We are planning on visiting the Ellis Island museum next month. Is there any advantage to reserving/buying tickets in advance? Do you get to skip ahead in line? I hear the security line is very long - what do you think about in Feb? Any other tips for the visit? Thanks!

There are timed entrances in order to keep things moving along. The lines are long, so you are better off getting your tickets long enough before closing so you can see everything. There is a Will Call window for picking up your tickets at the park.

February, October, August, it doesn't matter. NYC is a busy place. Weekends versus weekdays make the biggest difference.

Get the audio tour of EI. It was worth it.

Security is tight at the start. The ferry goes to Statue of Liberty, too, and since that is an icon of the US, they take no chances.

I would plan at least 90 minutes to tour EI, two hours if you have it. Depends on your interest. Add ferry time to that.

We had reserved tickets last Thanksgiving weekend. We were able to go to the MUCH shorter will call line to pick up our tickets rather than the LONG line to buy tickets. Yes, you still have to go through security but you do bypass the first line. I would recommend getting tickets for the first boat out in the morning.

Should have no problems to Ellis, but to visit the Statue Of Liberty you will need to get passes from the National Parks Service can't enter without.

Following up on Norden1's post, if you plan to stop at the SOL first (the same ferry will stop at both) and want to go inside it, you must have timed tickets which should be bought in advance. If you just plan to go to Ellis Island, you can chance not buying in advance.

At one point I was hearing reports that the line to pick up pre-purchased tickets was actually longer than the line to buy tix, but evidently that wasn't jgg's experience. But that was also a holiday weekend. If you buy in advance you obviously get to avoid the ticket buyers line but you still stand in line for security and the ferry. It's always reported that going for the first ferry of the day is fastest.

Here's the ferry schedule.
http://tinyurl.com/36e799
First ferry is 9:30am except on Feb 17-19, the holiday weekend when they put on an 8:30 ferry. Get there 45 mins. before the first ferrry and an hour or more before the others.