Driving to Port

[cruiserjt]

So I TOTALLY understand the necessity of arriving a day ahead of departure if flying in to the cruise.  What about driving? When is it too long? We have a Sunday departure from Cape Liberty and are about 4.5 hours away. We are traveling with our two 18 year old daughters so having one hotel room for all of us is "painful" - not restful or relaxing and two rooms is just expensive. What distance do you consider acceptable to the risk?  I am figuring that we will leave early and drive a one year old, reliable jeep with about 5-6 hour cushion of time.   What if we get in an accident? - either way - the day before or the day of (the risk is the same) we are kind of out of luck. What if I lived 3 hours away, what about 2?? I always felt the idea of the hotel the night before is to take the worry out of travel delays.  Thoughts????

[Tatka]

We live in Massachusetts and drive to Cape Liberty multiple times a year. It's 3.5 hours for us. We leave home at 6 AM just to have some time in case we meet traffic.

 

We also drive to Baltimore (6 hours) and South Florida (22 hours). For Baltimore we start driving at 1-2 AM of sail-away day. For Florida we start at 5 pm 2 days prior, drive 22 hours to Boca Raton or Fort Lauderdale and have some time to relax before boarding next day.

Edited December 13, 2021 by Tatka

[RosieRoo]

We are about 4 hours from Bayonne. My only caution would be if it’s a holiday weekend. We drove down the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the ride was brutal, so much traffic. It turned into a 6 1/2 hour ride. I would have been super stressed if it was day of. Luckily it was the day before and we had a hotel booked. 

[Jkaczanowski]

We live Bedford, NH.  You have several potential bottlenecks - Mass pike, Connecticut, and New York City.   None are great on the best of days. Personally, I would never drive in the day of the cruise.  For our September Sunday departure cruise, we stopped in Connecticut and spent the night with family, driving the last 3 hours the morning of.  For our May Thursday departure cruise, I don’t want to mess with NYC traffic on a Thursday morning and we are heading down Wednesday and staying by Newark airport.  

I completely understand not wanting to stay overnight but it’s not just the distance.   The potential for problems going through Mass, CT, and NY is just too high.

 

[Rogueperson]

Your miles may vary on this one.  I live in Maryland, so driving to NYC (Bayonne) or Norfolk is doable, but any further, I will go the day before, if i decide to drive.  Driving is stressful, like flying.  If you have to get up at 5am to barely make the port, any hiccup will destroy your itinerary.  And even if you don't, you'll be tired when you park the car and wait in line to check in.  Your first day will just be a day of rest and you can't really enjoy the 1st day on the cruise.

 

I personally have no problem driving 4 or 5 hours, so I don't mind that and still get on our cruise.  However, staying the night is still preferable because it removes that stress the day of and you start the cruise day fresh.  If you can do it, its probably worth your time to.

[zekekelso]

Literally millions of cruise passengers arrive the day of departure. While it’s obviously best to arrive a day (or more) before, don’t let cruise critic posters convince you it’s mandatory. 

[Tatka]

We do not drive through New York. We use Tappan Zee bridge and Palisades Pkwy.

 

 We never had ANY problems.

Edited December 13, 2021 by Tatka

[cruisegirl1]

I would be comfortable driving in day of, if less than 5 hours.  Just gove yourselves plenty of time for traffic conditions. 

 

M

[bethco]

I am a 4 hour drive to the port and only drive day before when the area is in the fog weather pattern which tends to be a January/February thing for Galveston.  I keep Waze running to get me around any traffic issues and have seen some interesting country roads as a result.  It sounds to me like you have planned appropriately.  

[shoptom]

I leave at 1am to drive 12 hours to Miami.  With earliest check in time, the five hours before the ship leaves is my cushion.

[janert]

We live 4 hours from port.  We usually drive the day of the cruise, leaving about 6:30.  We have never had a problem.  

[cruiserjt]

Thank you everyone - I wouldn't consider this on a weekday - but on a Sunday morning and the number of different routes to get there, it seems like it might work.  I wouldn't want to do more than 4-5 hours away.  Happy cruising

 

[reallyitsmema]

We sail out of Cape Liberty a bunch too and have driven day of cruise from Massachusetts.  We prefer to come in a day early just in case but that is not always possible.  We are just under four hours away and leave by 6am.  As long as you aren't sailing on one of the big travel days around a holiday, you should be fine.  We like parking at that port as you can leave your cabin and be in your car in the garage in 15 minutes.  

[Traveling Mike]

I drive to the port often when cruising out of Los Angeles.  It is a 4 1/2 hour drive and I do a few things:

 

1. Make sure there will not be snow on the mountain because it can close at any notice.
2. Make sure I have someone on call to come get me and take me if I have car trouble.
3. I set my check-in time early in the morning.  9:00 am.  This allows me to have 8 hours to deal with issues and still make the ship.  It also allows me to miss most of the traffic.
4. Take a picture of where I leave my car.  After a log cruise you can forget where you park.  After my last cruise I seen several people wondering the parking lot trying to find their car.
5. Last.  Pack the night before to make sure you get out of the house in time.  With you having 3 women in the house I am sure you know this rule 🙂 

[cyntil8ing]

Bayonne, at four hours from our home, is probably the furthest I will drive on embarkation day. In fact, we plan on leaving home by 7:00am next Friday morning for our Christmas Eve departure.

