation, even on the "New York Shore Excursions" at the end of the voyage.

Any ideas please?

[bluemarble]

Just now, Cosmic Rays said:

 

Many thanks for your quick reply. I agree with your 'edit' as we are from the UK. I have scoured the cruise personaliser and can't find where to book the transfer following disembarkation, even on the "New York Shore Excursions" at the end of the voyage.

Any ideas please?

 

Well, you're not alone there. Even in the US it is not possible to book any of the Cunard transfers from the voyage personaliser.

 

If you booked directly through Cunard, call Cunard customer service to ask about the possibility of adding that "Station Transfer" (or "Transfer Port To Station" as it is also called) to your booking. If you booked through a travel agent, call them to ask about it. That's what I have to do to add a Cunard transfer to an existing booking here in the US.

 

I understand in the UK, Cunard transfers are mostly geared toward airport transfers which are automatically included along with flights to/from the UK.

[david,Mississauga]

13 minutes ago, Cosmic Rays said:

 

Many thanks for your quick reply. I agree with your 'edit' as we are from the UK. I have scoured the cruise personaliser and can't find where to book the transfer following disembarkation, even on the "New York Shore Excursions" at the end of the voyage.

Any ideas please?

 

I have booked a transfer several times after the voyage has been booked. I don't see where that can be done on-line and have always had my travel agent do it by a phone call to Cunard. If you have not booked through a travel agent you will likely have to phone Cunard. If you paid your fare in £ you may be able to pay for the transfer in the same currency. (I have friends in England who have done so.) We have always paid for our fares and transfers in Canadian $ which has worked out cheaper than paying in U.S.$.

[Neuhoftraveler]

2 hours ago, Cosmic Rays said:

Taxi/Limo companies are wanting upto $100 for this!!

 

 

Last December, our taxi from the QM2 pier in Brooklyn to Penn Station in Manhattan was $38.30, including the customary NYC 15% tip.

 

When you come out of the cruise terminal, you will be harangued by  swarms of "car service" operators to get into one of their high-priced cars.  Ignore them.  Look to your right, and you will see a taxi line of yellow NYC-licensed ("medallion") metered cabs.  That's all you need, unless perhaps you have an unusual amount of baggage.

 

Tell the taxi (or other) driver to take you to the Penn Station entrance on the corner of 8th Avenue and 31st St., not  to dump you at the so-called front entrance  on 7th Avenue , which is a long slog through dismal underground shopping corridors before you get to the actual station (or even near the so-called taxi entrance half-way between 7th and 8th, which is now closed to taxis anyway).  Go into the station via that corner entrance, take the escalator down, and there you are in the main hall, such as it is.  The Amtrak lounge for Acela and business-class (and sleeping-car) passengers is to the immediate left of the escalators, and the seating area for everyone else is just across the main hall.

 

Bon journee.

[Underwatr]

We took a taxi to Penn Station a couple of Januarys ago. We didn't pay anything close to $100. Closer to $38-50 with tip. Just join the queue for a taxi and you'll be on your way in a few minutes.

 

The cars licensed to pick up in outer boros like Brooklyn are bright green, not yellow, so don't panic if that's what's there when you reach the head of the queue.

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boro_taxi

[Cruise NH]

15 hours ago, Neuhoftraveler said:

Last December, our taxi from the QM2 pier in Brooklyn to Penn Station in Manhattan was $38.30, including the customary NYC 15% tip.

 

When you come out of the cruise terminal, you will be harangued by  swarms of "car service" operators to get into one of their high-priced cars.  Ignore them.  Look to your right, and you will see a taxi line of yellow NYC-licensed ("medallion") metered cabs.  That's all you need, unless perhaps you have an unusual amount of baggage.

 

Tell the taxi (or other) driver to take you to the Penn Station entrance on the corner of 8th Avenue and 31st St., not  to dump you at the so-called front entrance  on 7th Avenue , which is a long slog through dismal underground shopping corridors before you get to the actual station (or even near the so-called taxi entrance half-way between 7th and 8th, which is now closed to taxis anyway).  Go into the station via that corner entrance, take the escalator down, and there you are in the main hall, such as it is.  The Amtrak lounge for Acela and business-class (and sleeping-car) passengers is to the immediate left of the escalators, and the seating area for everyone else is just across the main hall.

 

Bon journee.

 

Great info from you and underwtr.  We hope to make an 11:30 train from Penn Station and I was worried about taking the Cunard transfer.

[Underwatr]

The transfer gets you off the ship fairly early but you might be OK with a taxi. What deck/class will you be on? I assume you've had few/no Cunard voyages and so you won't have Diamond disembarkation. Penn Station is a lousy place to kill time but we opted for a later train rather than worry about whether we'd get there in time.

 

Disembarkation generally is in this order:

 * Queen's Grill

 * Diamond-level World Club members

 * Cunard-booked Transfers

 * Princess Grill

 * Higher decks to lower decks in order

 

On our June transatlantic the Deck 4, 3 and 2 passengers were scheduled to disembark at 10:45 AM. Your other option would be self-help disembarkation which gets you off the ship first.

