Help a Brit please...........Re. NY (Coney Island)

[kazzie]

Hi Everyone,
I hope any native New Yorkers might have the time to give me some advice about my four night trip to NY this October.My DH and me have been before but this time we are taking DD age 16 and DS age 13.

DS has Asperger's Syndrome (autism) and loves fun fairs,especially old fashioned ones.I would love for us to go to Coney island and wanted to ask some questions.
We are staying at the Metro which is on 45 West 35th street.There is a subway at the end of the street would it be easy to get subway/train to Coney Island?

Is Coney actually open and a wroking fair? If not is it still worth a trip to look at it,are there still rides etc. there?

Is it safe for tourists to go there during the day? I know that sounds stupid bearing in mind I live inn a city so am pretty streetwise but have heard things about Coney being not a good idea for tourists?

Lastly any other advice on where to go? We will be taking them to Statue Of Liberty,I believe you can no longer go up it,can you still get off the boat and walk around and look in the little museum?Empire state Building etc.

I would love to say they will want to go in museums and are galleries but the truth is they won't! My Dd is 16 and wants to go shopping and my DS who has a short attention span would be bored!

Any other ideas??

Thank you very much in advance

 

[charlie,nj]

Hi Karen,

I live right arcoss from NYC in New Jersey.

Here is a great NYC tourist web site:

www.nyctourist.com

Here is the New York State web site for SoL:
(sounds like everything is still closed)

www.nps.gov/stli

Don't forget about Ellis Island and if you you take the boat over to New Jeresy's Liberty State Park you will see great views of NYC skyline, Sol and EI. (the picture in my sig is from LSP)

Don't know about CI I heard the same things that you have. I am sure a NY DISer will answer your question.

Have fun.

 

[WDWHound]

When we were in New Jersey a couple of weeks ago, Mandy and I went to Coney Island to try to ride the Cyclone (perhaps the most famous roller coaster on the planet). Sadly, it was closed due to rain. I don't know much about the area, but I can answer a few questions based on our experiences.

Are there rides? Yes. An amusement Park call Astroland is there. It features 2 famous rides (the Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone), and a bunch of smaller, carnival type rides. Be aware that Astoland closes for the day if it rains even slightly at any point in the day. There are also other other, smaller attactions (a merry go round, haunted house, etc) outside of Astroworld, most of which were close during our visit due to rain as well. The original Nathen's Hot Dogs is also there. Definitely worth a visit (yum!). There is also a nice boardwalk which runs along the coast.

Is it safe? We thought so. there are lots of police around and we didn't see anything that made us feel uncomfortable.

Is it nice? To be honest, most of the area, with the exception of the boardwalk, is very run down. Even so, the area still has a charater all its own and I think it worth a visit, expecially if your son is interested in old fashion amusement parks. As someone who has a passion for amusement park history, I found our visit facinating, even though I didn't get to ride th Cyclone or the Wonder Wheel. We spent 2 hours there just looking around.

Feel free to PM me if I can share any experiences from our visit.

 

[Briar Rose 7457]

WDWHound has pretty much described it. you can get there by subway, but the MTA is doing work on the coney island lines right now, so you need to be aware that some of the trains have been replaced by bus service. ].NYC Transit

if you like old fashioned amusement parks, another alternative would be Rye Playland. you can take MetroNorth up to Rye.

 

[Robinrs]

I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and Coney Island was the only amusement park I knew till I was grown! It was old and run down then but it was all I knew!

I grew up riding the Cyclone, it was the reason I'm a roller coaster fiend to this day! I compare all coasters to this one, which is the classic of all wooden coasters.

There is NOTHING like the experience Coney Island and the famous Nathan's hot dogs! Go and enjoy and I am soooo jealous!

 

[WDWfan uk]

.. Karen, the best time to visit the Empire State Building is early - we took this advice and certainly didn't regret it. (We were there mid-October last year).

Does Mattie like simulators? You can have a simulator ride in the Empire State Building for extra dollars!

You might want to go to Battery park fairly early too so you don't have to wait a long time for the boat across to the Statue Of Liberty - we walked round to the Statten Island Ferry (costs nothing) and didn't get off! Just wanted to see the view of the harbour from the sea and you do see the Statue of Liberty quite well but not too close.

There's a good thread started by Astrid on the UK CB on New York too.

 

[kazzie]

I just got in and rushed to the computer hoping someone had answered my post Thank you all so much It was very helpful advice.I will check out the sites now too.

I will definitely be going to CI after your advice, and as for Nathans hot dogs they will be a cert too,Robin I'll have one for you

Shirely,
I didn't take a ride around Staten Island so I will try to do that this time as it would be nice for us to do something we haven't done before too I will remeber to get to SOL early,I made that mistake last time I went

Charlie,yes I forgot Elllis Island Mattie will like the human side of the stories there.

Briar Rose thanks for advice on how to get to CI!

WDWHound I did expect it to be a bit run down but like you, expect to find it so full of character and times now past (oh sentimental me!) I so want to see the boardwalk too.

Cheers,I will print this off now to save