New York tips and discussion

[tennisfan]

You'll easy get a photo with NYPD in Times Sq, they love the attention and always pose for photos

Thanks for the tip Your photos are awesome BTW

 

[disney_princess_85]

We have finally booked!

We're flying with Air France via Paris and staying at the New York Palace for four nights.

I welcome any additional tips/advice that anyone can think of. You've all been really helpful, thank you.

I look foward to seeing more pics Luke!

 

[tennisfan]

We have finally booked!

We're flying with Air France via Paris and staying at the New York Palace for four nights.

I welcome any additional tips/advice that anyone can think of. You've all been really helpful, thank you.

I look foward to seeing more pics Luke!

Fab news

 

[Sarah84]

We have finally booked!

We're flying with Air France via Paris and staying at the New York Palace for four nights.

I welcome any additional tips/advice that anyone can think of. You've all been really helpful, thank you.

I look foward to seeing more pics Luke!

Brilliant news

 

[stba2006]

I knew I could count on you guys to help.

We decided that we want to go to NY in Nvember, so the first place I came was here for advice, and I didn't evern have to ask

I'm getting excited already looking through all of the threads

 

[luke]

We have finally booked!

We're flying with Air France via Paris and staying at the New York Palace for four nights.

I welcome any additional tips/advice that anyone can think of. You've all been really helpful, thank you.

I look foward to seeing more pics Luke!

Dunno how I missed this, damn work getting in the way!!

Great news, you're gonna love the Palace!!

I'll try and get some more photos up sometime this week (would post room pics but I think all the ones taken in the room we're taken before housekeeping tidied up )!

 

[luke]

Oh ok, a few more pics while I print some worksheets for tomorrow's classes!

Well, here's your hotel Lauren

A bit of an arty shot (me trying to be cool haha!) of St Patrick's cathedral reflected in the building beside it

And more of me trying being arty from the top of the Empire State Building

And some Brooklyn Bridge taken from the boat tour

Hope these are whetting your appetite for such a great city

 

[disney_princess_85]

Fab news

Brilliant news

Great news, you're gonna love the Palace!!

Thanks guys.

Luke, your latest pics are great! I love the one with the reflection of the cathedral in particular. By the way, please don't feel like you can't post any room pics because they're not tidy enough! I'd love to see one or two, if you don't mind.

 

[luke]

Thanks guys.

Luke, your latest pics are great! I love the one with the reflection of the cathedral in particular. By the way, please don't feel like you can't post any room pics because they're not tidy enough! I'd love to see one or two, if you don't mind.

I love that photo, was taken about a minutes walk from the Palace

Ok I just looked and there's barely any room photos, just got one that gives any idea of the room (doesn't even show the huge telly - only hotel I've ever stayed in with a telly bigger than my own !) but I'll pop it up here, just don't tell my missus or she'll kill me as she's painting her toes in it

Have you seen 'Enchanted'? Here she is enoying the fountain featured in it

One last fun one before I go off to the football. Don't expect this sign to do any good

Glad you're enjoying the photos, I've been loving posting them and reliving the fun we had!!

 

[irisheyes123]

Great pics luke the hotel is beautiful this is getting me excited for my up coming trip to NY

 

[gemmybear83]

Love the photos and congratulations on the booking, im a massive Gossip Girl fan so I'm really jealous haha!

 

[Sarah84]

More great pis Luke, love the one of Brooklyn bridge. So what did you do while you were in NY? what are your must do's?

I started watching Gossip girl when the first series started and was getting into it then i was just forgetting to watch it and after missing a few episodes couldn't get back into it. Think I need to rent it out and see it from the beginning again

 

[tennisfan]

More great pis Luke, love the one of Brooklyn bridge. So what did you do while you were in NY? what are your must do's?

I started watching Gossip girl when the first series started and was getting into it then i was just forgetting to watch it and after missing a few episodes couldn't get back into it. Think I need to rent it out and see it from the beginning again

I know i'm not Luke, but when I went we visited the USS Intrepid Museum (its on an decomissioned aircraft carrier) very impressive. We also went to the Bronx zoo, Ground Zero & the Financial district. Visited loads of shops, went on the water taxis & Strawberry Fields along with the Dakota building I went with my sister & BIL so I didn't get to do much of what I wanted as we spent ages looking for music shops for my BIL. When I go next month my friend & I plan on visiting lots of the sights especially as they have reopened the Statue of Liberty. I really want to go to Yankee Stadium, my biggest regret of mny last trip as they have now demolished the old stadium

 

[disney_princess_85]

Thanks for the pics Luke! The room looks great (love how your wife is like, "get that camera out of my face" ). Enchanted is one of my favourite films so it will be quite exciting to see the fountain in person!

Love the photos and congratulations on the booking, im a massive Gossip Girl fan so I'm really jealous haha!

Thanks. I love Gossip Girl too, I can't believe I'm staying in Chuck Bass's hotel!

I started watching Gossip girl when the first series started and was getting into it then i was just forgetting to watch it and after missing a few episodes couldn't get back into it. Think I need to rent it out and see it from the beginning again

You MUST carry on watching it, it's great!

I plan on visiting lots of the sights especially as they have reopened the Statue of Liberty.

We're planning on seeing a lot of the sights too, but at the same time we'd like to spend some time just hanging around and soaking in the atmosphere. It will be difficult to fit both aspects into such a short trip though.

