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Me & 3 friends are going to being traveling to NY for New Years. We will be driving from Cleveland to our hotel which is in Astoria Queen by Laguardia Airport & will be there from Dec 30th to Jan 2nd.
Hotels in Manhatton were crazy expensive so we are 4 miles from times square where we have booked. Any tips, advice, considerations from the locals here?
I am getting ready to start law school this summer/fall 2010 and as soon as I graduate or transfer I am moving to NYC asap. So I am looking forward to this being the start of many frequent trips hopefully!
Times Square is a reasonable subway ride from Astoria. the N/R or W train will do the trick. Seems like your hotel might be near LaGuardia Airport though which is not really Astoria. Might need to do cab or bus from there I think.... not 100% sure, but you might want to distinguish specifically where the hotel is.
As far as advise if you are planning to do Times Square. Get there EARLY. dress warm. Get ready to be outside in a massive crowd for a long time. Worth doing ONCE!
I think it should be mentioned, for those who have never been to NYC for NYE before, that if your are planning to spend the event in Times Square, there are a couple things you should know...
One, bring something to sit on!!! Seriously, I cannot emphasize this enough... bring a small fold-up stool/seat to sit on, or else you WILL be standing for the whole wait up to the event, and you WILL be standing so close to the next person that you will feel like a sardine.
Two, get there EARLY, and I mean early. I arrived at 4:30pm, and by 6:30, it was extremely crowded, and only got worse from there. The reason I say this, and for you to bring something to sit on, is because once you are in Times Square, after a certain point, the NYPD give you two options... you can stay where you are until the end, or you can leave. But if you leave, the NYPD will not let you back in at all.
How do people go to the bathroom when they are sandwiched in like that? Are there port-a-potties? Can you reclaim your space one you leave for the potty?
Me & 3 friends are going to being traveling to NY for New Years. We will be driving from Cleveland to our hotel which is in Astoria Queen by Laguardia Airport & will be there from Dec 30th to Jan 2nd.
Hotels in Manhatton were crazy expensive so we are 4 miles from times square where we have booked. Any tips, advice, considerations from the locals here?
I am getting ready to start law school this summer/fall 2010 and as soon as I graduate or transfer I am moving to NYC asap. So I am looking forward to this being the start of many frequent trips hopefully!
Astoria Queens is only 20 minutes away from Times Square by subway. Are you sure you want to see that ball dropped? Prepare for some dissapointment. Unbelievably crowded, cold and you may not even be anywhere near that ball. Unless you get there really early and stand the entire day waiting and freezing. Well, I guess it's worth trying.
How do people go to the bathroom when they are sandwiched in like that? Are there port-a-potties? Can you reclaim your space one you leave for the potty?
Don't eat/drink and you won't have to go. Even if there were porta potties in TS on NYE, would you REALLY want to use one?? (I hope you have good health insurance!) Anyway, once you leave your "box" in TS, the cops will NOT let you back in so you're best just to not eat or drink for several hours before you get there and make sure you "go" before getting there.
Eve 1978-79 and 1988-89, so can you, except that the crowds have gotten worse since NY is now a different beast than back then and everyone wants to go there. God i was never as frightened as i was back in 78(I was surrounded by dopers with pimps hats on). Be sure you are really up to going- back in 88 a woman fainted in the crowd and she had to be whisked away to avoid getting trampled
Just watch it on TV...honestly, best view of the ball.
That and you can pee/poo/eat anytime you wish in your cozy hotel room with bathrobes on while those who actually attend the event freeze their hungry asses off.
If this were me, ideally, I'd get a hotel room in Times Square and just have a party and invite a whole bunch of people while watching the event both on television and through the window.
I did this one year, and honestly... if you want to try it once, that's your thing... but take my harsh advice: You're a complete idiot if you willfully put yourself in these situations. You want that million-man-mob atmosphere? Cool. Getting there is ****ing easy, look at a subway map! Enjoying that? Impossible. The last time I subjected myself to such ****e was the Halloween parade of '08, and it took my friend and I two hours to return to Greenpoint from downtown... although there were plenty of awesome people getting wasted on the L train back out to Brooklyn and we're all singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody under the river, and that was something I'll never forget. We should have stayed in Brooklyn, however.
Just be careful, dude... you might rethink where you want to move if you subject yourself to this kind of torture.
Disclaimer: I actually live outside of Queens on LI.
But yeah, enjoy that IF POSSIBLE. Get ready for mobs of people, get ready to lose your friends in confusion, get ready to **** in strange places and risk a citation, etc. If you don't drink, this might not be such a problem - but when I go to an event, I am into enjoying myself, and I'm going to be as drunk as I wish to be - either I or the city will pay the price.
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I did New Years
