hello gt;
i am new at this site.
i was just wondering if any one of you could help me out in making our Ny itinerary?
we will be in NY from Aug 30 - Sep 5.
my cousins will be watching some musicals on the eve on the 30th and sep 2nd.
here's what i have come up so far:

aug 30, thursday
- my cousins will watch Les Miz, while we have dessert at Serendipity 3
- go to Empire State Bldg (there's a jazz band performing from 10pm to 1am at the observatory deck)

aug 31, friday
- Statue of Liberty
- walk the Brooklyn bridge
- visit a Martini bar

Sep 1, Saturday
- brunch at Sarabeth’s
- visit Central Park
- visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral
- visit Rockefeller center
- visit Grand Central Station
- walk around Times Square
- take pictures at Radio City

Sep 2, Sunday
- visit SoHo
- eat/visit Little Italy/ Chinatown
- visit Greenwich Village (visit edgar Allan Poe’s house?)
- my cousin will be watching Mama Mia at 7pm (will there be enough time to roam around greenwich village?)
- take pictures at former World Trade Center

Sep 3, Monday
- my cousin wanted to go to the Hudson River, while i am planning on spending the day at Niagara Falls although I have no idea how to get there.. (I need your advice please)

Sep 4, Tuesday
- my cousins will be going back to Canada
- hotel check out
- go to my friend's house at New Jersey
- shop around
- watch Les Miz at 8pm
- go back to New Jersey

Sep 5, Wednesday
- go back to Illinois

by the way, we will be staying at Embassy Suites Hotel

The only part I can help you with (I'd add a little smiley face here if I knew how) is Niagara Falls -- Niagara Falls is 400 miles from New York City, so I doubt you want to include it in this particular itinerary!

aaaaaaawww... i was hoping i could do that lt;

If you're from near Chicago, for reference, Chicago is 530 miles from Niagara Falls--it's really not a sensible daytrip from NYC.

Otherwise your plan seems reasonable. You've grouped things well geographically. Buy your Empire State Building tickets online before you arrive to skip some of the lines.

I expect you have reasons for going to New Jersey only to return to the city the same night for Les Miserables. If luggage was the issue, I bet your hotel woud hold it for you even after you check out.

I thought NYU demolished the Poe house . . .

well i guess Niagara will be out of the plan. We'll probably go to Met instead. really? Poe's house had been demolished already? too bad. but that's ok, i guess food tripping is more fun anyway gt;

I'm not positive about Poe's house, but I thought I remembered something about it.

http://tinyurl.com/2lyqgk

OK, that tiny url did not work the way I expected. Anyway, yes the Poe house was demolished, and a part of the facade was moved and used in a modern building a block away.

thanks for the replies gt;

I'm not sure what your cousin plans to do at the Hudson River, but there's no single walk along the shoreline and since you're not going to Niagara Falls, you'll have a lot of time to plan other things on Monday. I think the nicest views of the Hudson are from lower Manhattan (there's a very fun park by the Staten Island ferry/Statue of Liberty boat dock) in which you could spend a few hours (you could do it on Fri)and walk up north along the river for a distance or on the upper west side (I don't know where it starts, but it runs at least from 86th St and goes north--also a nice park, but not as colorful as Central Park or the one at the ferry). On the upper west side, you could visit the Museum of Natural History, the planetarium, Central Park, Lincoln Center and some fun shops on the avenues. You can even walk over the George Washington Bridge (a subway or cab ride away on the west side) for some interesting views.

On Friday August 31st, since you are already downtown, visit the bar at the Ritz-Carlton. The 14th Floor Bar (sit outside) has outstanding views of the Statue of Liberty and quite a large martini selection.

Also, just keep in mind that you can easily spend half a day in Central Park and still not see all of it. When I take people there they are always surprised at how big it is compared to the image they had in their head. Of course, you can spend as little or as much time there as you care to. Enjoy!

You can still see remains of the Poe house with a big NYU Law School building built around it. Highly controversial
http://www.nyuexposed.org/poehouse.htm

There is a Poe Cottage in Fordham but that would not be close to the other sites you want to see and it is only open limited hours on weekends. If it's a really high priority you could rearrange things to do GReenwich Village/WTC Monday and go up to Fordham on Sunday

The only way to do Niagara Falls in one day is to fly to Buffalo and back - and even then you'll only have a few hours there and it will be big $ buying last minute tickets.

Cannot imagine coming to NYC and not seeing the Met - the greatest cultural institution in the western hemisphere. Suggest you look at the web sites of the Met and the Central Park Conservancy to see what portions you want to see- to do all of either would take a couple of days. And 0 you can;t see the Met on Monday - it's closed.

Also, hope you have bought advance tickets for the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty - or be prepared to wait on lines that are hours long. (For the latter three are 3 lines: #1 buy tickets for the ferry, #2 security for the ferry (like airline security line), #3 on the island to get into the base of the Statue. (You can ascend the Statue for safety reasons - structural, not terrorism.)

Are you a Beatle's fan? I always suggest for people to visit the Imagine memorial in Central Park and view across the street the Dakota Apartments where John Lennon was shot.
Also...if this is your first trip to NYC, the Double-Decker tour bus is nice (hop-on off).
Enjoy Serendipity! Did you make a reservation? They can be quite booked.