 

And I totally get the sharing “pain”. My kids are 15 and 18, and I would just rather not!

[cruisegirl1]

8 hours ago, shoptom said:

I leave at 1am to drive 12 hours to Miami.  With earliest check in time, the five hours before the ship leaves is my cushion.

Glad that works for you.  I would be too tired to enjoy the first night/day on board. 

 

M

[SRF]

I would keep an eye on the forecast and see what they say a couple of days out.

 

Maybe even reserve a room or two closer, where you can cancel the day before or even the day before that.

 

It would be bad to be set to drive the day of departure and have a major storm roll in (especially winter) the afternoon before and have no hotel rooms available.

 

As bad as the 4 of you in one room, the 4 of you sleeping in your car would be worse. 😄

 

[CanobieFan]

Living about an hour from Tampa or Port Canaveral, I never have to worry really. The one time I left from Port Everglades we drove down the day before, because my friend wanted to visit Miami and South Beach beforehand, had we not done that we still probably would have left day-of from my place.

Although when we did an international departure we were there 2 days early in case of travel delays getting to Singapore from Orlando, haha.  

[MommaBear55]

We are 7 hours away from Bayonne, we were on the ship eating at Jaime's by noon last week. We just keep a really close eye on the weather and if there are any games at the Meadowlands

[MichaelCMTX]

It's freaked the heck out of my "always a day in advance" parents but 3 of 4 times to Galveston were a "Drive down from Dallas that day" deal.  That said, we are out of the garage before the sun is up and that left ample time to take a break or two if desired. It's about 4 hours.

 

But the one we did from New Orleans, that's 8 or 9 hours on the road so we drove in the day before.  Good thing too because we hit some serious rain on the way.

 

[Din321]

Thanks for all the opinions....alot of us from the north!  I also am about 4 hrs away & there will be 2 cars of us so we've been undecided.  Seems easier to just drive there that day, then thought of going a day early to a hotel & look around.  But....there's nothing there!  And, don't think we'll actually head into New York.  Thanks for all the options and opinions!

[LGW59]

On 12/13/2021 at 8:05 AM, cruiserjt said:

So I TOTALLY understand the necessity of arriving a day ahead of departure if flying in to the cruise.  What about driving? When is it too long? We have a Sunday departure from Cape Liberty and are about 4.5 hours away. We are traveling with our two 18 year old daughters so having one hotel room for all of us is "painful" - not restful or relaxing and two rooms is just expensive. What distance do you consider acceptable to the risk?  I am figuring that we will leave early and drive a one year old, reliable jeep with about 5-6 hour cushion of time.   What if we get in an accident? - either way - the day before or the day of (the risk is the same) we are kind of out of luck. What if I lived 3 hours away, what about 2?? I always felt the idea of the hotel the night before is to take the worry out of travel delays.  Thoughts????

Is this your first ever family vacation/decision ?

[cruiserjt]

17 hours ago, LGW59 said:

Is this your first ever family vacation/decision ?

First one we have considered driving to the port.  No brainer to go the day before when flying. Just got to thinking that many people stay outside the city or port area and are an hour or two away - Logic and luck are required - Sunday morning - early start makes sense.

[Love2travel4]

On 12/13/2021 at 11:35 AM, Jkaczanowski said:

We live Bedford, NH.  You have several potential bottlenecks - Mass pike, Connecticut, and New York City.   None are great on the best of days. Personally, I would never drive in the day of the cruise.  For our September Sunday departure cruise, we stopped in Connecticut and spent the night with family, driving the last 3 hours the morning of.  For our May Thursday departure cruise, I don’t want to mess with NYC traffic on a Thursday morning and we are heading down Wednesday and staying by Newark airport.  

I completely understand not wanting to stay overnight but it’s not just the distance.   The potential for problems going through Mass, CT, and NY is just too high.

 

Hello from the 603….Concord here 😁. We are sailing on Anthem for first time in January.  We chose to drive down Saturday morning and stay overnight at an Airbnb.  I was concerned about weather/snow and wanted plenty of cushion time.  I am looking forward to having a nice dinner and then up early and on the ship for 11am check in!

[Clancy14]

Hi!, from Northeast PA.  I have driven to Cape Liberty approximately 7-8 times.  It is a 3 hour drive and I give myself 5-6 hours.  Traffic is terrible, even on weekends.  BE SURE TO CHECK THE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE TO SEE IF THERE IS A GAME THAT SUNDAY!  Jets, and Giants both play their home games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, about 17 miles away.  It has a capacity of 82,000.  That's a lot of traffic 

 

Good Luck and enjoy your cruise!