Driving to NY and sailing out of NY

[tgarre06]

Has anyone driven to NY and sailed out of NY on DCL before? We live in Massachusetts, and I was thinking of booking a NY cruise when we are on our Disney cruise in March to take advantage of the discount. Did you drive in the morning of or the night before? How much did it cost to park? Was the process of driving in and parking easy or stressful? My daughter starts kindergarten next year, so now I need to start contending with traveling on school breaks, which is always much more expensive. I thought sailing out of NY over Thanksgiving week would at least save us the money of the 4 roundtrip plane tickets. Any feedback would be great. Thanks!!!

 

[tgarre06]

Has anyone driven to NY and sailed out of NY on DCL before? We live in Massachusetts, and I was thinking of booking a NY cruise when we are on our Disney cruise in March to take advantage of the discount. Did you drive in the morning of or the night before? How much did it cost to park? Was the process of driving in and parking easy or stressful? My daughter starts kindergarten next year, so now I need to start contending with traveling on school breaks, which is always much more expensive. I thought sailing out of NY over Thanksgiving week would at least save us the money of the 4 roundtrip plane tickets. Any feedback would be great. Thanks!!!

I just found a thread on this from earlier this month that answered just about all my questions, so please disregard! Thanks!

 

[KristiMc]

I would suggest booking the cruise now instead of waiting till your March cruise. Being that you want to sail over a holiday chances are the price will go up more than the 10% savings the onboard booking gets you. If the price hasn't gone up you can cancel and rebook onboard.

 

[WeLoveStitch42]

I think the Thanksgiving cruise is blacked out for the onboard discount, so I would book now if that's the one you want.

 

[tgarre06]

I think the Thanksgiving cruise is blacked out for the onboard discount, so I would book now if that's the one you want.

Ohhhh, I never thought of the Black Out dates. Boy, do I love you guys on here! I'd be lost! I am not sure that is going to be in the budget now that there is no discount. Ugh, school complicates things! Why can't they stay in preschool forever? I may have to go back to a short 3 or 4 night cruise and just pull her out of school for a few days...

 

[CamColt]

We drove from MA to NYC to sail on the Magic in 2012. The ride was fairly easy (about 4 hours) except once we got into the city and DH listened to the GPS over me who saw the sign for the street we were looking for. We drove in 2 days before the cruise and stayed in a hotel in Times Sq. They had a parking garage across the street which worked well. The morning of the cruise we drove to the port and parked in their garage, again, with no issues. I don't recall the price for the garage, but I know it was more than at Port Canaveral.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

@tgarre06 You can take or leave this advice, but FWIW, I would take your daughter out of school while she is in kindergarten and save thousands, bc there will be a time (maybe 6th grade and on ) that there is no way you'll be able to take her out of school bc of the course load. We have three daughters, and ever since our youngest have been in kindergarten, we've taken them out during Jan and or Feb (we have some 3-day weekends during those months ) and do miss several days of school. Now that my oldest is in 8th grade, there's absolutely no way she will miss 3-4 days of school. I know it might sound like something you'd never consider, but esp with driving to NY and saving a night in a hotel as well as airfare, just something to consider. Holiday and summer cruises are so much more expensive, and we're so glad we were able to save so much $$$$ by traveling off peak when they were still young enough to miss school. We always got our classwork and homework ahead of time and did it on the plane rides. When they were in K, their only homework was to journal their travels, which have become keepsakes! Traveling the world is educational, so our school district allows it. Not sure if yours does. Good luck whatever you decide! We'd love so much to sail out of NY, too, we're so close and love the itinerary! Maybe some day!

 

[KristiMc]

@tgarre06 You can take or leave this advice, but FWIW, I would take your daughter out of school while she is in kindergarten and save thousands, bc there will be a time (maybe 6th grade and on ) that there is no way you'll be able to take her out of school bc of the course load. We have three daughters, and ever since our youngest have been in kindergarten, we've taken them out during Jan and or Feb (we have some 3-day weekends during those months ) and do miss several days of school. Now that my oldest is in 8th grade, there's absolutely no way she will miss 3-4 days of school. I know it might sound like something you'd never consider, but esp with driving to NY and saving a night in a hotel as well as airfare, just something to consider. Holiday and summer cruises are so much more expensive, and we're so glad we were able to save so much $$$$ by traveling off peak when they were still young enough to miss school. We always got our classwork and homework ahead of time and did it on the plane rides. When they were in K, their only homework was to journal their travels, which have become keepsakes! Traveling the world is educational, so our school district allows it. Not sure if yours does. Good luck whatever you decide! We'd love so much to sail out of NY, too, we're so close and love the itinerary! Maybe some day!

I so agree with this. We took ours out for short times when the oldest was still in elementary school. Do it now because once they reach middle and high school it is so much harder. It also gets harder to schedule around school activities that start in the summer (band,sports etc....)

 

[tgarre06]

@tgarre06 You can take or leave this advice, but FWIW, I would take your daughter out of school while she is in kindergarten and save thousands, bc there will be a time (maybe 6th grade and on ) that there is no way you'll be able to take her out of school bc of the course load. We have three daughters, and ever since our youngest have been in kindergarten, we've taken them out during Jan and or Feb (we have some 3-day weekends during those months ) and do miss several days of school. Now that my oldest is in 8th grade, there's absolutely no way she will miss 3-4 days of school. I know it might sound like something you'd never consider, but esp with driving to NY and saving a night in a hotel as well as airfare, just something to consider. Holiday and summer cruises are so much more expensive, and we're so glad we were able to save so much $$$$ by traveling off peak when they were still young enough to miss school. We always got our classwork and homework ahead of time and did it on the plane rides. When they were in K, their only homework was to journal their travels, which have become keepsakes! Traveling the world is educational, so our school district allows it. Not sure if yours does. Good luck whatever you decide! We'd love so much to sail out of NY, too, we're so close and love the itinerary! Maybe some day!

Thanks for the feedback. I think we are going to take her out for a few days, probably 3. I'm not sure how much she could really miss in kindergarten over 3 days. I've been searching cruises over the holidays and summer, and it is just so much more expensive. Not to mention the flights over the holidays! I appreciate your honest POV!

 

[tgarre06]

I so agree with this. We took ours out for short times when the oldest was still in elementary school. Do it now because once they reach middle and high school it is so much harder. It also gets harder to schedule around school activities that start in the summer (band,sports etc....)

Thanks for the advice!

 

[mmouse37]

Parking is about 40 per day at the port in Manhattan. There is an offsite parking place for less which will bring you to the port.

Here is the link to the parking page at the cruise pier:

https://www.nycruise.com/manhattan-terminal/parking/

And to the other place I mentioned off site:

http://www.manhattancruiseparking.c...8g-53WimcgHzG22Ie6DGLFrQ6pe-_gPQDEaAu9f8P8HAQ

Note: I have never parked at the off site place, just found it when I was searching for parking for our cruise. We wound up getting dropped off by friends.

MJ