Disembarkation Chaos at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal

[DCThunder]

Perhaps my disembarkation experience was an outlier yesterday, but I wanted to pass along a word of warning about airport transfers from BCT.  I was leaving Enchanted Princess (after a TA) at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal and heading for JFK airport to fly home, along with roughly 2000 fellow passengers.  We arrived in New York a day early (skipping Boston, due to reasons related to bad weather in the North Atlantic) so cleared immigration and customs the day before, so all that had to be done was collect luggage, board a bus, and get to the airport.  E-Z, P-Z, right?

 

Well not so much.  The scenes outside around the coaches was chaotic to say the least.  There were no well defined lines or guides telling passengers where to go to board their bus.  Lines formed, but it was word of mouth as to which line was which.  Lines got tangled up and newcomers to the lines cut in front, without meaning to, which almost led to a couple of ugly confrontations.  People on mobility scooters, towing huge suitcases took the right of way regardless of those on foot.

 

The day workers were not at all helpful in trying to establish some semblance of order.  The lines crossed lanes of traffic in the parking lot, so the Ubers just nosed through the lines.  Then when you got to a bus for JFK, it took forever to load luggage, (by the various terminals service different airlines) and board. 

 

My departure group was supposed to meet on board at 0800.  I got to the lounge at 0730, and the group finally left the ship at around 0835 to collect luggage.  Then it was into the maelstrom described above.  My bus finally pulled out of the parking lot at around 0925, and arrived at JFK at about 1015, but by the time it came to Terminal 7, it was now close to 1100.

 

JFK wasn't crowded, so I breezed through checking my luggage and getting through TSA (PreChek is great!), and had no futher issues.

 

But if you debark at BCT and have a flight earlier than noontime, be werry werry careful of booking a Princess airport transfer.  As always YMMV, but the above was my experience yesterday.

[Ombud]

Glad you made your flight, Peter. I can attest to it being messy. Incomplete shore side directions, ppl walking right in front of busses trying to exit, immigration on Friday then spot customs inspections on Saturday (WHY couldn't they be done together??). Princess not responsible for either shore personnel or CBP. Just seemed to be 3 different ideas about what should or was going to happen. 

[dog]

To OP- how early did walk offs get to leave? 
 

[dog]

To OP- did they offer Covid testing at cruise terminal?

[Ombud]

Not OP but according to @sultan_sfocovid testing for the 65 staying on cruise (B2B) with Canadian ports was done in Vista Lounge 2 days before end of cruise. No testing at port

[spirit rev]

Unfortunately, your experience is very similar to what we experienced coming back from a Canada/NE cruise on the QM2 on July 8th. The chaos at the Brooklyn terminal for both embarkation and debarkation is a major issue. I hope the shore-side personnel can start improving or that The umbrella Carnival Corp. steps up to get it improved for both Princess and Cunard. 

 

[DCThunder]

49 minutes ago, spirit rev said:

Unfortunately, your experience is very similar to what we experienced coming back from a Canada/NE cruise on the QM2 on July 8th. The chaos at the Brooklyn terminal for both embarkation and debarkation is a major issue. I hope the shore-side personnel can start improving or that The umbrella Carnival Corp. steps up to get it improved for both Princess and Cunard. 

 

Hey, dis is Brooklyn, fugghedaboudit....

[Esjung1]

On 9/18/2022 at 4:42 PM, DCThunder said:

Perhaps my disembarkation experience was an outlier yesterday, but I wanted to pass along a word of warning about airport transfers from BCT.  I was leaving Enchanted Princess (after a TA) at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal and heading for JFK airport to fly home, along with roughly 2000 fellow passengers.  We arrived in New York a day early (skipping Boston, due to reasons related to bad weather in the North Atlantic) so cleared immigration and customs the day before, so all that had to be done was collect luggage, board a bus, and get to the airport.  E-Z, P-Z, right?

 

Well not so much.  The scenes outside around the coaches was chaotic to say the least.  There were no well defined lines or guides telling passengers where to go to board their bus.  Lines formed, but it was word of mouth as to which line was which.  Lines got tangled up and newcomers to the lines cut in front, without meaning to, which almost led to a couple of ugly confrontations.  People on mobility scooters, towing huge suitcases took the right of way regardless of those on foot.

 

The day workers were not at all helpful in trying to establish some semblance of order.  The lines crossed lanes of traffic in the parking lot, so the Ubers just nosed through the lines.  Then when you got to a bus for JFK, it took forever to load luggage, (by the various terminals service different airlines) and board. 

