I'm going to NYC on Sunday and arriving at 8:30 am at Penn Station, I would like to do the following:

1. Ferry to Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island
2. SkyLight Diner for late breakfast/early dinner
3. Walk around Times Square/Rockefeller Center
4. Go to 2 pm show of Mama Mia!
5. 5:30 pm reservation for Becco on 355 West 46th street
6. Go home via Penn

So I Have a few questions

1. Is this itinerary doable?
2. can someone give me subway and walking directions (easiest please) to each place?

Thanks!

Take the subway at Times Square to Bowling Green . Pick up the Staten Island Ferry.

Take subway back to Times Square for numbers 3-6.

To get from Penn Station to Battery Park, take the A, C or E downtown to 14th Street.

At 14th Street, transfer to the L. Ride the L to Union Square, then transfer to the 4 or 5 to Bowling Green. You'll exit the 4 or 5 at Battery Park -- ask someone where the ferry is if you don't see the way.

From Battery Park to Rock Center, take the 4 or 5 to Union Square, transfer to the L and take it to 6th Avenue, then take the F or V uptown to Rock Center.

Visit the MTA website for a map.

You can walk from Rock to Times Square.

And I wouldn't knock yourself out trying to get to the Skylight Diner. Sure, it's good diner food, but good diners are a dime a dozen in Manhattan.

You can find a subway map here:

http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/maps/submap.htm

and this guide tells you which subway lines are accessible at Penn Station:

http://www.transitcenter.com/transitguide/hub_nyp.htm

The Statue Ferry leaves from Battery Park at the very southern tip of Manhattan, near the end of the #1 line shown on the subway map. As you can see from the other link, you can pick up this subway line right at Penn Station.

It appears from the web that the Skylight Diner is only a couple blocks west of Penn Station, so why not just reverse the subway trip you took earlier to get back there?

I really have no idea how long the statue, etc. will take, so no idea how much time you'll have to walk around.

It appears to be roughly 1 mile up 7th Ave. from Penn Station to the Theater. You could detour through Times Square and near Rockefeller Center on your way to the show and/or on your way back to the station from dinner.

Good gosh that's right -- the 7th Avenue 1 train stops at 34th Street. I forgot and should have looked at a map.

So, the quickest way to get from Penn to the ferry is to take the 1 train downtown to the South Ferry stop.

The 1 also runs up to 50th St, just west of Rockefeller Center, and to Times Square (42nd St.).

So, radiofanatic, pretty much all you need is the 1 train.

Enjoy!

thanks everyone for the info - I appreciate it!

Trying to do anything between going to SoL/Ellis Island is going to be very tight. I'd take at least 4 or 5 hours just for that part of the day and neither the Statute of Liberty nor Ellis Island opens until 9:30am.

That said, I don't think that both sitting down anywhere for lunch and walking around Rock Center and Times Square will happen between the trip downtown and a 2pm matinee.

As for subway directions, those seem to have been well covered already.

Enjoy the day.