Cruises from New York: Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Cape Liberty

Sailing from New York: what to know

New York is the no-airport cruise market: twenty million people can reach a gangway by subway, train, or a modest drive, and the lines have built a genuinely deep calendar for them. Know your terminals, they're different trips. Manhattan's West Side piers host Norwegian and Carnival plus the luxury lines. Brooklyn's Red Hook terminal is home to MSC, seasonal Princess, and Cunard's Queen Mary 2, the last true ocean liner. Cape Liberty in Bayonne is Royal Caribbean's house, with Jersey-side parking that beats Manhattan's rates badly.

The routes are seasonal in the best way. Summer belongs to Bermuda, the classic 6-to-7-night run that docks in the island for two or three days (a cruise that behaves like a resort stay). Fall turns the same ships north for New England and Canada foliage. Winter sends week-plus Bahamas and Caribbean sailings south, with two sea days each way as the price of skipping LaGuardia in January, and plenty of cruisers consider that a bargain. And the Queen Mary 2's transatlantic crossings to Southampton run spring through fall: seven nights, no ports, formal nights, the last of a species.

Booking notes for this market: winter Caribbean from New York suits sea-day lovers and flight-haters, be honest about which you are, Bermuda weeks sell out by early spring, and terminal choice changes your embarkation day by an hour or more of logistics. Courtney sorts the three-terminal calendar weekly, matches the line culture to the traveler, and books the balcony-and-credit promotions the public sites underplay. Free, since the lines pay her commission.