Visiting New York: The Statue of Liberty

We visited New York City in July 2017. We went there with friends and stayed in a house we rented near Central Park. This is the first time the kids were ever in New York, and so our schedule included the most popular attractions:

1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

2. The Statue of Liberty

3. The American Museum of Natural History

4. The Guggenheim Museum

5. Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum

6. The Empire State Building

7. Broadway: School of Rock

We had the worst time visiting the Statue of Liberty. We knew before hand we were not going to climb on any part of it. You have to make/pay reservations a month in advance and since our party included kids we decided it would be too stressful and it would take flexibility off our trip. The kids were disappointed, but that’s life.

I think part of the horrible experience was that we visited July 3rd and the masses that visit NYC for July 4th were probably all there with us. We purchased the City Pass, but that helped almost nothing. We first needed to make an hour line to get the ticket from the City Pass ticket. Then we needed to line up to go into security (another hour), then we needed to line up to get screened for security and board the ferry, yet another hour. It was hot and muggy and terrible. The kids were all good, which was nice, but by the time we got to the island we were all irritated, at most.

We did split up for the first two lines, so while a couple of us went to get the tickets, the rest of us lined up for security. Believe me, it still felt like forever.

The island is not fantastic. Sure, you get great photo ops and you can say you were there. Most of the time we sat on the grass in the shade and drank cold lemonade that they sold there. Then, after about 30 minutes we lined up again (yes, more wait), to go Ellis Island. By then, we were tired and it was getting late, so we decided not to visit it. We couldn’t wait to be home. 

At least the kids enjoyed the ferry ride.

cheers!