My granddaughter and I will be off on another train adventure in June. We will spend a couple of days in NY city before heading down to FBG. From there we will take VRE to and from DC for a few more days.
After checking out of our NY hotel, we want to store our luggage for a few hours while we finish up our sightseeing. My first question is, can we store our bags at NYP? If so, where and how much?
Question #2 is, how complicated is it to get to our train? I've done lots of reading about the station, and it is very intimidating. It would simplify things if we got a red cap to take us and our bags to the train, but I understand that they are nearly invisible. I have a one day lounge pass thanks to the generosity if fellow AUer Ben_G, but am saving it to use in DC to avoid paying $60-$70 in bag storage fees there on the day we head home.
#3- How much time should we allow to retrieve our bags, search for the elusive red cap, and get to our train. It leaves NYP at 3:05 (train #85)?
Thanks so much for any help and advice you can give me. Be sure to keep it simple and use small words!
I had a similar experience in January, and here's how I handled it. Even though I was traveling by myself, I was on a multi-week trip and had more than the usual amount of luggage. My checkout was in just enough time to get to Penn Station, so I departed directly from my hotel (off of Bryant Park, so not too far from Penn Station).
In your case, I would inquire of your hotel (preferably ahead of time) if you can leave your bags there and then retrieve them when it's time to depart. This seems to me to be to be a simpler solution than trying to navigate the zoo that is Penn Station and use options there. Hotels in NYC are pretty used to this arrangement, and even though some might balk a bit and some might charge, it would, in my opinion, still be cheaper than paying to store them at Penn. Hopefully your hotel isn't located obscenely far from Penn Station (like in New Jersey) so that this could be a realistic option for you.
Anyway, when it was time for me to depart the hotel, I used the Way2Ride app on my smartphone to enter my travel information and hail a cab (this insured that I was booking a valid medallion cab and thus one licensed by the Taxicab Commission). Alternately, you can have a hotel concierge or valet hail one for you on the spot. When I and my luggage were fully boarded, I explained to the driver that my destination was Penn Station and not the Penn Station Bus Station (which is another entrance aways away from the train station). When we got closer, he inquired again and I ensured that he wasn't dropping me off by the main entrance, but by the taxicab stand. It is recognizable by a grey PVC tent-like awning extension protruding from the building, which I was told stays in place year-round. There is a taxi stand attendant, with a nametag and telltale whistle whose job it is to assist passengers with their taxi needs. Without even inquiring, the attendant on that shift, Mr Rodriquez, offered to summon a redcap. Unlike Chicago or Washington, redcaps at Penn Station use manual hand trucks to transport luggage in and out of the station and use the escalators just as passengers do. He used the courtesy phone at the stand to request a redcap after inquiring which train I was departing on. In my case, he had to make two requests before a redcap showed, so it pays to not cut it too close to your departure train.
Once the redcap arrived and there were words exchanged (in typical New York fashion) between the attendant and the redcap about the delay, the redcap loaded up my luggage and we were off to the station. Once inside, we went directly to the redcap assistance station and he told me that I had plenty of time to get a sandwich if I wanted and to meet him back at the kiosk at a time which was 15 minutes or so later. After I patronized a couple of the concessionaires at Penn, I met him back at the redcap stand and he transported my luggage to the Ticketed Passengers Only waiting area. He was originally going to wait with me until boarding, but momentarily got called to assist another passenger. Nevertheless, he returned right about the time for first boarding and escorted me and my luggage directly to the
Northeast Regional (to DC, in my case), placing my luggage directly on the train. He even noted that one of my bags was definitely overweight and to “not let the conductor touch it” lest I be charged an excess/overlimit baggage fee. All in all, it couldn't have been more painless---which was exactly the opposite of the way I thought it was going to be. Both the taxi stand attendant and the redcap were worth double the generous gratuity I gave them. They were each pleasant and helpful; something station personnel in other cities could learn from.
So a similar plan of action would be my recommendation for your trip. It will be June, in the peak of the travel season, so there might not be as accommodating personnel on duty, but I'm guessing the sight of a grandmother and her granddaughter will help make up for that.
By all means, notice nametags and ID badges if possible so that you can be assured that the persons helping you are indeed authorized personnel (and can be identified later should something go awry).