Any reason for fewer NCL cruises from NYC?

[Red-Sol]

I have mostly been totally away from CruiseCritic for many months so forgive me if this has been answered/discussed before. I really would rather cruise out of NYC than anywhere else for a number of different reasons. As I peruse cruises available out of NYC it really stands out to me that there are a lot fewer of them available than in the past. Anyone have any thoughts/answers/theories on why that might be? The only thing I can think of is that MSC might be taking away some of the demand....but that seems far fetched to me.

[Laszlo]

41 minutes ago, Red-Sol said:

I have mostly been totally away from CruiseCritic for many months so forgive me if this has been answered/discussed before. I really would rather cruise out of NYC than anywhere else for a number of different reasons. As I peruse cruises available out of NYC it really stands out to me that there are a lot fewer of them available than in the past. Anyone have any thoughts/answers/theories on why that might be? The only thing I can think of is that MSC might be taking away some of the demand....but that seems far fetched to me.

I miss the winters when they have two ships sailing full time. One doing a 7-10 day and another doing 12-14 days. 

[shof515]

i miss the summers when they had two ships, one doing the Florida/Bahamas and one to Bermuda 

 

it now seems like NCL is cutting back NYC to only have 1 ship. the only time they will be more then 1 ship is when gaps need to be filled based on the itinerary like in the fall months with one ship doing bermuda and one doing  canada 

 

[cruiseny4life]

I haven't heard any reasons. I've just been disappointed with the offerings out of Manhattan. MSC has a few great itineraries down to the Bahamas and back, including a stop at their private island. My aunt has gone on two MSC cruises in the last six months. She's mostly enjoyed them: one was semi-chartered to a large number of folks that were rude and pretended to own the ship. That can happen on any cruise line. She was happy with her experience in the non-Yacht Club section of the ship. 

 

NCL seems to not care much for the tri-state market anymore. Maybe we have too high of standards and their tired of bad reviews. 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

It seems to me that I read on CruiseHive that NYC, like many other cities was getting a lot of pressure from environmentalists wanting to reduce the number of big ships sailing from their cities.  I could be wrong but I think NYC was included in the article I was reading maybe three weeks ago.

[Menocchio]

14 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

It seems to me that I read on CruiseHive that NYC, like many other cities was getting a lot of pressure from environmentalists wanting to reduce the number of big ships sailing from their cities.  I could be wrong but I think NYC was included in the article I was reading maybe three weeks ago.

I heard similar, that they were requiring ships in port need to use shore power (which not every ship is equipped for) and also for cruise lines to address the road traffic caused by their passengers. But that was still just a proposal.

 

I think the truth is that everything in New York is expensive, ports not excluded. It's probably cheaper to fly New Yorkers to Florida (where they can offer more varied and exciting itineraries anyway) than it is to embark them from their home city.

[Laszlo]

55 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

I haven't heard any reasons. I've just been disappointed with the offerings out of Manhattan. MSC has a few great itineraries down to the Bahamas and back, including a stop at their private island. My aunt has gone on two MSC cruises in the last six months. She's mostly enjoyed them: one was semi-chartered to a large number of folks that were rude and pretended to own the ship. That can happen on any cruise line. She was happy with her experience in the non-Yacht Club section of the ship. 

 

NCL seems to not care much for the tri-state market anymore. Maybe we have too high of standards and their tired of bad reviews. 

My wife and I decided to sail again to Bermuda in June. We opted to go out of Boston instead of NYC. Its a 5 hour drive compared to 90 minutes but we love the Jewel class ships

[shof515]

32 minutes ago, Menocchio said:

I think the truth is that everything in New York is expensive, ports not excluded. It's probably cheaper to fly New Yorkers to Florida (where they can offer more varied and exciting itineraries anyway) than it is to embark them from their home city.

 

flying is getting expensive. The average price i pay for airfare to Florida for a one way flight is about 275-300ish, roundtrip is about 600 or higher. Thats almost about half of what i pay for a cruise

[FLAHAM]

Who wants 2+ days of cold weather and uninteresting ports when a week out of Florida offers 7 days of warm weather and better ports?

[nordicacres]

Agreed. I would never fly to NYC to hop on a cruise ship when there are cheaper flights to FL ports, not to mention less time spent at sea.

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, shof515 said:

 

flying is getting expensive. The average price i pay for airfare to Florida for a one way flight is about 275-300ish, roundtrip is about 600 or higher. Thats almost about half of what i pay for a cruise

That is VERY surprising. I would have thought with NYC having access to essentially 3 airports (JFK, LGA and EWR), there would be plenty of flights and good fares. Wow. Is that true all year or just at certain times?

[Menocchio]

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

 

flying is getting expensive. The average price i pay for airfare to Florida for a one way flight is about 275-300ish, roundtrip is about 600 or higher. Thats almost about half of what i pay for a cruise

Timing matters a lot, but I'm seeing round trip direct flights from New York to Miami for less than half that. And that's main cabin. If you're willing to forgo a carryon and the ability to choose seats, you can do half that again. 

 

And that's me screwing around on Hopper for one minute. Someone who actually knows the tricks of the trade, or a TA or cruise line buying at group rates, or someone cashing in miles can do even better than that I'm sure. 

