As airline prices, delays and travel hassles increase, cruise lines are adding new home ports so passengers can drive to their voyage instead of flying.
Home ports for large cruise ships now dot the shores along the coasts of the United States, from Alaska to Massachusetts.
Depending on the season, you may cruise from Seward (Alaska), Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles/Long Beach and San Diego on the West Coast; from Galveston/Houston, New Orleans, Mobile (Ala.), and Tampa on the Gulf Coast; from Boston, New York/Bayonne (N.J.), Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk (Va.), Charleston (S.C.), Jacksonville, Port Canaveral (Fla.), Fort Lauderdale and Miami on the East Coast.
East Coast home port choices for winter keep inching north. Even though this means the first day at sea usually is sweater weather — at best — the popularity of driving to the port, and letting the ship take you south, still is rising swiftly.
This winter, ships will be operating regularly, snow storms and all. Here’s a sampling of cruises available in two northeastern markets:
New York area: The Norwegian Gem cruises on seven-night trips to the Bahamas and Florida in December, February and March, with 10-night trips to the Caribbean in January and early February.
Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas cruises out of Bayonne, N.J. — near the Statue of Liberty — on nine-night and 10-night trips into the Caribbean. The first two days are at sea.
Starting in April, Norwegian will have two ships cruising out of New York, summer and winter.
Baltimore: The Carnival Pride, now based fulltime in Baltimore, will cruise each Sunday this winter, on seven-night trips to Florida and the Bahamas. Itineraries repeat every two weeks, so passengers could do a back-to-back trip, though that would require returning to Baltimore’s winter on the seventh day.
In December and January, Celebrity Mercury will cruise out of Baltimore on nine-night trips to Florida and the Bahamas. (In February, March and April, the ship will sail into the Caribbean for 10 nights and 11 nights out of Charleston, S.C.)
Carnival offers the most cruises from home ports scattered around the country. In 1993, the cruise line used four home ports. Now there are 15 in the continental United States.
Norwegian says that 80 percent of its passengers cruising out of New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore drive to the port.
David Molyneaux is editor of .
PLANNING A CRUISE
For travelers, the home port issues are weather, price and convenience.
Weather: One disadvantage in winter is that the first day of your cruise will be cool, so don’t leave your jacket in the car. Weather always is a potential issue on winter cruises, even if you leave from Florida, where the first and last afternoons can be chilly on deck. Northerners wanting guaranteed heat in January should consider starting their cruise in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
On its New York cruises, Norwegian guarantees $100 in shipboard credits if weather causes the ship to be delayed leaving New York by 12 hours or more. So far, the cruise line says it has not had to pay up.
A winter cruise out of New York harbor “is a cool thing,” says Kevin Sheehan, chief executive officer, Norwegian Cruise Line. His image is sitting on the deck with plenty of blankets and brandy. Sheehan’s first cruise was on a Norwegian ship out of New York. “I took a taxi to the dock from my apartment for $7.” Which brings us to …
Price: Flying to the port can cost as much as the price of a cruise. For a family of four, driving is substantially cheaper than flying. Parking usually is $150-200 a week at the port, so if you have a friend who lives nearby, park in his driveway for a week and take a taxi to the port.
A survey in September for cruises in December through March indicated prices as low as $100 a night, per person for two people, in an ocean view cabin — or even a balcony cabin on some cruises.
Convenience: Cruise experts always advise passengers to arrive a day early at the port, before their cruise, to get into the vacation mood and to ease any anxiety about being late or rushed to the ship.
Yet when vacationers fly to the ship’s port, they add days on both ends that can be long (up early to get there, late coming home) and stressful — and out of their control (Will the flight be delayed? Will the luggage arrive? How do we get around in the port city?).
These issues can be lessened by driving, and arriving a day or more early with a car offers an opportunity to explore a city, adding another piece to a vacation.