 

My departure group was supposed to meet on board at 0800.  I got to the lounge at 0730, and the group finally left the ship at around 0835 to collect luggage.  Then it was into the maelstrom described above.  My bus finally pulled out of the parking lot at around 0925, and arrived at JFK at about 1015, but by the time it came to Terminal 7, it was now close to 1100.

 

JFK wasn't crowded, so I breezed through checking my luggage and getting through TSA (PreChek is great!), and had no futher issues.

 

But if you debark at BCT and have a flight earlier than noontime, be werry werry careful of booking a Princess airport transfer.  As always YMMV, but the above was my experience yesterday.

This is all very good insight, thank you for posting this! Just out of curiousity, can UBER's and Private car services get into the area to pick up passengers going back to the airport?  Or is the immediate area reserved for princess shuttles?  I booked a private car service from LGA to the Brooklyn terminal but have nor booked return transportation yet.   

[waiting2retire]

Can anyone tell me whether it is clear where to get a taxi when disembarking in Brooklyn?  I will be walking off as early as possible and plan to catch a cab to LGA. Are there lots of cabs available?

 

[PurpleHays]

1 hour ago, Esjung1 said:

This is all very good insight, thank you for posting this! Just out of curiousity, can UBER's and Private car services get into the area to pick up passengers going back to the airport?  Or is the immediate area reserved for princess shuttles?  I booked a private car service from LGA to the Brooklyn terminal but have nor booked return transportation yet.   

It was total chaos on the Uber/cab side too. We stood in the taxi line for over an hour before being offered a ride that we split with another couple. They need to separate the Uber and cab lines--the Ubers kept completely blocking the roadway.

 

34 minutes ago, waiting2retire said:

Can anyone tell me whether it is clear where to get a taxi when disembarking in Brooklyn?  I will be walking off as early as possible and plan to catch a cab to LGA. Are there lots of cabs available?

 

Cabs were not plentiful, but it was marked. Ubers exit the terminal and to to the left. Cabs cross the roadway to the covered area.

[Hlitner]

I doubt if the cruise line (any cruise line) can do much to clean up the issues at that terminal.  You are talking about the New York Port Authority, Longshoreman Union (ILA) and cruise lines must keep hands off anything on shore.   We have also been involved in a ILA fiasco at the Manhattan cruise terminal when union members warned folks not to even think about entering the terminal with their luggage during the ILA member's lunch hour.    The bottom line is that if cruise lines want to use the NY ports they have to put up with this stuff and the cruisers pay the price.  I will add that we do like driving to the Red Hook port since parking is very convenient to the ship.

 

Hank

[Losingcontrol36]

Embarkation chaos at LGA.  Waiting hours to get transfer to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.  According to Princess rep, they don’t have busses!  We should have taken a cab.  What a cluster!

[coo359a2]

Luckily, our experience today getting off the Caribbean Princess went better -at least for us.   Disembarkation was delayed to start but was catching up by our meet time - 9:05 in the casino - and our group was called and we got straight on a bus and on our way to LGA at 9:39.   Terminal C was also the first drop off -lucky again- and we were at our gate by 10:45. This schedule totally made up for the transfer fiasco we had when going from LGA to the port for our 15 August cruise

[pattycakes]

Uber or Lyft is probably your best bet and comparable $$ to transfers from what I've been reading.  This is not a widely used port so I'm pretty much anticipating some shenanigans.  My worst experience was at Cape Liberty - over 2 hours to get through customs alone.  Hopefully things clear up with a weekly schedule in place.

[AF-1]

wow that sounds bad for getting in and out of Brooklyn terminal.  We arrive a few days early and will taking the ferry to cruise terminal.  I think we will book private car for departure to LGA 

[DCThunder]

7 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

wow that sounds bad for getting in and out of Brooklyn terminal.  We arrive a few days early and will taking the ferry to cruise terminal.  I think we will book private car for departure to LGA 

The ferry dock is about 100 yards from the entrance to the cruise terminal so its convenient, but you do still have to navigate the sidewalk which seemed pretty congested with people getting in/out of Ubers and taxis.  There is also no supporting infrastructure (shops etc.) anywhere near the ferry dock or the cruise port, so if you've forgotten something, you're SOL.  Good luck!

[AF-1]

14 hours ago, DCThunder said:

The ferry dock is about 100 yards from the entrance to the cruise terminal so its convenient, but you do still have to navigate the sidewalk which seemed pretty congested with people getting in/out of Ubers and taxis.  There is also no supporting infrastructure (shops etc.) anywhere near the ferry dock or the cruise port, so if you've forgotten something, you're SOL.  Good luck!

Thank you very much.  Cheers

[suzyed]

So you got in to port a day early? Did you spend the night on the ship?