 

Here's a copy of our disembarkation schedule from that trip:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VRjVgwKiW_tWYwfPxClHwCrNeXqNXbm2/view?usp=drivesdk

Edited September 13, 2019 by Underwatr

[Cruise NH]

3 hours ago, Underwatr said:

The transfer gets you off the ship fairly early but you might be OK with a taxi. What deck/class will you be on? I assume you've had few/no Cunard voyages and so you won't have Diamond disembarkation. Penn Station is a lousy place to kill time but we opted for a later train rather than worry about whether we'd get there in time.

 

Disembarkation generally is in this order:

 * Queen's Grill

 * Diamond-level World Club members

 * Cunard-booked Transfers

 * Princess Grill

 * Higher decks to lower decks in order

 

On our June transatlantic the Deck 4, 3 and 2 passengers were scheduled to disembark at 10:45 AM. Your other option would be self-help disembarkation which gets you off the ship first.

 

Here's a copy of our disembarkation schedule from that trip:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VRjVgwKiW_tWYwfPxClHwCrNeXqNXbm2/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Thanks.  We are actually Diamond level and have taken 10 transatlantics however we always had our car waiting for us in the parking lot so we never paid attention to the cabs or transfers.  

 

In the past we always did self disembark but I'm not sure we'll be able to handle the luggage down the ramp this time.

 

I totally agree with you on the train times.  11:30 is not the best but it's the only train that goes directly from NYC to NH.  Of course we could go through Boston on Acela but that's a pain especially on the weekends when there are fewer trains/buses running.  That's our backup plan if we don't make it to Penn Station in time.

 

Oh, and I know what you mean about Penn Station...absolutely the worse!  I do know where the metropolitan lounge is, we've used it before.

 

Thanks again for posting the information.

[Underwatr]

If you're invited off at 8:10 (nominal Diamond disembarkation) I don't think you'll have any issues.

[Neuhoftraveler]

19 hours ago, Underwatr said:

 

The cars licensed to pick up in outer boros like Brooklyn are bright green, not yellow, so don't panic if that's what's there when you reach the head of the queue.

 

Just to clarify, the green "boro" or "outer boro" taxis are licensed to pick up only in those areas (e.g., Brooklyn), although they can take you anywhere you want.  But the traditional yellow taxis still can pick up anywhere in NYC, including Brooklyn.  So don't panic if there's a yellow taxi waiting for you at the head of the queue.  (The green taxis were created because the traditional yellow taxis preferred to cruise mid-town and lower Manhattan, leaving the outer boros without much taxi service.)  In fact, you might not see too many green taxis in the line, and if one is the next up when you get to the head of the line, the driver might ask you to take one behind him, because they know they can't pick up a fare in Manhattan for the return trip.  This would be illegal, of course, but sometimes illegal things happen.  Even in NYC. 

[Cosmic Rays]

Thanks for all your replies...........plenty of food for thought! Deck disembarkation seems unusually late as we are Platinum and on Deck 5 - 10.30am!!. Can you self disembark with your own luggage at any time or MUST it be at 7am or thereabouts?

[Hawaii136]

I think you can disembark at any time, but you must vacate your room by 8:30.

one advantage of disembarking before the rest of passengers is shorter immigration lines.

[Cosmic Rays]

4 hours ago, Hawaii136 said:

I think you can disembark at any time, but you must vacate your room by 8:30.

one advantage of disembarking before the rest of passengers is shorter immigration lines.

Thanks, that's helpful.....

[MarkBearSF]

On 9/14/2019 at 1:56 PM, Cosmic Rays said:

Deck disembarkation seems unusually late as we are Platinum and on Deck 5 - 10.30am!!.

 

If you have a travel connection with really tight time, you can get priority disembarkation tags from the shore tours desk. (If you need more, you can get them off hours at the Pursers)

This isn't something they publicize, for fear that "everyone" would have an early flight, but they will work with you if the scheduled time is prohibitive.

Edited September 17, 2019 by MarkBearSF

[Bedruthen]

19 hours ago, Hawaii136 said:

I think you can disembark at any time, but you must vacate your room by 8:30.

one advantage of disembarking before the rest of passengers is shorter immigration lines.

The cruise line will want you off the ship before the passengers without luggage start to leave. I believe that when we self disembarked last year we were off shortly after 7am and last disembarkation time was 8am. We were in Penn  Station shortly after 9 am and that includes the time taken when my husband was  hauled in for immigration questioning which took around 40 minutes.  

[theavonb]

So if we were wanting a taxi to take us to LaGuardia does it matter which one we use? Approximate cost from the cruise terminal to the airport? 

Thank you

[Neuhoftraveler]

1 hour ago, theavonb said:

So if we were wanting a taxi to take us to LaGuardia does it matter which one we use? Approximate cost from the cruise terminal to the airport? 

Thank you

As I wrote in a prior post, be sure you''re getting in a metered yellow (or green) actual taxi, not one of the "car services" that will be hustling for your business as you emerge from the terminal.  The actual fare will vary depending on time of day and day of the week (much lighter traffic on weekends, especially Sundays).