NYC passes - are they worth it?

[Scotsrule]

Hi

Hubby, son and I are travelling to NYC next year. Hubby and I went years ago and were provided with the CityPASS by my aunt who lived there at the time - they were a god send for q skipping at the ESB, however I believe that is no longer the case.

Looking at the activities that the little fella wants to do we have discussed the city explorer pass for up to 7 activities, however we have read differing reviews on these and just wondered if anyone could shed some light on a few questions:

1. can you queue jump with the explorer pass at any attractions?
2. did you price your activities individually, and was the pass worth the initial layout?
3. I have read reports that your explorer pass doesn’t let you skip the ticket line, you still have to queue to exchange your voucher for a ticket, then go through the security queue so realistically you are no better off than if you went without a voucher
4. is there any attractions that you would buy the pass for, but others you would just book direct as it was easier?

Arguments for and against really if anyone has any thoughts.

Hope that makes sense - thanks for your help 🇺🇸🗽🍎

Queue jumping will vary from attraction to attraction. The best pass will really depend on how many attractions you want to see and how long you will be here:

freetoursbyfoot.com/new-york-city-passes-which-one-is-the-best-to-buy/#build

I would book direct, but that's because when we take the kids out for something like that it's usually just for the day.

Happy to answer any questions, and thanks for coming to see us next year. NYer's love British tourist.

There's an article on things to do with kids I'll dig out later for you.

How old is your son and how long will you be in the city? Is this your first trip?

Hi miss

Thanks for the replies

He will be 11 when the time comes. My husband and I have been before but it was well before he was born so I know things will have changed.

I know the museums queues you can generally skip, but as you can imagine he would rather avoid those places like the plague - apart from the natural history Museum

Any good tips for places to see, or avoid? We are looking at Ellis/liberty island, top of the rock (night), esb, intrepid, 9/11 and possibly ripleys and madam. Tussaud’s. We have also got tickets to see the knicks at MSG! Going to be a very busy trip - will need another holiday to recover 😂😂

Here's the article I was thinking of. It has a lot of things to do, so use it to spark ideas depending on his interests:

101 things to do with kids in NYC

I would add the Hayden Planetarium when you do the natural history museum, Also consider the back stage tour at Radio City Music Hall:

Radio City Stage Door Tour

There's great shopping, including Lego and Nintendo stores at Rock Center while you're there. Lovely neighborhood too, right by 5th Ave for Tiffany's, St. Patrick's Cathedral, etc. The 9/11 museum is fabulous but go early and plan for at least 3 hours. Your son will love the Intrepid. Tour the submarine while you're there - it's fascinating.

If you're tight for time, I'd consider skipping Ripley's and Madam Tussaud's. They're not bad, just a bit touristy and done up.

Someone posted back at the beginning of the year that while in NYC they were going to see the Knicks play. I had no idea basketball was so popular in the UK.

Feel free to post more questions or PM me anytime.

I did my research and compared prices etc but this was 2 years ago so have forgotten. We bought the pass for 3 events and it was worth it. For the 9/11 museum I think we used a different queue which iirc was shorter. No difference for ESB or TOTR. One thing I found was that the entry fee for NHM is a suggestion and if you do wish to pay this you can use a machine which is quick. However if you queue to pay a teller, you can offer any donation. IIRC it's $20 but we only had about 2 hrs to spare so I queued and paid $10 and the teller was perfectly fine with this.

We went earlier this year and have been a number of times so didn’t need to do all of the tourist sites but for sentimental reasons we always go up the ESB and as we’d never visited the 9/11 Museum before we bought the pass for three attractions (can’t think of the name now) but it allowed us to skip the queues at the ESB and the 9/11 Museum. The third we did was Top Of The Rock (because the last time we did it I was too chicken to go outside so I wanted a photo of me at the top to send to my son as he’s taken the piss ever since) and we didn’t skip the line but we were able to go in while passing and prebook a time slot on showing out pass.

I'll put in a plug for my favorite restaurant, Union Square Cafe:

Union Square Cafe

It's lovely, fabulous food, excellent warm friendly service, a real dining experience. I probably would not take a toddler there but a reasonably well behaved 11 year old will be fine. It's very centrally located in Manhattan and easy to get to by tube or taxi. It's also not crazy expensive.

I'm just mentioning it now because tables at good times book up months in advance. You can make reservations on the website. Lunch may be a bit easier than dinner/tea.

Great, thanks everyone for the suggestions - I really appreciate the help

Keep them coming!

I just thought of another one my kids loved - the Central Park Zoo:

Central Park Zoo

It's small, but beautifully done. The location is near museum mile, where the natural history museum is. It's a nice filler activity for an hour or two when your in that part of the city.

By the way, apologies for saying earlier that we love our British tourists here. We love our UK tourists.

Explorer pass meant in some.cases go.straight in or special.shorter line
In others queue to.exchange for a ticket
So it was worth it to know things were paid for already.

I paid 89$ online per adult for 4 attractions we used one for hop on off bus exchange for.tickey
Top of rock shorter line exchange for.timed ticket
9 11 much shorter line
Ellis Island ferry exchange for.ticket shorter line but then waited hpurs in security line

When we did the 9/11 museum we bought the tickets on line and the queue to get in with them was much shorter than the line to buy tickets. There were at least three separate queues - one for members only I think as well.

It's very organized there. It is also hugely popular - rightly so, as they've done a brilliant job. Hence my advice to go early. Make that your first activity one morning.

Scotsrule, do you know what dates you're coming yet? There may be seasonal things to look into also. How many days here were you planning?

High line free
Central park.free
Time squre free stuff going on

Allow.enough time one activity per day was enough plus walking around parks or on transport and finding eating places etc
Chains like
Chick fil a
Pret
Shake shack

Or local diners

Were good for quick meals

A diner we always head for is the Westway, think it’s between 43rd and 44th on 9th Ave in Hell’s Kitchen.

Thanks for the replies everyone, especially the articles. We will have a good trail through them. We will be coming early April for 7 days.

I am thinking of striking the ripleys and Tussaud’s of the list, chances are if we decide to do that we can rock up and there would be no queue anyway, and maybe just get the passes for the attractions you mentioned cestlavie so we can do the shorter queue.

The high line looks fab, great tip. We are looking to do the walk over the Brooklyn bridge if we have time also.

So much to do, so little time :-)

There are some days when the attractions are free. DD went to the Ground Zero last tuesday for free, although i think they may have been later in the day.

when museums etc are free

This article goes into a bit more detail and is probably more up to date. For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art dropped their free admission policy earlier this year.

free things to do in NYC

Just as a bit of historical background on museum admission pricing in NYC, going back to the 1800's there were many private museums in NYC. They were sometimes called "cabinets of curiosities" and they had all sorts of sensational exhibits, almost all completely fake. And they charged hefty admission fees.

So the city decided to charter public museums, providing land and start up funding, and in most cases putting into their charters that they could not charge admission fees. That's why so many of them are "pay what you want".

Unfortunately, it's also left many of them underfunded, which is why they have suggested fees and don't go out of their way to make it plain that the fees are optional. The Museum of Natural History is pay what you want, but not for the Hayden Planetarium or the IMax theater because both of those were added after the original charter and are legally separate.

There has been talk about changing the charters so the it's only pay as you want for non-residents, but that gets messy and burdensome.

When we go to the museums, we pay something because they are valuable cultural institutions that we want to support. I think something along the lines of $10 per person is reasonable, but it's obviously up to the individual.

Sorry, that should have been "so the it's only pay as you want for residents, but that gets messy and burdensome."