kippy6

I am taking my daughter to NYC for a couple of days! We are seeing the Phantom of the Opera on Saturday evening. Other than that, looking for fun things to do. Any "don't misses?" We are flying in to NYC on Saturday about 10am and flying out on 1pm Monday. So we don't have much time. I have been to NYC one time a couple of years ago to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade with our family.

Thanks-

Aduchamp1

What are your interests? And what do you consider fun? There are have been many of these mother/daughter questions in the past few weeks. If you go to the box above, titles "View by State" and click on NY you may see some suggestions you may like.

kippy6

We'd love to see a couple of good shows, shopping, fun restaurants, and maybe a couple of ideas for sightseeing. My daughter likes the idea of visiting Ellis Island. Would like to get tickets to be in the audience outside for Good Morning America. She wants to go to Tiffany's. She heard that sometimes you can have breakfast at Tiffany's, but not available today. She'd like to go to a restaurant where the "famous people" dine.

I guess I should buy the Phantom tickets from telecharge.com?

Aduchamp1

Ellis Island will consume most of a day. As far as seeing famous people it is a crap shoot.

absolutkz

Telecharge will be full price. Broadway Box has discounts applicable for your dates.

http://www.broadwaybox.com/shows/the...c_tickets.aspx

I enjoyed Le Relais de Venise as recommended by others on fodors.

nytraveler

The best place to see someone famous is at the stage door - otherwise you can see "people" everyplace or nowhere. IMHO Buddakan usually has someone famous - but it may not be what you/she think is famous - from fashion, politics, the production/writing side of TV or movies - not just an actor or model. But do look at menupages.com - it will be expensive and you won;t see a lot of people dining until 9 or 10 pm.

If you dial 311 once in the city they will give you the source for the city's list of movies or TV shows being shot around the city - but this is usually a day of hanging around a shoot site with a minute or two look at a star and there is security preventing you from bothering them. I'm a native and have seen at least 20 A list celebs, but usually in a grocery store or walking down the street or going into their residence (nearly ran down Alec Baldwin once when he jumped out of a cab in front of me.)

I think Ellis Island is a great idea - but be sure to get advance ferry tickets - to avoid a long wait (down to 1 to 2 hours since the SoL is closed for renovations).

For don't miss I would do the Met and the Top of the Rock (assuming the weather is good).

kippy6

Thanks for the awesome info. We are looking to potentially make reservations on Sunday for Ellis Island/Tenement Museum. However, my daughter thinks that spending 4 hours on Ellis Island may be too exhausting for one day if we are going to see tenement museum as well. Is Ellis Island a self-guided tour? Can we do it faster than 4 hours? I think she's concerned we won't have a lot of time to walk around and window shop.

Also, I'm trying to purchase the Phantom tickets now. I haven't been able to use any coupon codes for Saturday evening. They seem to only be valid for the Sat matinee show. Also, I found seats on the first row and the second row. Left Orchestra. I'm wondering if that would be too close to the stage. I've never been in this theater before.

mclaurie

First row would be awful for Phantom. The discounts are not good for Sat. night performances. You can either buy full price tickets if you really want to go Sat. night or take a chance and go to the TKTS booth perhaps at the South St. Seaport on Sat. to try for tix for that night. Info on the TKTS booth at tdf.org/tkts

There are a few shows that have Sun. evening performances that would be good for you. Here's a chart for current ones. Double check for your dates. http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuz...Broadway-Shows

Here's a guide that tells you how long to allow for visits to Ellis Island/SOL depending on what you opt to see. There's an audio tour for Ellis Island (self guided). If you just do that and don't get off the ferry at the Statue, they say to allow 2 hrs. Tom Bernardin is an excellent guide and does group tours of Ellis Island that last 2 1/2 hrs. I think he gets you there faster than if you go on your own and imo might be worthwhile. http://www.zerve.com/EllisIsland/Ellis

If you don't have family that came through Ellis Island but would like to see the Statue and maybe have a cruise, there are a number of other options like nywatertaxi.com which leaves from the South St. Seaport (if you go down there for the TKTS booth) or nywaterway.com which leaves from midtown and has a 90 min. harbor cruise.

I'd say don't miss Top of the Rock and Greenwich Village. If you enjoy tasting different things, foodsofny.com does a popular walking tour of the village with tastes from different places.

nytraveler

The time for Elis Island is not just at the Museum - that includes time wiating for the ferry, the ferry trips from Manhattan to Liberty Island and then on to Ellis Island, your tour - yes self-guided - to Ellis Island and then the ferry back to Manhattan. You won;t spend 4 hours at Ellis Island (you can - but there'sno need to) but probably 2 hours there and 1.5 to 2 hours waiting for and riding the ferries between the various islands. I really don;t think it's possible to get there and see anything in less time.

IMHO Ellis Island and Tenement Museum are differnt sides of the same experience - one tightly focused on a single family in depth and the other a broad view of the experience of immigrants from a host of differnt countries.

volcanogirl

We really loved seeing Central Park, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, visiting either the Top of the Rock or the Empire State Building, and doing the food tour of Greenwich Village mentioned up above. We also enjoyed going to Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate since it's been in so many movies and t.v. shows. We went late at night so there wasn't much of a wait.