holly

This is just a rough itinerary after researching here (and with the help of some travel books). I'd appreciate any advice you have for how to make it better. This is for activities only for now. I'm traveling with my mother and my young son(8).
11/13 Arrive in the evening
11/14 Central Park - ice skating, carriage ride, carousel. American Museum of Natural History.
11/15 - Statue of Liberty, Trade Center site(for Mom), St. Paul's. Show (possibly)
11/16 - Intrepid Museum. Walk the Brooklyn Bridge. Chinatown.
11/17 - Radio City backstage tour. Toys R Us, ESPN zone or other video arcade. Lion King evening show.
11/18 Empire State B. Rockefeller Plaza (more ice skating?). Christmas Spectacular evening show.
11/19 Circle Line Cruise. Greenwich Village Food Tour
11/20 St. Patrick's to hear organ practice, Christmas window displays(any up by then?), tea at the Pierre(maybe), matinee show
11/21 Depart in the morning

gard

Hi

Sounds like a good plan...is the Statue of Liberty still open? I never got to see that when my wife and I went there in July this year...well, I got to see it but it wasn't open at the time I enjoyed the Intrepid museum..should be fun for an 8 year old boy. It is pretty cool to get that close to the big planes. I have posted a trip report with our experiences and pictures on my personal homepage http://gardkarlsen.com. Maybe you can find some useful information there. Have a great trip

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway

Cicerone

Generally looks good. However, I would avoid the Museum of Natural History on a Sunday in November. It will be mobbed as outdoor activities are limited. Weekdays would be a better choice, and after lunch to avoid most school tours. I don?t believe you can reserve tickets in advance for the Natural History or other museums, but check the websites. You can reserve tickets for the shows at the Hayden Planetarium (which is part of the Natural History Museum), which are very good. If you do decide to go to the museum on Sunday, either get there very early or consider going as late as possible, as people from outside Manhattan begin to depart by 3-4 pm or so (never tried this way, but look at websites to see when the last admission is and maybe try for that.) The website for the American Museum of Natural History is http://www.amnh.org/.

You may find the line for skating in Central Park on a Sunday to be long as well, this would be better on a weekday, esp. a weekday morning when kids are in school.

You could easily include a stop at South Street Seaport on the day you are downtown at the World Trade Center Site and Statue of Liberty. It is a nice easy walk down Wall Street where you can pass Trinity Church, the NY Stock Exchange, etc. South Street has a food hall and several good restaurants in and around the area, and you can get a look at Brooklyn Bridge before your big walk. I think your son would like the tall ships, etc at the Seaport.

You might consider adding Ellis Island. Not totally sure an 8 year old could appreciate it, but could easily be done with the Statue of Liberty.

nytraveler

Agree that the Museumm of Nat Hist is not great on the weekends in Nov - you will be wall to wall kids and not able to see much of anything - a weekday is better.

You have a lot of things outdoors - and if the weather doesn;t co-operate you may need more indoor stuff. I would consider adding the Met if you can - one of the three great repositories of world culture. Naturally you can;t see the whole thing - but you might use the web site to each pick out one section you can;t do without - the Arms & Armour section always seems to be a great hit with little boys,

Scarlett

The Museum of Natural History is great in the evenings and the Planetarium is so beautiful in the dark~

GoTravel

It sounds great! Completely do-able and also time for adding things in.

You haven't grossly overscheduled yourself which people tend to do on visits to NYC.

HowardR

You'll be fine at the American Museum of Natural History on that Sunday if you go there first. It's not that crowded before noon and you'll be okay.
In general, you've done a good job with your planning.

jlm_mi

I would offer a slight alternate itinerary:

Consider combining the Circle Line Cruise and Intrepid Museum into one day (because they are near each other) and then do the Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown and the Greenwich Village Food Tour together on a different day (if the timing can work out) because they are also relatively near each other.

As it stands, you've got two days of cross-town travel.

holly

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I've taken your suggestions to make some changes to my itinerary. I was relieved to know that it was fairly workable the way it was. I have just a few more questions. Do you think it will be too cold in November for the Intrepid? Does anyone have any suggestions for when to fit in the Met? Do you think it is safe to wait until after Oct. 31st to get tickets for Beauty...? The current discount through theatermania.com, etc. expires then.

Rael8l

Hi Holly,

WOW!!! That is quite the schedule! I would squeeze the MET into the 11/18 day. You could do the MET in the morning/afternoon. Then go ice skating at Rockefeller Center, then go to the Empire State Building about 6 or 7 pm and catch the sunset. Finish the night off with the Christmas Spectacular show.

I'd watch how many shows you plan for the week. I personally start to hit capacity at about 2 shows and I love going. You want to make sure you are enjoying and not just rushing. Your schedule sounds much like the ones I make for my sisters when they come to visit. No matter how well I plan we always run out of steam and miss a few things. Keep in mind your mother's and son's stamina and attention levels. Right now you've got seven very full days planned with lots of walking and not much downtime.

Check out www.broadwaybox.com for promotional codes for your Broadway shows. Wicked was amazing! I've seen it twice and would recommend it to everyone and anyone. It is truely fabulous and in my opinion is the best show on right now. Also, you should be fine waiting to book Beauty and the Beast.

Have a wonderful trip!
Rachel

mclaurie

Hi Holly. I agree with the comments already made.
>Go to the AMNH first when it opens on Sun (or go at night)
>Do Intrepid and Circle Line together
>Consider doing GV Food tour while you're already downtown either after SOL/WTC day or Brooklyn Bridge day (although that will be a lot of food if stop at Grimaldi's for pizza and then ice cream and then Chinatown

You can do the Met Museum on your last evening,11/20 after the matinee. It's open late on Fri & Sat nights.

Have a great time.

jlm_mi

Part of the Intrepid is indoors, and I'd say it's definitely a don't-miss, especially with an 8 year old. I would do it even in the dead of winter, since there is shelter available (museum and two ships to tour).

holly

I tried to reply twice this morning with no luck, so I hope it works this time...
I will keep the Intrepid on our itinerary. I was beginning to wonder whether or not to do it after reading a suggestion in the Frommers guide to rethink going in the winter due to the temperature.
We are counting down the weeks until we track off (I'm a teacher) and head to the city.

Mistersmuckers

Agree with the above posters, but don't understand why everyone's telling you to avoid the Mus. of Nat. History. It's a very large musuem and it's not like you're not going to be able to see anything! Two things to note, the main part of the museum is suggested donation which means you can pay whatever you think is appropriate even though they suggest $12 or something like that. Second thing is, avoid the main entrance at the top of the steps in the front, that's where the line is the longest. Go to the side entrance on 79th street or go down into the subway station entrance ramp to the left of the main entrance stairs -- there's a little-known subway station entrance to the museum where there's never a line for tix. Have fun!

Kascha912

Just came back from NYC a couple of days ago and I second the idea of the Met on a Friday night. Not only is it open until 9 but there's also live music (last Friday it was a piano and strings) and food and wine and cocktails on the gallery.

Also, depending on where your hotel is: We loved doing the Empire State Building on our first morning. That way we got kind of an aerial orientation and could relate all the places we saw later on to the views from the top.

Have fun!