 

[Netty]

Just catching up with this thread, well done on booking!!!
great photos Luke

 

[disney_princess_85]

Just catching up with this thread, well done on booking!!!

Thanks.

 

[tennisfan]

We're planning on seeing a lot of the sights too, but at the same time we'd like to spend some time just hanging around and soaking in the atmosphere. It will be difficult to fit both aspects into such a short trip though.

That is why this time round I have booked a longer trip, last time we went for 4 days/ 3 nights this time round we are going 6 days/ 5 nights. We are going to plan the by the area i.e we pick an area & visit the sights there etc.

You will enjoy it no matter what & what you don't get to see is an excuse to go back

 

[luke]

We were there for a week and didn't feel we did everything, properly at least. I posted something about what we did and my recommendations in another thread which I'll look for and try and post later on

 

[luke]

We were there for a week and didn't feel we did everything, properly at least. I posted something about what we did and my recommendations in another thread which I'll look for and try and post later on

Ok here is what I posted a while back:

Ok, I'll try and give a bit of advice.

We went for a week, for the first time in July and absolutely loved it! It was my compromise to DW so we could go on "my type of holiday" next year (aka WDW ).

Anyway, I'll start with must do's - well, a must buy. 'The New York Pass'. There are plenty of these types of passes about (City Pass etc) but this one seemed the best to us - was about £100 p/p for a weeks use getting you into all the major attractions - we had saved money after 2 days!! Have a look at the website and it'll tell you all the attractions you can use it on.

Also the open top bus tours are good - we got the 3 day "all loops" ticket which includes unlimited use on their uptown, downtown, Brooklyn and night tours. It's hop on and hop off too, so we kind of used it as transport getting down to the south end of Manhatten (Ground Zero/Statue of Liberty/Wall St/Brooklyn Bridge etc).

The museums are all good for a look around, particularly the Natural History Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a great roof terrace with views over Central Park.

Obviously the Empire State Building will be high on your list - if you do get a New York Pass go to the second floor rather than queuing outside with the masses as this pass kind of (skips you the wait) where you can also do the New York SKyride - a kind of helicopter simulator which is ok but nowhere near what it would have cost without the Pass. Queues are still big so go as early as possible anyway.

Top of The Rock - The observation deck on the top of the Rockerfellar Centre is brilliant. Much better than the Empire State Building's IMO - the main reason being you get a wonderful view of the Empire State Building from it!! There is hardly any queue and the plexiglass on the observation deck gives you great views compared to the ESB's railings! We went up about 20 mins before sunset and you get a great view of both the Empire State Building and Central Park 'changing colours'.

Statue of Liberty - ok, you cant go to NYC without seeing this and we went down to the dock and got our tickets (included in the New York Pass) then we were told that there would be a further minimum 2 hour queue from that point! And even then there were no tickets available to go into the 'crown' nor the 'base' of the statue so you would basically be going to the island and staring up at it! We cut our losses and decided against it for the following reason:

The Circle Line manhatten boat tour. Again included with the New York Pass (you're starting to get the picture now) you can choose one of the tours round Manhatten island - all of which loop around the Statue of Liberty giving you great photo ops!
One tip I would follow if I did it again, do the 2 hour 'half island tour' rather than the 3 hour 'full island tour' - once you get past the UN there is pretty much nothing to see until you get up towards Yankee Stadium (even that is just a fleeting view) so the last hour was pretty boring.

There's just so, so much more to do, we didnt manage everything in the week we were there. Some other highlights we did were Madame Taussauds (included in the New York Pass, of course) which we didnt think we'd enjoy but had great fun, walking the Brooklyn Bridge (well, we managed half of it as it was a brutally hot day) and so much more.

Oh yeah, shopping!! This was the most disappointing part for us. Yes there's Macy's and Bloomies and all the boutiques on 5th Ave etc, but it all seemed a little expensive to us. Kind of place where if you're used to paying £500 for a dress and you find it for £250 it's great, but we aren't that 'high end' and prefer the kind of things that you're maybe used to seeing for £100 and getting them for £50. DW and I both agreed that the shopping in Orlando was far better for us.
Oh don't forget to go to guest services at Macy's for your 10% discount card (and Bloomies too, if you have a New York Pass which gets you the same discount there - wow i should be on commission from them !!).

Ok, hotels. Times Sq was not high on our list of places to be in all honesty when we were in NYC. Especially in summer - crowded, hot, stuffy and not much to catch our interest.
So we were very glad to get a hotel slightly 'away from the action'. We stayed in the New York Palace Hotel, and I can easily say it was incredible. We used Tripadvisor to check the highest rated hotels then crossed it off against our budget to try and get the highest rated hotel we could afford. The New York Palace was 3rd in the list of hotel in NYC and within our budget so we went for it. And wow it was a great choice. Luxury hotel within a little piece of a seemingly quiet haven from the New York madness, just across the street from St Patrick's cathedral with a wonderful little courtyard offering views of the cathedral as well as being a great place to unwind (with a ridiculously expensive drink!).
What kind of price are you looking at? The New York Palace was around £130 a night (as it was July therefore off season) and worth every single penny.

Hope this ramble was of some help. I realise I haven't even touched Broadway shows but we didn't do any so I'm sure someone will be of more help than me.

Have fun planning

 

[Chilly]

You'll love NY, I went back in 2004, can't believe it was that long ago, so pre-digital camera, just walking around it great fun. I loved central park, don't do a carriage ride though they are a complete rip off. I really liked Ellis Island.