Cape Liberty Cruise Port | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Freedom of the Seas docked at the terminal | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Piers 11 and 12 14 Port Terminal Boulevard,Bayonne,New Jersey 07002 United States | ||||
| Coordinates | 40°39′53″N74°04′29″W / 40.6646°N 74.07462°W /40.6646; -74.07462 | ||||
| Owned by | Port Authority of New York and New Jersey | ||||
| Operated by | Royal Caribbean Group Metro Cruise Services | ||||
| Connections |  34th Street station (1.9 mi (3.1 km) to the west; access via cruise shuttles, taxis, and limousines) | ||||
| Construction | |||||
| Structure type | Pier | ||||
| Parking | Yes | ||||
| Accessible | Yes | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Website | cruiseliberty | ||||
| History | |||||
| Opened | May 2004[1] | ||||
| |||||
TheCape Liberty Cruise Port is one of three trans-Atlantic passenger terminals in thePort of New York and New Jersey. It is located inBayonne,New Jersey at the north side of the 2 mi (3.2 km) long pier of thePeninsula at Bayonne Harbor, a former military ocean terminal, and began operations in 2004.[2]
The Cape Liberty Cruise Port is located on a 430-acre (170 ha) site that had been originally developed for industrial uses in the 1930s and then taken over by the U.S. government duringWorld War II as theMilitary Ocean Terminal at Bayonne. After conversion of a portion of the site for use as a passenger terminal with full customs and immigration facilities, in May 2004, theVoyager of the Seas became the first ship to depart from the site, the first time in almost four decades that a passenger ship had departed from a port in the state.[3] TheVoyager of the Seas was one of two ships to have her base of operations shifted to Bayonne from theManhattan Cruise Terminal on theHudson River waterfront ofManhattan's West Side.[4]
Royal Caribbean is one of the port's primary tenants. In May 2006Freedom of the Seas – then the world's largest cruise ship – was christened in a broadcast carried live on the NBC'sThe Today Show.[5]Celebrity Cruises basesCelebrity Summit out of Cape Liberty from May to October.
Before the cruise terminal opened in 2004, no cruise ships had been based out of the New JerseyHudson Waterfront since theHamburg-America Line left itsHoboken, New Jersey dock several decades previously.[6]
Oasis of the Seas was originally supposed to begin to sail out of Cape Liberty in May 2020, but due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, it ended up beginning to sail out in September 2021 for the 2022–24 seasons.[7][8]
The city of Bayonne has rented land from PANYNJ and is negotiating withSeaStreak to establish ferry service to Manhattan, with a terminal adjacent to the cruise port.[9] Service was expected to begin in September 2020.[10]
