Kingston Downer

Kingston, NY
No LL

Things change. Not always for the better.

We stayed in Kingston several times before. We used the Kingston City Docks. It was a bargain, charging us only $30/day to stay there. This time we got a price shock. The Kingston City Dock raised their price to $2 per foot ($69 day)! We didn't find out until already tied up and secure.

What do we consider a fair price for a marina? $1.25 to $1.50 per foot is OK. $1 low and more than $1.50 we normally refuse to pay. Of course it depends on location and on facilities. For $2, a marina should offer opulent facilities: bathrooms, showers, sailor's lounge, convenient water and electricity, trash and waste oil disposal, perhaps loaner bicycles, swimming pool, ships store, security, and everything clean.

At the Kingston City Dock there are nearby restaurants, a bus stop, public toilets and a public shower (not owned by the marina), no lounge, no laundry, water and power but very inconvenient, trash, good security, and dirty run-down docks. It's worth about $0.75 per foot.

We rode the bus to the supermarket yesterday. That was a disappointment too. We had thought Kingston to be a jewel of a city, based on our view from the Rondout Creek frontage area. Seeing more of the city from the bus, we see that it's mostly a very ugly, chaotic place.

I don't think we'll be coming back here any more.

Oh well. I'm just trying to prove the point that not every day and not every place we visit are uniformly nice. This blog is overwhelmingly positive, but I try not to whitewash the truth.