It may be OK to join a cruise there, but awful if visiting/ overnight stay. Large number of passengers disembarking and wanting to get to Manhattan. Ferry every hour, taking 150 at a time - the queue stretching halfway back to the ship, so the rest of us had to find a bus/subway. Returning in evening was a real problem. Next day was a Sunday Aurora is not a large ship, so others would have much higher numbers. Never again.
Save money! Take the subway to Jay St/Fulton St/Metro Tech. There are taxis right outside, or walk across the street to the bus stop. Bus leg is for those in good shape, with a little time to spare, who want to save even more money. Taxi for those who want easier arrival at the terminal. It was a madhouse outside the terminal with people unloading multiple large suitcases for each member of sizeable groups. (We were there for the QM2 which has 3 formal nights per crossing.) We self-boarded with one suitcase each and were through the terminal almost as fast as we could walk. That part was great. The 3 is for the chaos outside. Multiple stretch limos that park wherever they want, ignoring officers with no consequence. Pickup limos mixed in with arrival limos, despite pickups being at another entrance. Vetting vehicles at the street entrance would have cut this down considerably, but officers were letting all vehicles enter, then trying to sort them out at the drop off entrance instead. It was like demolition derby with much nicer cars.
Pretty confusing so the Manhattan Cruise Terminal is better. Though you should fly and go to Cape Canaveral Cruise Terminal.
The terminal location is next to a parking garage and a gas station. You might have to loop around twice because once you actually see it, chances are you might not be in the correct turning lane. (That's what happened when using the GPS)
Dull and ugly, but we found it efficient and that's what you need.
Nicely organized and quick to get through customs. Great views of NYC!
I was here for a tech event. The Red Hook area is beautiful and quiet, but very out of the way.