New York Airport Selection

[Turk1]

We will be taking a cruise to Canada and New England in Sept/Oct that leaves from New York. Looking at the New York Hilton Midtown to stay pre cruise for about 3 days. Wondering which airport would be the best to fly in to. We will be coming from Houston. Thanks.

[1025cruise]

You might want to post on the East coast departures board.

[skynight]

Arriving Newark or LaGuardia would be about the same. Newark does have train connection to midtown, Penn Station. JFK is a little further away. The ship will sail from Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Not sure if you are on a RT Brooklyn or one way Brooklyn to Quebec. If RT LaGuardia is the better choice. Newark is more difficult to get to from Brooklyn at the end of the cruise, Princess shuttle would be a good choice for Newark. JFK is also an option in this RT case.

[Noxequifans]

Suggest LaGuardia ... despite construction there.

 

 

 

[Got2Cruise]

LGA or JFK if using Brooklyn port. LGA has a slight edge but JFK fine. If you use EWR then you have two river crossings. Always some sort of tie up plus tolls. 

[George C]

47 minutes ago, Noxequifans said:

Suggest LaGuardia ... despite construction there.

 

 

 

It can be a pain, but we also always fly to LGA since it is the closest airport to midtown, Hilton is in a good location.

[markeb]

If you're doing a one-way, it could change the calculus a little bit as you wouldn't have to be concerned with the airport post cruise.

 

LaGuardia is going to be closest and most obvious. Houston and Newark are both United hubs, so you could have more/better flight options, but you do have to calculate total cost including transportation into Midtown. As others have stated, that can be relatively simple if you're comfortable with transit from the airport to the Penn Station area. But if you're flying into Newark and need a car service (cabs on meter are bad going across state lines; just don't do it!), then you need some pretty big savings/flight convenience considerations to do it. And if you are flying home post cruise from Brooklyn, that's another consideration and another transportation cost.

[Nitemare]

Which Cruiseport?

For the New Jersey port, Newark makes sense.

 

For Manhattan or Brooklyn, go to the one with the best price/schedule for your needs

[waterbug123]

17 hours ago, Got2Cruise said:

LGA or JFK if using Brooklyn port.

 

16 hours ago, markeb said:

If you're doing a one-way, it could change the calculus a little bit as you wouldn't have to be concerned with the airport post cruise.

 

 

LGA is closest to midtown so makes the most sense for arrival.  JFK is closest to Brooklyn so makes the most sense for departure, if it's a round trip cruise.  That said, everyone seems to be implying that you need to choose one or the other and you don't.  You can either book two one way tickets, or book a single "multi city" ticket, flying into LGA and then out of JFK.

However, all of this assumes that by "best" you mean closest.  You may have a preferred airline that offers more flights to/from your home city to one or another of the LGA/JFK/EWR trio.  Or you may find a better price in or out of one of them.  If the price difference is significant, it might be worth a longer cab/uber ride to hotel or from ship.  You'll need to look at the big picture that includes price and flight times etc. before deciding which one is "best" in either direction of travel.

[mking8288]

JFK airport to (anywhere, including mid-town) Manhattan hotel is a flat rate taxi fare, car services about the same - Uber/Lyft might be a little less as long as congestion pricing doesn't kick in.  With tolls & tips - about $75

 

LGA airport to Manhattan is a metered taxi fare, tolls & tips or flat rate with car service - about $60.

 

EWR airport to Manhattan is more expensive, easily $100 to $120 - avoid taxi, car service or Uber/Lyft.

 

Travel time - highly unpredictable - varied on a weekday - midday/afternoon & early/mid evening - LGA about 45 minutes to 1 hour, JFK easily 1.25 to 1.75 hour, EWR in as little as 45 minutes to 90 minutes or more.  

 

OP didn't ask about options on flying home - but, assuming non-stop is not a key consideration.  LGA would be easiest on weekend morning, weather & road conditions not exceptionally congested - 45 minutes or less.  JFK can be reached in 45 minutes to 1 hour, on average.  EWR from Brooklyn pier is a long haul and most expensive & difficult to plan ahead - 2 river crossings & extra tolls.  On a bad morning, it can take 2+ hours to reach EWR from Brooklyn but JFK can be done via local/alternate routes by experienced drivers in 90 minutes or 75 minutes to LGA - Waze/Google Navigation turn-by-turn directions are mostly good for the average Uber/Lyft ride-share drivers.  

 

On airline/flights & airport options for NY area, look at one-way options in comparing choices/prices - and, add up ground transfer costs to come up with "best" combo ... always include extra time for possible disembarkation / CBP delays if flying home the same day. 

 

It would be helpful to know what are important to them & flight arrival time into NY ... PM rush hour as well as congestion pricing surcharges will be imposed & collected for almost all rides to Manhattan on weekdays.  

Edited January 16, 2020 by mking8288

[Turk1]

Thanks for the information. We would be flying in to New York and departing from there. Our return would be from Quebec. Looking at New York Hilton Midtown and are considering the Princess transfer from the airport to the hotel. Have done both ways on past cruises. Sometimes Princess and sometimes on our own. More than likely would be booking flights on United.

[Got2Cruise]

If you’re booking on United then it’s probably going to be EWR. United is really Continental now. lol 

[waterbug123]

20 hours ago, Turk1 said:

More than likely would be booking flights on United.

 

EWR is a United hub so you'll likely have far more United flight options in/out of EWR than LGA or JFK. 

[mking8288]

UA has some flights out of LGA but entirely out of JFK, and is as much as 60-70% of all the flights/traffic into/out of EWR (read it somewhere, Flyertalk ?) so that's probably a safe assumption for the one-way booking.

 

Norwegian was charging $45 p/p one-way to EWR transfer from their Manhattan cruise terminal.  If Princess offer the hotel transfer option at similar prices - it should work out (most likely, a weekday airport arrival, pre-cruise.)  Or book a car service like Dial 7 or Carmel, used by many cruisers on CC with good results & fair, competitive prices (including us) or Uber/Lyft ... 

 

Just know that ground travel from EWR into NYC is the most expensive, regardless ... aside from using mass transit/shared airporter bus or rails/Path.  

[Got2Cruise]

When Continental and United merged, they kept the United brand, but the Continental business model. I have several friends who worked at United for many years out of JFK.