[JIMESOPUS]

@Red-Sol Joe here is one reason, wouldn't be surprised if other lines drop NYC in the future.

https://pix11.com/news/local-news/brooklyn/nyc-bill-aims-to-tackle-pollution-from-idling-cruise-ships/

Also in Manhattan, it's getting harder to resupply ships using tractor-trailers,

https://nyc-business.nyc.gov/nycbusiness/description/commercial-vehicle-restrictions

 

MSC itineraries usually have Port Canaveral as the first stop to resupply

 

Jim

[Red-Sol]

1 hour ago, JIMESOPUS said:

@Red-Sol Joe here is one reason, wouldn't be surprised if other lines drop NYC in the future.

https://pix11.com/news/local-news/brooklyn/nyc-bill-aims-to-tackle-pollution-from-idling-cruise-ships/

Also in Manhattan, it's getting harder to resupply ships using tractor-trailers,

https://nyc-business.nyc.gov/nycbusiness/description/commercial-vehicle-restrictions

 

MSC itineraries usually have Port Canaveral as the first stop to resupply

 

Jim

All I can say about that is Ugh! When and if they all do the same that will probably be the end of our cruising. (Unless Boston or possibly Baltimore can pickup the slack) I have 0 interest in flying to Florida. Frankly I have even less interest than that to actually be in Florida. 😉

[Red-Sol]

5 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

My aunt has gone on two MSC cruises in the last six months. She's mostly enjoyed them: one was semi-chartered to a large number of folks that were rude and pretended to own the ship. That can happen on any cruise line. She was happy with her experience in the non-Yacht Club section of the ship. 

Starting to sneak some peeks! 🙂

[Red-Sol]

5 hours ago, Laszlo said:

I miss the winters when they have two ships sailing full time. One doing a 7-10 day and another doing 12-14 days. 

Bingo!

The longer winter cruises out of NYC were the best! I "Kinda" got my fix on a 15 day Getaway cruise in November...but it wasn't quite the same.

[DuckTollerFans]

29 minutes ago, Red-Sol said:

All I can say about that is Ugh! When and if they all do the same that will probably be the end of our cruising. (Unless Boston or possibly Baltimore can pickup the slack) I have 0 interest in flying to Florida. Frankly I have even less interest than that to actually be in Florida. 😉

I'm also in Rochester, Red-Sol.   I have the same interest in any time in FL as you do - 0 -  plus I have no interest in flying.  

And tho some posters mention cheap flights out of NYC with its 3 airports, it's not so cheap or convenient from other cities.    Some friends left last week -- 6 am out of ROC, then to DC, and then  FLA to board the following day.    We could leave our house at 6am, drive, and still easily make a sailing out of NY. (we always go early though)

We were supposed to sail out of Boston in May 2020 but we know how that worked out.  We'd consider Boston again if the destination was right.

 

[Red-Sol]

35 minutes ago, DuckTollerFans said:

I'm also in Rochester, Red-Sol.   I have the same interest in any time in FL as you do - 0 -  plus I have no interest in flying.  

And tho some posters mention cheap flights out of NYC with its 3 airports, it's not so cheap or convenient from other cities.    Some friends left last week -- 6 am out of ROC, then to DC, and then  FLA to board the following day.    We could leave our house at 6am, drive, and still easily make a sailing out of NY. (we always go early though)

We were supposed to sail out of Boston in May 2020 but we know how that worked out.  We'd consider Boston again if the destination was right.

 

What we usually do is to drive to Albany the day before the cruise...spend the night in an area hotel...and hop on a Yankee Trails bus in the morning...arrive at the Manhattan Cruise terminal around 10:30 am and are usually boarding around 11:30 am works well for us.

 

BTW Hi neighbor! 🙂

[JIMESOPUS]

@Red-Sol Joe have you ever thought about Amtrak? We met a couple from Greensboro NC last year, they travel down to Miami or Tampa to get on a ship every year via Amtrak

Jim

 

 

[Red-Sol]

1 minute ago, JIMESOPUS said:

@Red-Sol Joe have you ever thought about Amtrak? We met a couple from Greensboro NC last year, they travel down to Miami or Tampa to get on a ship every year via Amtrak

Jim

 

 

We have thought about it Jim...but we always come back to the fact that the bus drops us off right at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal...big advantage to not need to schlep any  luggage around and/or get additional transportation from the train station. They are also doing MSC cruises out of Brooklyn now too.

[JIMESOPUS]

@Red-Sol Next year for us, only 10 days but we are back in the Yacht Club, inside cabin this time. MSC also will match the tier level.

 

 

[Red-Sol]

12 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

@Red-Sol Next year for us, only 10 days but we are back in the Yacht Club, inside cabin this time. MSC also will match the tier level.

 

 

Thanks Jim! That might be close to the timeframe we would be looking at so I will very much keep this one in mind. I really need to study more what they have and we made sapphire on our last cruise on the Getaway so it will be fun to see what they offer as a match.

[geegee1]

6 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

That is VERY surprising. I would have thought with NYC having access to essentially 3 airports (JFK, LGA and EWR), there would be plenty of flights and good fares. Wow. Is that true all year or just at certain times?

If you want to fly during busy times, late in the week, over the weekend, etc.  It's pretty ridiculous how high fares have been

[mugtech]

     Who wants to go to Bermuda in February?

[FPMoosally]

1 hour ago, mugtech said:

     Who wants to go to Bermuda in February?

 

Heheh. Yeah, northern Minnesota is the place to be!