This Thanksgiving, my husband and I are going to visit my dad in Staten Island. However, after the main event, there’s not much to do on Staten Island for the rest of the week. Moreover, my husband has never been to the Museum of Natural History, the Hayden Planetarium, the MOMA, or the Met. We were thinking of going into Manhattan on Black Friday to hit some of these, but fear it will be totally overwhelmed with tourists and too insane to be much fun.
Any NY denizens have any insight into if we should try this? I have spent a lot of time in Manhattan, but not recently, and never on Black Friday, so whatever advice you might have would be greatly appreciated.
Wow… a thread about something I was just going to ask! May I add that I would also like suggestions, please, as I will be on NYC both Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and I would like to know what to do, see, or eat?
I’ve been to many of the known places, but would like to see some again (and not be overwhelmed).
It’s totally cool. A little crowded, but not if you have no special place you have to be at a particular time. Youll hit lines in the places you mention, but it’s not like there aren’t lines at any of those places on your typical weekend anyway.
And we’ll love to have you guys here. I will buy you a bag on chestnuts on Central Park West, if you like chestnuts.
Do not shop in NYC between Thanksgiving and New Years.
Museums? Fine.
Broadway shows? Excellent choice.
Tiffany’s? Prepare to be stuck inside the store for about 4 hours with no way to exit the building because there are so many people in your way that you can barely move, let alone purchase something or leave the store.
Enjoy the Met and the AMNH but stay the hell away from Saks. I learned this the hard way last year.
I grew up going to New York, and frrequently visited in November and December. But I think things have changed in recent years. When we took our daughter to the Museum of Natural History (where i practically grew up) during Christmas week, we couldn’t get through the front door. The lines were out to the Street. They were even backed up inside the Subway entrance. I mean this very literally – we didn’t get into the museum that day. And this wad a decade ago.
When we visited only two years ago, we had trouble simply walking down Fifth Avenue in midtown. I had never seen the city so packed – and I’d been coming to the city for years at this time of year. In Rockefeller Center it was impossible to move – it was wall-to-wall people. I don’t mean that it was crowded. I don’t mean that it was difficult to walk around. I mean, and again, very literally, that it was wall-to-wall people, pressed against each other. You could not walk or elbow your way through the crowd. Each step required that you separate two pressed-together people to make room for you to pass.
There was nothing particularly special going on that day. It was merely a mid-day during Christmas week in midtown Manhattan.
I can’t say that “Black Friday” is now as bad – I haven’t even tried traveling down to the city during Thanksgiving holidays in years now. It could be that it only really gets crazy during the Christmas week. But I wouldn’t unequivocally state that you’d be able to get into the Big Museums (The American Museum, of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art) easily. The good news is that New York is filled with a plethora of much smaller, too-neglected museums that are worth a look. Right across the street from the AMNH is the New York Historical Society, for instance (and in any other city, you wouldn’t call it “small”, but the AMNH dwarfs it).
If you know what you want to see in advance, you can try broadwaybox.com. A LOT of shows get rid of their discounts during the holiday season, but you might get lucky.
There’s always the TKTS booth in Times Square (newly renovated) for half price tickets, same day.
I was a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for almost ten years. Black Friday was our busiest day of the year. Unless things have changed drastically in the last five years, I would not recommend a visit on that day. The place gets too packed to enjoy.
This advice also applies to the day after Christmas. Other than those two, visiting the museum during the Christmas season is fine.
From personal experience, if you have any idea of going to American Museum of Natural History, you should be there at the time the doors open (which is 10am), commando through the 2-4 exhibits you are most interested in, and be out of there by 11:30 at the latest.
By noon it is positively a madhouse – everyone gets the same bright idea at once.
I’ll be working in Manhattan and staying in Bay Ridge (Brooklyn) until the day before.
Then I’l be going home to Ct. for Thanksgiving. I don’t want to be anywhere
near the city that weekend.
I second the info on Tiffany & Co. That whole corner is damned near impassable during the season. Ditto FAO Schwarz - they’re great fun to visit, but you better be prepared to be delayed - big time.
Do you guys think that the Saturday after Thanksgiving will be significantly or meaningfully better than Black Friday? We really want to do the museums if possible.
It’s funny, but I don’t recall. From a guard’s point of view, Black Friday was so incredibly crowded and stressful that Saturday was a relief. But I honestly don’t remember if the crowds lessened enough for it to be markedly better from a visitor’s perspective.
It will be better, but I’m not sure about significantly.
I think it’s one of those things where if you and your husband are the kind of people who go with the flow, and are willing to come into the city and try to go to the museum and if it works, great, and if not, you’re happy to walk around and do some other stuff that is less touristy … then it will work.
If you only want to see the museum, and will be disappointed if long waits and big crowds impact your museum-going experience, then I think you should skip it on this trip.
Any other good but lesser known museums? I know CalMeacham mentioned the museum of the city of New York, and I may check that out (I have been to the AMNH… 5 times already? I can skip it for once, no?). Are there any good exhibitions in the Museo del Barrio? I may end up staying in Queens… anything of interest there or in Brooklyn?
It’s the city, I’m just happy walking and people watching, if it comes to that… But I want to plan my adventures!
On my last foray into museum-land, we went to the Guggenheim and it was pretty cool. We may skip the whole trip this time, if it’s going to be too insane, though for some reason I love Manhattan during Christmas time.