Cape Liberty Bayonne (New Jersey)

The Port of New York and New Jersey occupies a large area in New York Harbor, encompassing the coastline within a 25-mi/40-km radius of the Liberty Statue. The Port (locode USNYC) has a total of three cruise ports - two in NYC (New York) and one in Bayonne (New Jersey). These ports have separate passenger terminals and docking infrastructure.

In New York City are the New York Passenger Ship Terminal (Manhattan Island's western coast, Hudson River) and Brooklyn Cruise Terminal (~6 mi / 10 km to the south, on eastern Upper New York Bay, Buttermilk Channel, Brooklyn's Red Hook waterline).

Cape Liberty Cruise Port (part of Port Jersey) is also in New York Harbor (Upper NY Bay, fka MOTBY/Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne) but is part of Bayonne NJ.

IMPORTANT: Bayonne New Jersey Port's cruise terminal serves Royal Caribbean Group/RCG-owned ships from the fleets of RCG's subsidiaries RCI-Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises. The ships of RCG's subsidiary Silversea dock at NYC's Manhattan Terminal.

The Port of NY and NJ is also a district of the New York-Newark NJ Metro (part of the Greater New York (ranked the world's largest Metro by population/~24 million). New York Metro is a Tri-State region grouping 23 counties (13 in NY, 9 in NJ, and 1 in Pennsylvania/Pike County PA).

By annual cruise ship passenger traffic, Port NY and NJ's terminals are currently ranked the USA's 6th and the world's 16th busiest.

Cape Liberty Cruise Port (Bayonne)

Cape Liberty is an exclusive cruise port in New Jersey (Bayonne Harbor) featuring a 2 mi/3,2 km long dock/pier and a passenger terminal. Port Cape Liberty was inaugurated in May 2004.

Form Bayonne, Royal Caribbean-owned ships operate mainly roundtrip itineraries visiting destinations in the Caribbean (including Florida and The Bahamas) and Bermuda.

In the autumn are operated one-way "Fall Foliage" themed voyages to ports in Canada and New England USA.

On seasonal relocation (RepositionCruises.com) are often offered Transatlantic crossings between NYC-NJ and Europe (Mediterranean) and the UK (Southampton).

Cape Liberty is a convenient homeport for sea voyages because most of the tourists arrive by flight, and the cruise port is in close proximity (approx 10 mi/16 km to the east-southeast) to Newark Airport (around 40 minutes drive distance via Highway I-78E).

The Port's main tenant is RCI-Royal Caribbean International, which homeporting/turnaround operations from New Jersey started in May 2006 with Freedom of the Seas. In 2015, RCI's second QUANTUM-class vessel Anthem of the Seas was also homeported in Cape Liberty, replacing Liberty of the Seas.

In 2016, Cape Liberty reported a record number of handled cruise passengers - 509,306, which was 2,4% increase over 2015's 497,780 passengers.

RCI's roundtrips from Bayonne NJ are operated the whole year round. Cruise itinerary lengths vary between 5-12 nights. During summer, Celebrity Cruises also homeports one vessel at Cape Liberty. In 2023, in Bayonne were homeported RCI's ships Oasis OTS, Anthem OTS, Liberty OTS, and Jewel OTS, as well as Celebrity Summit. The Port's schedule 2024 listed the liners Anthem OTS, Liberty OTS, Symphony OTS, Odyssey OTS, and Celebrity Eclipse.

In October 2018, Bayonne City officials selected the company SeaStreak Ferry (1986-founded as TNT Hydrolines) to provide regularly scheduled high-speed commuter ferries for the NY-NJ route. The deal included leasing 65000 ft2/6040 m2 of land at Port Jersey's Marine Terminal. As of 2023, SeaStreak Ferry has a fleet of 9 vessels (double-hulled diesel catamarans) and operates on 3 waterways (Hudson River, East River, New York Bay) linking 8 terminals. On Hudson River, SeaStreak operates the routes linking Belford NJ (Monmouth County) with NYC's Manhattan (Battery Park City Ferry Terminal), and Jersey City (Paulus Hook Ferry Terminal) with NYC's West Midtown Ferry Terminal.

On February 13, 2020, the NY-NJ Port Authority's commissioners approved a 10-year lease for the new commuter ferry service linking Jersey City (Cape Liberty's Military Ocean Terminal) with NYC's Lower Manhattan (Wall Street Pier 11, and East 34th Street Ferry Landing).

In 2018 was inaugurated the ferry route connecting Bayonne with Manhattan (across Hudson River). A US$650,000 federal grant was given to the city for building of a ferry terminal. The facility is on the southern part of Military Ocean Terminal, on an artificial peninsula east of Route 440. The 1,5-acre land site (former US Navy base) was purchased in 2010 and leased for ferry docking at US$200,000 per year.

In the previous year (2017) NYC Ferry inaugurated the commute ferry service linking Manhattan with Long Island (Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Bronx). In 2016, NYC Ferry's fleet consisted of 19 newbuild boats.

• On May 1st were launched the East River route (North Brooklyn to Midtown and NYC's Financial District) and the Rockaway route (Lower Manhattan to Sunset Park and The Rockaways).
• On June 1st was launched the South Brooklyn route (8 terminals/between Corlears Hook and Bay Ridge) linking Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Red Hook, Brooklyn Bridge Park.
• On August 29th was launched the Astoria route (between Western Queens and Roosevelt Island) linking Wall Street/Pier 11, East 34th Street, LIC/Long Island City Queens, Roosevelt Island Manhattan, and Astoria Queens.

In August 2018, NYC Ferry launched a link between Soundview (South Bronx) and Manhattan. The landing site in Bronx is at Clason Point Park (Sound View Ave's end). The nearest subway station (Morrison Ave-Sound View) is 2 mi (3 km) away. Ferry travel time Bronx-Manhattan is 45-min. In Manhattan, ferries stop at 90th St (Upper East Side), East 34th Str (Midtown), Pier 11 (Wall Str). Currently, NYC Ferry operates 6 routes.

Cape Liberty Bayonne cruise terminal