Help! In NY this weekend, total ignorant?

[idofabric]

I have to take my son to NY this weekend, found out on Monday night! We got a great deal on flight/hotel, and am staying at the Brooklyn Bridge Marriot. It has great rating, and next to a sub way stop....

But HELP!!!

Haven't been to NY,NY since I was 6yo and the parents went to an off-off B'way show, and I had to sit on Leonard Neimoy(Spock) lap to get home to Jersey- so you all know how long ago that was!

I was going to drive, but it would have been 15+ hours from home, each way.
We are going up on Fri morning, will get into LaGu. Aiport around 10am, and then have to make my way into the city... HOW??? I can get a cheap rental, oldest DS works for Enterprise, and parking is only $5 a day at the hotel, but everyone, and I mean EVERYone I have talked to told me I would be seriously insane to drive in NY, NY! I have driven in LA, Toyko, and Europe for years... but they say it still isn't NY, NY...

We must be in Purchase, NY at SUNY at 8am, Sat 14th for his audition at the univ. HOW can I get there if I don't drive? I have gotten info from the school site and could use the ?lite rail? buses? SO confused....

But the really, really big thing,for me, is that I can go to the Disney Store in NY! If I can find out how to get there! and we want to do a show, so I will make him take his student ID, and I need to go to the MET to see the costume/clothing exhibit. What else to do?

We leave Mon, feb 16 about 7pm so we will have Fri afternoon/evening, Sat late afternoon/evening all day Sun and Mon.

Please, help me with all the info I might need! DS would love to do and see some sites, like Central Park.
This is also my 25th wed. Ann trip- but DH can't gocause of work! I am going to use that to angle a WDW trip latter this year! We never got a honeymoon either- life just happened....

Thanks to all and any that has any info for me. I am madly surfing the web, and the Subway map is a little confusing, I plan to live in the hotel conc. office till I can get all the help I need, but I hate to wing the entire trip!
As long as we get up to Purchase, SUNY at the correct time on Sat everything else can be spur of the moment!

 

[java]

On their website there is this

From NYC via rail from Grand Central Station:
Take the Harlem/Metro North Line to White Plains. Board the Anderson Hill Road bus No. 12 or take a taxi to campus. Alternatively, take the New Haven/Metro North Line to Rye and take a taxi to campus.
For more information about bus or train services, see the MTA Homepage.
I would take the new haven line personally. and then a cab.
Oh and you would catching that train at Grand Central station.
Here's part of the schedule for saturday
http://as0.mta.info/mnr/schedules/sched_results.cfm

I wouldn't drive. Where is the marriot at the Brooklyn bridge? I'm going to go look.

 

[wdhinn89]

I would rent the car and drive from airport to hotel and hotel to college. That's it.

Driving in Manhattan is crazy! Just get in and out. Take train and taxi's for your site seeing.

 

[Camicar]

I will reiterate that you do not want to drive around NYC. Use taxis. If you do not feel comfortable using the subway, use taxis. There are about a zillion of them.

If you want to see a show, I always recommend the Txts booth in Time Square for discounted prices. Times Square should be seen at night as well as during the daytime. The Metropolitan Museum is the best art museum in the country, of course, but what a lot of folks don't know is about the Cloisters Museum in the Bronx which specializes in medieval materials. People seem to be evenly divided on the Empire State and Rockefeller -- Rockefeller is supposed to have the best view, but there is nothing IMO like being in the Empire State -- it's just so iconic. Statue of Liberty is IMO a must see. I refuse to go to Ground Zero because it would make me too emotional, but I do know tons of folks who have been there and have found it meaningful.

I'll be honest with you that I've never understood why tourists think Central Park is such a big deal, but anyway...

One great way to see NYC or at least to get an idea of the most popular sightseeing sites is to use the Grayline Bus Tour. The Hop On-Hop Off 'tour' is an inexpensive way to get around to all the main sites and you get off when you want to and rejoin the bus on another loop run. If you don't use the service, you can still check the website to get ideas. For example their 3 day hop on-hop off 'tour' includes these stops: Three consecutive days of unlimited hop-on, hop-off privileges on Uptown Loop (Central Park, Lincoln Center, American Museum of Natural History, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Harlem, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim and other famous cultural attractions on the Museum Mile), Downtown Loop (Times Square. Empire State Building, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown, Financial District, Battery Park, South Street Seaport) Brooklyn Loop (the Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Antique Furniture District, Fulton Museum) Night Tour (fully-guided evening part that encompasses the Empire State Building, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Chinatown, the Lower East Side, Rockefeller Center, Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Promenade and more), admission to the Empire State Building Observatory and a ticket for Lady Liberty Harbor Cruise.

 

[idofabric]

Thank YOU, all of you!
The Marriot is at 333 Adams in Brooklyn, there is a ton of Metro stops close.

I have spent a zillion hours online and think! I have the way to get to SUNY figured out. I did want to get a car and drive up there Sat morning, BUT if I rent a car I have to have it back to the rental place,(checked several!) before noon on Sat or keep it till Monday, and at that point it is a rental for 5 days since I would be over the 24 hour time on MON and be charged for Tues also... the cheapest rental, with the sons employee discount was over $250!

SO it will take about 2 hours to get up there... with luck! I have also figured out that we will be getting the Unlimited Metro pass thingy... and have figured out, kinda, what we are gonna do, maybe...

We are gonna go to a show, which ever we can get into at the discount TKTS booth. I am having the son take his school ID, and of course, our military IDs, not that that will help.
And I want to go to the MOMA. Costumes/clothing exbit for me.
Maybe the garmet dist, if I can find it... it is Fashion Week, as my 24yo DD in LA told me, she is green with envy!
And then we will just see what else comes up. I would like to go to the Statue of Lib, but I tend to take a loooooonnnnggg time at places like that!

I did talk DS into getting some long pants, and a few shirts, he only owned shorts and short sleeve shirts... and a hoodie! I am making him take long sleeve shirts/T's and a sweater. He would, and has gone out in snow with the shorts!

Thanks again folks... getting a little excited, but still have laundry to do, and photos to download, and stuff to find.... and, oh, yeah, pack!