Five Boro Bike Tour 2007 - Ferry from Staten Island in the Morning

For the bike tour, is it generally mayhem trying to take the ferry
from SI to Battery park the morning of the tour? I understand that
leaving the party on SI later in day, there will be long waits in line
for the ferry. I would expect it to be worse in the morning since
everyone is arriving around the same time.

The other approach I am considering is to take the PATH train in from
Jersey City; however, this means I will have to take the ferry back to
Manhattan, ride to the the train station, then the train to get back
to the parking lot for my car. If I take the ferry in the morning my
car will be parked on SI for easy access at the end of the tour.

If you have been through this before please share your experience so I
can work out the logistics. Thanks!

On Mon, 23 Apr 2007 08:56:51 -0700, HKEK wrote:

For the bike tour, is it generally mayhem trying to take the ferry from
SI to Battery park the morning of the tour? I understand that leaving
the party on SI later in day, there will be long waits in line for the
ferry. I would expect it to be worse in the morning since everyone is
arriving around the same time.

The other approach I am considering is to take the PATH train in from
Jersey City; however, this means I will have to take the ferry back to
Manhattan, ride to the the train station, then the train to get back to
the parking lot for my car. If I take the ferry in the morning my car
will be parked on SI for easy access at the end of the tour.

If you have been through this before please share your experience so I
can work out the logistics. Thanks!

I assume that you have already registered. There will be no day of
registration. Online registration has already closed. You can register in
person at the Youth Hostel at 103rd and Amsterdam. However, continued
registration is on a day-to-day basis. One reason for closing
registration, is to limit the number of participants in order to avoid
problems at the ferry.

Instructions for parking on Staten Island are on page 21 in the program,
which is mailed back to all registered participants. Approximately 6,000
riders take the ferry in the morning. The ferry will run every 1/2 hour
from 5:30 to 8:30. The 8:30 boat is the last boat that will arrive in
Manhattan in time to join the tour. You should plan on taking an earlier
boat.

Boats will be running every 15 minutes from 12 noon until the end of the
tour. The maximum wait for a boat was 35 minutes last year. Most of the
time, waits were 15 minutes or less.

This was in sharp contrast to the experience two years ago, when one of
the boats had to be taken out of service during the middle of the day
because of mechanical problems. Everybody concerned with the ferry
operation received black eyes because of that problem. They worked hard
to come up with operational plans to prevent a similar occurrence last
year. Afternoon service similar to last year's is expected this year.

Stephen Bauman