[Daniel A]

37 minutes ago, suzyed said:

So you got in to port a day early? Did you spend the night on the ship?

@DCThunder I'm also curious what happens when you arrive on a different day as scheduled.  When were you told to have your luggage outside your door?

[DCThunder]

We arrived early Friday morning (9/16) and were docked by around 0700.  Later that morning we had to process through US immigration and no one was allowed back onto the ship until everyone (including crew) had done the passport control procedure ashore.  Passengers had the choice to wait to reboard or could go do shore things..  Some passengers were allowed to disembark but they were on their own as far as luggage removal was concerned.

 

I took the ferry over to the Wall Street/South Street Seaport area and then walked over to the 9/11 Memorial/Museum area for most of the day.  Others went to Times Square or anywhere else they wanted to go in the city. 

 

Once everyone did the immigration stuff, the ship was open for reboarding at any time and the buffet, MDRs, and specialty places were open as usual.  Some bars were not open (NY liquor laws apparently required this) and the casino was closed, but otherwise it was essentially a sea day although the ship didn't move.  You had to cash out at the casino on Thursday night.

 

Luggage was collected Friday night as usual on the night before disembarkation and Saturday morning the chaos of the BCT began.

[AF-1]

how long did it take you to walk from Wall street pier to 911 memorial?

[DCThunder]

13 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

how long did it take you to walk from Wall street pier to 911 memorial?

If you walk up Fulton Street (which is a couple of blocks down from the Ferry terminal), you go right to the Occulus which is adjacent to the Museum and the two Memorial pools.  The entire walk is 20-30  minutes or so depending on how fast you walk and how much you want to look around.

 

Buy your 9/11 Museum tickets on line ahead of time. DO NOT buy when you get there.  The line is horrendous.  There are a lot (15-20) food carts of all different types lined up outside the Occulus, so you can get some food if you wish.  Inside the Occulus is standard upscale shopping, including an Apple store. The day I was there was when the new iPhone 14 was released so there were lots of youngin's lined up to get a new phone.

Edited September 21, 2022 by DCThunder

[roxievegas]

We left Caribbean Princess yesterday morning (Sept 20th).  We had a bus transfer to JFK.  We were told to report to waiting area and we would be leaving 8:25 - we were not called until 8:45

walked off ship - people were outside to tell us where to go for the buses

went to the bus for JFK loaded luggage and were sitting on the bus at 9:00

bus left at 9:20a

 

At no time did anyone announce that the bus was going to JFK - no one said,  these are the terminal stops - #2 is Delta, #4 is Delta, #5 is xxx,  #6 is xxx, #7 is Alaska and #8 is American.  The driver just assumed that we (who have never been to JFK) knew what terminal we were going out of. (our boarding pass did not have the terminal number on it)

 

At the first stop, terminal #2 a few people got off.  While the driver was helping get the luggage, a man from the back of the bus walked down the aisle, he did not know what terminal to get off - a lady said that if he was Alaska it was terminal #7 - he looked at her and then decided to ask the driver, who now was getting in the sit and started up the bus, he then stopped because one of the luggage bay doors was still up.  When the driver stopped the bus, the man fell face forward and hit the front console of the bus -  blood everywhere.  911 was called and he and wife went to hospital.

We have no idea what happened to him

 

I would like to contact Princess legal - I am sure that they are going to get sued - it was a Princess transfer excursion.

 

Anyone with who I should contact I would appreciate phone number or emails

 

thank you

 

[chisoxfan]

We got off the EP on Saturday morning and everything went smoothly for us. Luggage was there walked out turned left (100 feet or so) called an Uber and it was there in five minutes. A comfort class

(newer bigger vehicle) was about 65 bucks to LGA. We left the ship around 8:45 AM.  I saw a few taxis across the street picking up people but did not see a cab stand per se (of course was not looking for one).

 

We had thought about the shuttle but I do not think there was a cost saving and based on past experience figured it would be a cluster party.

[san diego sue]

when we get off in Brooklyn Terminal, we use Dial 7 car service. I arrange in advance  via email .

Also I always have a porter to help with luggage. They get us through the terminal quickly (customs etc) and bring us right to where the pick ups are  for cars and shuttles. They always seem to know what is going on.

Wonder why all the confusion now at the port.

One thing I also do in advance is look up what terminal our airline flies out of when going to JFK, A couple of times we did tours getting off ship with dropoff at JFK. Once the dropoffs begin, it can take about 45 minutes for the bus driver to get to your terminal if it is last. American Airlines is always the last dropped off.Seems like once they stop at a terminal, they go back out of airport and go around to the next one. Seems really confusing.