Best Time to Get to Manhattan Terminal to avoid a good amount of crowd....?

[Lyn1Lyn]

We are a party of 11. We live about 1.5 - 2 hours away in PA. We will be driving into Manhattan that day and parking at the Terminal. 

We have 4children 7-17 yrs old going with us. 7 adults 19yrs -75yrs old.

 

I want to make our transition from car to ship as easy and smooth as possible. We are cruising with Carnival Venezia in December, so don't have my check in time yet. But definitely don't want to wait outside to get into the terminal in a long line. I am going to attempt to get us an early boarding time, but would it be wise to arrive later in the day? We will be carrying on all luggage, so really don't want to board til 1:30pm or after, but I know the process of checking in can take time.

I am also worried about getting parking at the terminal if we arrive too late. Any advice? 

[Nitemare]

Lots of parking threads here. 99.9+% don't have any issues with parking.  Get there early and get on the ship and start your vacation and the worries will quickly disappear

[Lyn1Lyn]

8 hours ago, Nitemare said:

Lots of parking threads here. 99.9+% don't have any issues with parking.  Get there early and get on the ship and start your vacation and the worries will quickly disappear

Yes, I did do a little digging on the parking. I will be reserving in the next couple weeks. Thanks for the response. Second guessing the carrying on luggage thing. But it should be a nice trip.