Car service to the Manhattan and Brooklyn cruise terminals

In short

• Manhattan sailings use Piers 88 and 90 on Twelfth Avenue, and every car enters at 55th Street
• Brooklyn sailings use Pier 12 in Red Hook, where cars enter at Bowne and Imlay Streets and no subway reaches the pier
• Mobile Passport Control is not offered at the New York and New Jersey seaports, and returning passengers clear customs in the terminal hall

Which terminal your ship uses

New York City has two cruise terminals, and there's a third port across the harbor in New Jersey. They're far apart, and going to the wrong one can cost you most of a morning. Check the terminal name in your cruise line's documents. Cruise lines move ships between the three from season to season.

The Manhattan Cruise Terminal is at 711 Twelfth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, on the Hudson River between West 46th and West 54th Streets. Ships dock at Piers 88 and 90. The terminal building is at the end of West 48th Street, a short drive from any Manhattan pickup in Midtown or on the West Side.

The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is at Pier 12 in Red Hook, on Buttermilk Channel opposite Governors Island. The terminal's address is 210 Clinton Wharf, and every vehicle enters through the main gate where Bowne Street meets Imlay Street.

The third, Cape Liberty Cruise Port, is on the old Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne, New Jersey. Its address for directions is 4 Port Terminal Boulevard, and Royal Caribbean is one of its main cruise lines. By car, take Exit 14A of the New Jersey Turnpike, then Route 440 south for a mile and a half, then turn left into the Bayonne Ocean Terminal. The cruise building is 2 miles straight ahead.

The port's latest guidance, from 2025, has strict curb rules. On sailing day, passengers and bags are dropped off together at luggage Zones 1 to 5 in front of the terminal. Anyone who arrives less than 90 minutes before departure can't sail. On return day, car services pick up at Zones 6 to 10 along the main building. There's a cell phone waiting lot next to the terminal, and a car waiting or parked in front can be towed or fined. Check your cruise line's documents for the current zones before sailing day. Bayonne is outside New York City and not on our rate list. Check a Cape Liberty trip with us before you plan around it.

Getting to Piers 88 and 90

Every car enters the Manhattan terminal from the north, at 55th Street and Twelfth Avenue (State Route 9A here). From the Lincoln Tunnel or Lower Manhattan, we drive north on Twelfth Avenue past the piers and turn left at 55th Street. From Westchester, the George Washington Bridge or the Upper West Side, we take the Henry Hudson Parkway south. It becomes the West Side Highway below 72nd Street, and we exit right at 55th Street. From Midtown, we take 55th Street west and cross Twelfth Avenue into the terminal.

Both piers share one entrance. The terminal says most of its traffic is buses, shuttles, taxis and drop-offs, and on a sailing morning they all make the same turn at 55th Street.

Drop-off is at street level at your ship's pier, with signs on the pillars naming each ship. Porters take your checked bags there and move them to the ship, and you go up by elevator or escalator to the customs hall. Keep passports, boarding documents, medicine and valuables in your carry-on, because checked bags leave with the porters at the curb.

The terminal's directions name the 59th Street-Columbus Circle subway station (A, B, C, D and 1), then a walk down Eighth Avenue and along 52nd Street to Twelfth Avenue. That's easy with a backpack, and a long way with two large suitcases each.

Getting to Red Hook

The Brooklyn terminal is in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Red Hook has no subway station. The closest stations are Carroll Street and Smith-9th Streets on the F and G. The B61 bus stops at Pioneer Street and Van Brunt Street, about four long blocks from the entrance, and NYC Ferry's South Brooklyn route stops at the Red Hook landing. All three work if you travel light. With luggage, take a car, and book your Brooklyn Cruise Terminal pickup ahead.

From Manhattan, we take the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel into Brooklyn, a short stretch of the westbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and its first exit, Exit 26 for Hamilton Avenue. The service road leads to Van Brunt Street. Two blocks along Van Brunt, a right onto Bowne Street brings you to the gate. The tunnel has a toll, and on the way back it comes out in the Financial District.

From JFK, the Belt Parkway runs west across south Brooklyn to the Gowanus Expressway and the same Hamilton Avenue exit. Parkways don't allow commercial vehicles and have height limits. Our Sprinters take the expressways instead. From New Jersey the terminal's directions use the Goethals Bridge, the Staten Island Expressway and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, then the Gowanus north to Exit 26.

Choosing the car for sailing day

The terminals say ships usually dock between 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM, bag drop starts no earlier than 9:30 AM, and boarding usually begins between 11:30 AM and 12:30 PM. Your cruise line sets the latest check-in time, and it's in your travel documents. Neither terminal stores luggage. If you arrive long before bags are accepted, you'll stand in the hall with them.

On sailing day you have a lot of luggage and a time you can't miss. Choose the car by your bags first. A Business SUV takes up to 5 passengers with 3 large and 3 small bags. A First Class sedan takes 3 passengers with 2 large and 1 small. Two couples with two large suitcases each already need more than one SUV. That's when the 12-seat Sprinter makes sense, with room for 10 large and 2 small bags. See the fleet for seats and bags, class by class.

If you have stops before the pier, like a hotel checkout, a relative's apartment and a pharmacy, book by the hour. Your bags stay in the car between stops, and the pier is the last one. You can book any class by the hour, with a 3-hour minimum. See hourly rates.

Return day and customs

Getting off the ship works in reverse. Porters put the bags in the baggage hall. You collect yours and go through U.S. Customs and Border Protection before you leave the building. Only then do you reach the taxi stand and the waiting lot for booked cars outside. Mobile Passport Control, the CBP app that shortens the line at JFK and Newark, works at only four seaports as of September 2026: Miami, Palm Beach, Port Everglades and San Juan. So it doesn't help in New York or Bayonne.

The terminals say passengers who parked their own cars are often through customs and gone by 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM. At the pier, the airport waiting times don't apply. You get 15 minutes of free waiting from the pickup time. Waiting charges start after that. So don't book the car for the moment the ship docks. Send us a message when all your bags are on the cart, naming the exit door. That gives a better pickup time than the ship's arrival time.

A ride from the pier to the airport has one flat rate to JFK, LaGuardia or Newark, with tolls, airport fees and taxes included. From Red Hook, the usual route to JFK is the Belt Parkway, and to LaGuardia the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway north to the Grand Central Parkway. From Piers 88 and 90, Newark is the Lincoln Tunnel and the New Jersey Turnpike. If your flight is late in the day, book by the hour. Your bags stay in the car through lunch and a stop or two, and the airport is the last stop.