We’ve all seen them, and sometimes salivated over them: gorgeous pictures of Caribbean cruises. But what we witnessed on a gorgeous morning in June was something more interesting—a bustling cruise port right in our front yard.
Though it may seem as if cruise ships are all about out-of-town tourists voyaging to foreign ports, Cape Liberty Cruise Port is all about our local economy: Folks from Bayonne work here, helping to keep this thriving business afloat.
The cruise line produces an average of $480,000 in parking taxes annually and $1.4 million annually in port fees, according to Bayonne CFO Terrence Malloy. “Local businesses benefit when the cruise employees shop and dine in town,” Malloy says. “We also have a hotel that is in the planning stages due to the volume of passengers that are coming into Bayonne. The city also benefits from the positive image that a cruise line brings to a community.”
Cape Liberty is a mosaic of contradictions. On the cruise port side, you have excited passengers embarking and disembarking from a huge ship. Across the way, it’s all heavy industry, with container ships offloading their cargo at GCT Bayonne. Behind us is the Bayonne Dry Dock, and perhaps, most incongruous of all, on an adjacent grassy knoll, the famous—or infamous—teardrop-shaped memorial “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism.”
As you enter the dock area through a covered passageway, you sense the activity. Everyone is dressed in fluorescent green vests, forklifts move back and forth, linesmen tie off the lines, announcements drift over the PA system, and passengers line up on the deck.
Various areas on the side of the ship warn “No Tugs.” This means that there are doors there that would open if pushed by a tug. On the stern is the word Valletta, which indicates that the ship is registered in Malta.
But what’s that noise?
Nothing you’d expect: a fleet of motorcycles. It turns out that bikers rent their cycles when they get to the port of call. They roar from the hold of the ship and park their bikes under a protective canopy.
A Small Town
We know cruise ships are big, but it’s still a shock when you see one of these giant vessels tied to the dock. This Sunday morning, it’s the Celebrity Summit that’s just cruised in. Here are her stats: occupancy, 2,158; tonnage, 90,940; length, 965 feet; beam, 105 feet; draught, 26 feet; and cruise speed, 24 knots.
Our tour guide is Captain Thomas Hinderhofer, director, Northeast Port Operations & Cape Liberty Cruise Port LLC RCCL.
A Long Island native, he trained at SUNY Maritime College and had captained these ships before assuming his current post.
Looking up at this vessel, I comment that the notion of docking this thing seems daunting. “It’s pretty maneuverable,” Thomas says casually. Wind, currents, “bad weather,” he takes it all in stride. “Nothing out of the ordinary.” These laidback assessments come after I’ve invoked rogue waves and The Perfect Storm.
The lines that secure the ship are about as big around as I am. The workers here are members of Local 1588 of the International Longshoreman’s Association, with headquarters on Kennedy Boulevard in Bayonne.
Some of the lingo tossed around smacks of airline terminals: check-in agents, ground handlers, Customs. But the ship is probably closer to a giant hotel—it has a hotel director—or small town. Garbage is handled by a waste-management company that does all the usual recycling. Produce, dairy, meat, and “dry stores” like linens and bed sheets are delivered.
One thing you notice right away is that women workers are a presence on the dock. Thomas confirms that back in the day, that would not have been the case.
Bon Voyage!
This seven night/eight day roundtrip cruise to Bermuda will leave at 1400 hours. It boasts 997 crew members. The bridge crew consists of 14, but only three officers are on the bridge at any given time.
The busy season for cruising from the Northeast is May through October. On this early June departure date, it’s warm and sunny. But it’s easy to imagine the conditions on this dock in winter. Thomas greets everyone he sees and takes obvious pride in improving their working conditions. “It sucks in winter,” he acknowledges, noting small sheds that protect them from wind and weather, the coffee shop, and “luxury port-a johns.” He says, “They work hard.”
Aboard ship, passengers enjoy all the amenities you would expect: copious food, sports, music, dancing, and two pools, a spa pool and saltwater pool.
From the bow, some 145 feet in the air, the views are spectacular, even while the ship is in port: lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Verrazano Bridge are just a few of the landmarks.
Even Bigger
On Saturday, June 17, the Anthem of the Seas docks at Cape Liberty at about 0700 hours. A light drizzle greets her, unlike the bright sun that greeted the Summit. This behemoth—the third-largest cruise ship—made her maiden voyage in 2015. She’s 1,142 feet long, 161 feet wide, carries up to 4,819 passengers, travels at 22 knots, and has a crew of 1,300.
The Anthem makes five night/six day roundtrip cruises to Bermuda and the Bahamas. This nearly brand-new ship with its baby-blue hull has all the amenities you would expect. It sits high on the water like a huge floating hotel, honeycombed with staterooms. The height of the railings is strategically designed for optimum safety. The lifeboats are as big as studio apartments. They’re fully covered and feature heat and heads.
Thomas says that check-in time from curbside to gangways is only 10 minutes. Look up and you can see passengers walking along the enclosed gangways. They enter their staterooms with key cards.
From the top deck, the ship’s mascot, Gigi, the giraffe, peers down on the action below, looking like a huge kids’ toy and introducing an incongruous note into what Thomas calls “the most technically advanced ship in the world.”—Kate Rounds
