Does anyone think my New York itinerary is missing anything?

[ineedamoreadultieradult]

New York Trip with DH and DS's 10 and 7 I'm just over a month and I've had the time over Christmas to come up with an itinerary. Can anyone spot any problems with it such as 'must do' things missed or any things in there that are a waste of money.

Day 1: arrive at approx 9am having left UK at 6am so find hotel (near Time Square) to drop bags off then explore Time Square, 5th Avenue area including M&M world, Macy's etc check in at 3pm dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner then have a relaxing evening in the hotel and an early ish night
Day 2: Central Park, Central Park Zoo and Ice skating at the Woolman rink
Day 3: Natural History Museum and Rousevelt Tram
Day 4: One world observatory, 9/11 memorial (not the museum), Staten Island Ferry, Sea Glass carousel then walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to watch Basketball at the Barclays Centre.
Day 5: The Highline, Trump Tower and anything else we ran out of time to do on the other days or things we want to go back to etc
Day 6: check out and fly home

I'm still in NYC at the moment but everyone is still asleep after a late night watching the Brooklyn Nets so I thought I'd do an update post while things are still fresh in my mind.

Immigration at JFK is a shambles so allow plenty of time to get through and go to the toilet before joining the queue!

Once we were in Manhattan though everything has been fantastic.

My highlights so far have been;

Top of the Rock, fantastic view and no queue at 8:15am we got tickets to go up again when it was dark but with zero visibility when we went back they let us change them for tonight.

Staten Island Ferry + amazing views and free. Stand on the right hand side out the back of the boat on the way out and left hand side out the front on the way back for the best views.

The kids favourite bits have been ice skating on Woolman rink - expensive but a great experience. Central Park Zoo - yes there are better zoos but they loved walking through the tropical area where all the birds fly free and we saw the grizzly bears and snow leopards really close up. Dave and Buster's in Times Square was also a big hit with the kids. It has a.large arcade and instead of having to have loads of change you load credit onto a card that you swipe on the machines. Perfect for a rainy day.

We all loved the Mathematics Museum (not as boring as it sounds) although this was quite expensive $60 for two adults and two kids. I wouldn't recommend for kids over about 10 though. We saved money on the Natural History Museum by standing in line for the ticket desk and paying what you wish ($1 each in our case) the sales staff didn't even bat an eyelid at this so don't feel embarrassed. Quite an old fashioned museum lots of stuff in glass displays and not really anything to actually do, just a looking at things museum. We skipped some bits but the kids enjoyed the dinosaurs and the blue whale.

The subway has been fantastic $32 for a 7 day unlimited pass. Our youngest is about 120cm and the man at the ticket booth said he didn't need a ticket and he just ducks under the barrier. We were a bit dubious but we have never encountered any problems doing this so far. So if your kid is a similar size or smaller you might be best buying your pass from a manned booth rather than a machine and ask if they need one or not.

Happy to answer any questions because I know before we came I asked millions of questions and got loads of great tips from mners.

Thanks for the update