NYC itinerary with 9 year old

[Colinfromaccounts24]

We are going to NYC for May half term, with our 9 year old daughter. I have been before several times, but my husband and daughter have not, so they will want to see the main sights. We arrive v late on the first day so have 4 days there. If it was just us we'd rush around and try to fit a lot in, but we will have to take it quite easy with our daughter with us. We have a rough schedule as follows:

Day 1: AM Top of the Rock OR Summit One, PM MOMA, EVE Ellen's stardust diner
Day 2: AM Central Park, PM Met or Natural History or Planetarium, EVE Ballet at Lincoln Centre (booked)
Day 3: AM Statue of Liberty, Battery Park, PM Brooklyn Bridge, Time Out Market, DUMBO, EVE Blue Man Group (booked)
Day 4: AM Chelsea Market, Highline, Hudsons Yard PM Tenement Museum

To anyone who has been with a primary age child, or been more recently than me (last visit 15 years ago!), does this sound reasonable? Is there anything else we should be doing? Would you swap one of these things for something else?

My husband is v keen to do at least one art gallery, daughter is keen to do central park zoo (though I have read it is not very nice so not sure about that). She loves animals. She'll need some time outside/ in parks and can tolerate art galleries for a short time/ museums for longer if they interest her (!) I loved the Tenement Museum last time I went, and Ellis Island (though I think we'll give that a miss as I'm not sure our daughter would enjoy it).

Thanks!

I went in Feb with a 9 year old. We found the museums/galleries absolutely incredible and had planned for Met and Nat History same day but they needed a proper half day day each. I took my daughter to see Cursed Child on Broadway as it's a condensed version compared to London and so was more manageable.
TOTR we went for the opening and there was no one there apart from one other couple for the first 30 mins! Combine with looking around Rockefeller centre and FAO Schwarz.
Brooklyn Heights promenade - go up to the higher level for great views across to Manhattan. In Chelsea Market you must try Los Tacos No1 and in Time Out DUMBO, there's an amazing BBQ place called Bark BBQ.
Day 4 start at Hudsons Yards and walk Highline down to Chelsea Market (about 30mins), then walk Greenwich Village through Bleeker Street - stop at Magnolia for banana pudding - towards Tenement museum. Have dinner in East Village or Chinatown.

This is perfect, thankyou!

We are going in October with a 12 year old. He fancies the Intrepid Museum. I fancy Ellis Island. Wondering about a GoCity pass.

My 10 year old loved the Museum of Ice Cream!!! It was something specifically for them amongst all the sightseeing. Lots of free samples and takes just over an hour. Definitely pre book.

https://www.museumoficecream.com/

It was honestly a lovely surprise and I enjoyed it too!!

It seems a lot. My youngest was 8 when we went and we had a night of eating huge takeaway pizza in bed and watching a movie because they were shattered. Maybe plan in a bit of chill out time to prevent them getting over tired.

Drop Ellen’s. It’s shit. I also think you’ll struggle with 2 late nights at the ballet and the BMG a struggle with jet lag and busy days.

Thanks for replies. We definitely don’t want to overdo it. She doesn’t need much sleep (never has slept very much), Ellen’s is for her as she loves musicals (I on the other hand can definitely do without) so if she is tired we can definitely skip that in favour of takeaway pizza. Ice cream museum sounds amazing! Off to look that up now.

You have a very packed schedule, although it all sounds very exciting! I’d just be careful not to do too much.

When we took an 8 and 10 year old, we found they most enjoyed the time spend ambling and people watching between places (dogs in bags being a favourite sight). Ours’ are great walkers so we walked from the Met back to Time Square through Central Park, and spent much of an evening walking to and about Little Italy via Chinatown. You see so much of a city on its streets.

When you visit the Tenement Museum (which DD loved), consider also visiting the restored Eldridge Street synagogue. It’s gorgeous and the tours are great (it’s only tiny)

October is a brilliant time to visit. I haven’t been to Intrepid but DH took DS and they both loved it.

When we went last year I wanted to do Eli's island but wasn't fussed about going to pedestal of Statue of Liberty. So we got the official boat but just stayed on at SOL, it meant we got to Ellis Island ahead of everyone else and could look in peace. Also not much of a queue to get back on the boat.

As a bonus we got some fab pics of SOL from boat as it pulled away as only about 3 other people had stayed on it so no one in the way.

Just to update this with what we actually did in case anyone searches in future:

Day 1: (Central Park area) Breakfast at Toasties, Central Park via Magnolia bakery (nature reserve, carousel, Bethseda fountain, rowing, Belvedere castle). Lunch at the Boathouse cafe. Natural History Museum. Dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner
Day 2: (Midtown) Breakfast at hotel, Top of the Rock, American Girl shop, Lego shop, Lunch at Melt Shop, MOMA, dinner at Applebee's, ballet at Lincoln Centre
Day 3: (Downtown) Breakfast at Times Square cafe, walked from Times Square down to Lower East side, Katz's deli for lunch, Tenement Museum, Staten Island ferry, Little Italy for dinner, Blue Man Group
Day 4: (Chelsea) Breakfast at hotel, walked the highline from Hudsons Yard to Chelsea Market, lunch and shopping at Chelsea Market -> flight home

We saw quite a lot of other things just walking around and between places.

So we packed quite a lot in and there was a lot of walking and late nights which DD coped really well with. Highlights for her were the Stardust Diner, Blue Man Group, American Girl shop, Central Park and Little Italy. She wasn't too keen on MOMA or the Staten Island Ferry but tolerated them! Our flight out (day 0) landed at 9pm NYC time, which actually worked out well for getting us over jet lag as we went straight to bed when we got there. We stayed in Times Square which was convenient but very busy - I'd probably stay somewhere further downtown next time.