The Big New York Thread

[arab_joe]

5 hours ago, Jamie_B said:

I just realised I didn’t copy and paste in day three of my itinerary we don’t fly til 5pm on the third day so I’ve got Rockefeller Center on the list for first thing that morning!

If you have a third day then I would personally try and somehow fit in the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island tour (in place of the Staten Island Ferry) which I think is an absolute bargain and hugely informative (about NYC but also about the USA in general).

[Mark Connolly]

7 hours ago, Jamie_B said:

I just realised I didn’t copy and paste in day three of my itinerary we don’t fly til 5pm on the third day so I’ve got Rockefeller Center on the list for first thing that morning!

Thanks for that. Can’t wait to get out there, for us this is a trip that was KOd by the very first Covid lockdown so that’s been a 4.5 year wait!

If you can fit in Top of the Rock before your show on the 2nd night, I'd highly recommend that.

They used to do a ticket where you could go up twice in the one day - morning and sunset, and going up in both the daylight and night is well worth it. If you're starting in the morning at Times Square and walking up to Central Park, it's on the way anyway, and if you go at night, it's a 5 min walk max from the Gershwin Theatre

[Honest Saints Fan]

Scrap midtown and explore more of East Village and lower east side. Its so interesting and has such great food places.

 

Hoping @Rugster takes me back next year for our 10th wedding anniversary! 

Edited August 27 by Honest Saints Fan

[Michael W]

On 24/08/2023 at 18:45, Michael W said:

Anyone been with young kids? If so, how did they find it? 

Got a good price currently for London-NYC-Toronto-London over the Easter Holidays next year and swithering on pulling the trigger. My daughter's 5 and always happy going along places, but we've never really done a break in a huge city with her before without a buggy so just wanting to see what others' experience was. No qualms at all about enough things for her to do, just wanting to gauge how it might be. Whilst I've got a good price, it will work out more expensive than, say, 10 nights in a decent All Inclusive on Southern Europe. So I want to make sure it'll be worth it. 

Went ahead and booked anyway, albeit in late August and not Easter. Got back on Monday. 

The little one turned 6 whilst we were there and was absolutely fine. A couple of moans of tired legs, but nothing worse than that. She is already badgering us to take her back there - she absolutely loved it. 

We did: Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Coney Island for Luna Park, Central Park and the zoo, Summit One Vanderbilt, Aladdin on Broadway, Times Square (briefly) and the Intrepid Musuem. We used the subway a lot for getting around - it is quite gritty but the service is very good. No need to get a metrocard as you can use contact less- single fare is $2.90 and there is a cap of $34 for a 7 day period (same as the metrocard and no need to pay a dollar for the card as well). 

Naturally I've come back more than a bit knackered from everything. Plenty of things that we didn't have the time (or the stamina) to see, so my daughter will get her wish, even if she has to wait a couple of years. 

We stayed in Midtown Manhattan, near the Port Authority. Excellent location if you're using the subway as we did, as Port Authority and Times Square 42nd cover just about whatever location you're looking for without having to change lines. We used the Airtrain from JFK to Jamaica station, changing onto the subway. Relatively easy process and substantially cheaper than getting a cab. We flew back from Newark so got the bus rather than a taxi - very efficient I have to say. The train would've been cheaper but would also have been a bit more of a pain with the luggage. 

A downside of the location we stayed in was that there is a fairly substantial amount of homeless people around, many of whom were exhibiting various degrees of pretty obvious mental health problems. At no point were any of them threatening towards passers by or anything like that, but the sight of quite a few of them lying on the ground totally KO'd from what I assume is fentanyl is pretty jarring. I also saw more than a few of them raking through bins, which is depressing and grim. I'm not naive enough to think this type of thing doesn't happen here as well, but it just seemed several levels worse than anything I've encountered here. 

Times Square itself is a pretty crappy place. Overly busy, indeed too busy, and there are more touts than I remembered from a previous visit. However, there is no getting away from how well connected its subway station is. There are a lot of hotels in the area and so its a good place to base yourself, even if the main bit of the Times Square area is best avoided. 

Be aware of the people dressed as Elmo / various other cartoon characters and are on hand for a picture with you. I'd read about them and had the scowl ready if accosted (the little one was duly warned there would be no pictures), but if you do get a picture with one of them, the rest of them will descend upon you as well and all of them will expect payment. I saw a lone female falling for it - she wanted a picture with Elmo and then Captain America and a pile of characters I didn't recognise appeared as well to join the photo. Expensive mistake.  

I particularly recommend One Vanderbilt. I've done the Rockerfeller and Empire State Buildings before, but thought the experience was much better at One Vanderbilt. The glass floor in particular was pretty cool and I thought you got a better overall view than you do at the Rockerfeller in particular. An obvious flaw of the Empire State Building is also that you can't see the most famous building in New York because you're up it. 

 

Edited September 3 by Michael W