We just got back froma week in the city, here is my post of what we did from Wirednewyork.com. Check them out there are some locals there that can offer suggestions too. Let me know if you have questions.
Well, vacation is over, darn, I told a few of you i would post a full report of our vacation for future tourists to read and decide what to do. It may be a long post.
You may have seen my post before on what we did so far, but i have added some things to it.
We were in the city from Tues Oct 20, to the 28th, so we experinced a whole week with a weekend.
Our flight landed at 5 pm at JFK, and I had been told to take a Town Car instead of a cab, so i reserved a Dial 7 Town car.
It was rush hr when we got there, and the drive in to the city was harrowing to say the least, driver got in a beef with a random driver on a short cut, and was weaving in and out on the shoulder. It was the random driver and not the company, we took another Dial 7 back and had no issues on the way back. Luck of the draw i guess. We never did take a cab anywhere, we always walked or took the subway. A 7 day Metro Card is a must.
We stayed at the FairField Marriott Times Square, which is about 3 blocks from Times Square, between 9th and 8th on W 40th st. We had a double on the 10th floor, nice little room, flat screen tv, free wired internet. We Pricelined the room for $100 a day, i think the regular rate is $330. Yes, they did fix the sign outside. Everyone there was great and we had good service the whole week.
The A, C, E train is half a block away, and the hotel is right next to the Port Authority Bus Station.
We got to our room about 7, then left and walked around. There is a pizza place down the steet on the corner $1 a slice, dont know what is different but NYC pizza is awsome. We walked to Times Square, and checked it out for a bit. Total information overload at night. WOW. We walked down and around to Rockefeller Center and came back.
Went to the Times Square Subway station and bought 3 Metro Cards, $27 each, they pay for themselves.
We had already scheduled a bunch of things previously so we already knew what we were going to do on some days.
The next morning we had the NBC Movie tour planned, where they take you all over the city and show you movie and tv sites. Well worth it. Before that we went to see Tim McGraw at the Today show. Then went over to where the tour started.
The tour is 3 hrs, and you get to go see where they Filmed Taxi Driver, I Am Legend, Friends, Seinfeld, Borat, etc. Really interesting, as well as seeing other stuff on the way to the places.
After the Tour, we met up with Brooklynrider and and he gave us a escort to the Observation decks, both the 86th floor and the 102nd floor. Met Tony, the elevator operator and the guy that changes the lights, i forgot his name. Really fun, and a awsome thing for BR to do. Suprised that we didnt hear anything about it all day, but Paul McCartney was on David Letterman that day, and he played out on top of the Ed Sullivan marquee.
We left and walked over to the NY public library, Wow, really impressive inside, then walked down to Grand Central Station. We just happened to get there at rush hr. Yikes, dont stand still or you will be run over. Fantastic building, WOW. We went over and checked out the Chrysler Building, you can go in, but only to the side lobbys, i got some really good pictures though.
The next day, we had Statue of Liberty Crown reservations and Ellis Island tickets.
Security there is really tight. Airport style security areas in two places, plus a explosive sniffer/blower thingy. If you get crown tickets, be prepared for about 400 stairs, and a spiral stairway about 2.5 feet wide. I am a big guy, been working out 25 yrs, had to kinda walk up sideways. Really interesting to see the interior framework and the way they put it together. Lots of pictures.
Ellis Island was not as interesting as i thought it would be. There is a ring of 400,000 names you can look to see if yours is there, but they charge you to use the computers to look up any info.
We went back and walked through Battery Park, the sculpure from the WTC plaza is there with a eternal flame. Then we walked down Trinity Street to the WTC site.
The WTC memorial museum was closed, but looked really interesting. There are the people trying to sell you booklets of before and after pictures, but i didnt see any of the conspiracy people hanging around.
You can walk around the whole site on the 2nd floor mezzanine's of the Financial buildings, and walk through Wintergarden, which is really impressive inside. The American Express building has a memorial called 11 Tears for 11 employees that worked on the 95 floor of one of the towers.
Next day, Friday, was the NBC Studio tour at Rockefeller Center. RC is really neat inside, murals on the ceiling and walls, art deco interior. The sets are smaller than they look on TV, saw Jimmy Fallons set, SNL set, the control room for one, Football night In America set, Went down to Canal Street after that, i am not a shopper but my wife got some deals on some things.
It was raining on Saturday, we ended up going to Central park, took the subway to 72nd street, and checked out the Dakota, and walked back to 59th st.
Went meandering through, checked out the icerink, the zoo, and the Mall, there was a Halloween festival going on. After 5 hrs it was getting late, and we had only made it to 81st street, so we headed back, it was starting to rain harder also, What a neat park though.
Sunday was clear again, we had already bought the Loop tours, Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn, and City Lights. These tours are a must also, I think the Brooklyn and the City Lights tour are the same, except the light tour is at night.
We did the Uptown tour, it takes you up the west side first, into Harlem, then back down the east side.
Harlem was awsome, we ate lunch at a soul food place, i forgot the name, but its on the corner of 125th and Lennox? I will post the pictures either on Facebook or photobucket. AWSOME food. Went and checked out the Apollo Theater too, and walked around a bit, such a neat area.
We did the Downtown tour after that, it takes you back down to the city hall area, so we got off and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. The rest of the tour takes you through the area we had seen so we took the subway back and did the night tour, which takes you across the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn and down by Prospect Park and back. Tried to get some good night shots, some of them came out ok.
Monday we kinda did our own thing, wife went shopping, i went walking around town, found Studio 54, its a Broadway theater now, took a few pictures, went out and walked down 42nd street that night, got some good pictures of GCS and United Nations, i thought it would be all lit up, but it wasnt.
Tuesday was raining too, we went out in the morning, to the Today show, but left got tired of standing in the rain. We had David Letterman tickets for that afternoon. We had to leave the next day so we packed and went to the Ed Sullivan theater at about 4.
Really neat old place, especially if you ever watched Ed Sullivan with your parents. Courtney Cox was there, and it turned out her mom was having a birthday, and was sitting right across the aisle from me. I havent watched the taping yet, but i may have been on tv. I will need to watch it.
Awsome vacation, need to come back to do the other things we didnt get to do.
To all the New Yorkers out there reading this. Your city if friggen awsome, so many nice people, and so many diverse things to do. And always a way to get there and do it. Everything i thought about New York City before was blown away, complete night and day difference.
To all the people who may go to New York City, The people are great, friendly and polite. I was one of those "all i know about NYC is what i read or saw in the movies" people.
Completely night and day difference. We spent a week there, in all the travels i didnt hear one rude word. There are police all over. At least 1 or 2 on every 3 or 4 blocks. We went out at all times, pretty much everywhere in Manhattan, i didnt feel uncomfortable or threatened in any way anywhere.
The food is great, we didnt go to and real restaurants. We had awsome deli food, the street food is awsome, pizza is awsome. You can eat as cheap or expensive as you want, i didnt have any bad food anywhere.
Let me know if you have any questions,
i will post pictures, for the people without Facebook i will post the pictures on photobucket when i edit them.
For you facebookers i am under steve brogren. oh, here is the link to the pictures.
The first has night shots, view shots and Statue of Liberty and interior building shots.
the second has Central Park and building architecture shots from the older buildings
the third has street scenes, and movie/tv exterior shots
Album 1
http://s572.photobucket.com/albums/s...20York%20City/
Album 2
http://s572.photobucket.com/albums/s...rk%20City%202/
Album 3
http://s572.photobucket.com/albums/s...20%20City%203/
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