On April 2, I’ll be landing at JFK to visit my daughter (back to Portland on April 11). She’s working on a list of activities for the trip, but hasn’t transmitted anything to me yet, beyond the fact that she wants to take me to a couple of Broadway shows (Spamalot figures pretty heavily in her aspirations). She’s also asked me for some of my own suggestions. Frankly, mine are kind of pedestrian. I didn’t get to ride a subway when I was there in 2022 for her graduation, because she was recovering from a broken leg at the time, so I want to do that. I did get to flip the bird at [America-hating fuckstick] Tower, but I don’t have a video clip of me in front of the Statue of Liberty, saying “Liberty Bibberty” like in the insurance commercial, so that’s also on my bucket list.
But that’s the extent of my list so far. Any NYC Dopers care to share suggestions?
ETA: She did mention maybe getting me to Birdland, since her mother and I were very much into straight-ahead jazz.
The Circle Line tour around Manhattan is nice as I recall. Radio City Music Hall was great back then as well. Museum of Natural History and attached planetarium. China Town and the Garment District. Central Park of course.
You’ll have plenty of opportunities to ride the subway. If you really like the subway, they have a subway museum in an unused subway station:
They also have a nice ferry system. The views are great. No real need to take a sightseeing cruise. You can take a ferry to Staten Island which goes right by the Statue of Liberty Bibberty.
The observation deck on top of Rockefeller Center is amazing: Top of the Rock. They also film some talk shows in the studios there.Go by the studio gift shop and ask if they are handing out standby tickets. You might get lucky and get to attend the taping of one of the late night talk show. They have tours of the NBC studios and the Rockefeller Center itself.
The Circle Line tour goes all the way around the island, so you see the UN building, as well as the North end of the island and the upper East and West sides.
I haven’t been there in decades, but I always liked the American Museum of Natural History. I haven’t seen the new planetarium, now part of the Rose Center for Earth and Space. I also liked the Metropolitan Museum of Art, though it’s so big, I don’t think you can see everything in a day. And there are several other great art museums, like MOMA, the Guggenheim, the Frick Collection and so forth.
It all depends on what you like. The Met is great, as is the Museum of Natural History, where I spent a lot of time growing up. The Morgan Library often has interesting exhibits - I saw on on Frankenstein there and one on Winnie the Pooh. The 42nd Street Library gives free tours. There are lots of specialty museums for specialty tastes.
I’m not a big fan of Circle Line. Except for the UN, there is not much great architecture facing the rivers. For the price of a subway ride you can take a ferry from Wall Street to Roosevelt Island. The south of the island has a great view of the UN, and you can take the tram back - or the subway.
We went there for 3 weeks a year before Covid. I don’t think the tram was there when I lived in NY (a long time ago) and I don’t remember the Roosevelt Island stop on the 7 line, which was the one I used most going into the city. Roosevelt Island is much nicer than it used to be. I’d move there, if a couple of million bucks fell into my lap.
I feel like there’s always been a tram to Roosevelt Island as long as I can remember. I’m just not sure what’s actually ON Roosevelt Island that makes it worth a visit.
I misnamed the island in my posts above. Sorry for any confusion.
There was a trolley that ran from Astoria to Manhattan across the Queensboro Bridge. There was a stop in the middle of the bridge and an elevator down to the island.
Our list of planned activities is growing! We have a planned walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (I don’t know if there’s a pedestrian toll. I remember when I was about eight, my aunt took me and some of my brothers for a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, and we each had to feed the turnstile a quarter [maybe it was a nickel; a quarter sounds pretty pricey for 1964]. Anyway, if there is a pedestrian toll, and it’s too high, I’ll just go around – but I digress).
We’ve also got tickets to watch a taping of Colbert, still waiting on my request for a Jon Stewart TDS taping, and we’ll be catching closing night of Spamalot.
Huh. I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge (both ways) in 2019, and no toll then.
Have fun in NY. I envy you seeing Spamalot on Broadway. The revival got good reviews.
For a really interesting piece of history,
check out the Tenement Museum.
You experience the daily life of a poor immigrant family from 1880.
You enter their apartment, their kitchen, bedrooms, see how they earned a living, and you feel what life was like for the millions who arrived at Ellis Island, before the statue of liberty existed.
We went there when we stayed a month in New York. It was especially interesting for me since my dad grew up down the street from it. And not in a mansion. I liked it so much that I got a membership during Covid because they were shut down, even though I lived across the country. They did a lot of nice video tours.
There’s no toll to cross the bridge. Keep in mind that it might be much colder on the bridge than it is on the ground. You might want to bring some extra clothes. There are also plenty of souvenir vendors on the bridge selling sweatshirts, hats, etc.