theDIBB - A Fairytale in New York Christmas 2016

This was the only day in the holiday where we had preplanned places to be! I had booked crown tickets for the Statue of Liberty 6 months ago for 9am. It seemed a good idea at the time.

I was awake at 5.50am so I had a shower before waking the others up. It was a bit of a struggle but we were down at breakfast by 6.40am. Breakfast was a repeat of yesterday ;)

We managed to be ready and out for 7.25am. We walked the 2 minutes to the subway station and got the N trade to 14th Union Square where we changed to get a train down to Bowling Green.

I remembered where to go from last time. We got our tickets at the pick up desk in Castle Clinton and then I realized a boat was ready to go. I had thought the first boat was at 9am but no - it was at 8.30. It was now 8.22am.

We raced round and were through security in minutes. With seconds to spare we were on the sparsely populated Lady Liberty.

It was bitterly cold on the way over but both kids were amazed with the views. The ride takes about 20 minutes do we were soon docking at Liberty Island.

We decided we would head straight to the Statue to go up to the Crown.

We had to show our passports, then put all our stuff except cameras, phones and medical equipment in a locker ($2).

Then another screening - this time I bipped so needed to have a secondary check.

We walked up to the pedestal level on wide open stairs. There is a lift to this part. The funniest bit was O asking if there was a lift up to the top. His shocked "you mean I have to walk" was priceless!

At the pedestal we walked round. O thought she was smaller than he imagined.

The stairs up to the Crown are a very narrow spiral ones - J who hates heights was not too keen but pushed on. There are a lot of steps (over 300).

We got to the top to be met by two rangers. We were the first up of the day! The boys were both amazed by how tiny it was. Literally there is room for 4 or 5 people.

The rangers said they only sell 405 tickets a day. I guess that is why you need to book in advance.

The way down was no better. This is the face from the inside. At the Pedestal we went outside again to cool down!

A great view of Manhattan. We spent some time working out what building was what.

The obligatory Statue picture!

After a snack stop (F was low - the energy needed to walk up had made her blood sugars drop) we decided to go to Ellis Island.

First stop was a film on the history behind the Island with interviews with some of the people who came over in terrible conditions. It held the kids' attention and they both said how much they liked it. J fell asleep...

We went and looked at one of the exhibitions - it was interesting to see where the immigrants had come from. Over 3 million Germans - which surprised me as you don't hear about American Germans as much as you do the Irish and Italians.

We went upstairs to an enormous hall which was very elaborate considering the purpose of it (processing the immigrants).

You can just see the One World Tower through this window.

We decided to head back, get some lunch and go for a rest in the hotel as everyone was flagging.

As we got off the boat there was an enormous queue to get through security - at least 200 m from the first barrier. It wan't moving quickly. Thank goodness we went early.

We saw a deli and decided to eat there (they had tables upstairs and outside).

O had a slice of pizza and chips, F a cheese panini and crisps, me a felafel sandwich and J some cheesy pasta. At $30 it was a steal. There was lots of choice. We all really enjoyed it.

Back at the hotel we rested before heading out to Brooklyn. I had researched where to eat and we decided to try Juniors. We were disappointed.

First we seemed to be plonked on a table in the middle of a corridor - and this was after we asked not to sit at their first choice right in the entrance.

The good was average. F's egg and chips (again) was fine, me and O had veggie omelette and chips. They were OK - he liked the chips, for me I would have preferred them to be more cooked. J's cobb salad was awful - it had mentioned roasted corn - it was just out of a tin. The chicken was bland and the salad pre-cut. He ended up with half of my omelette.

It was $70 (with just one beer).

We then headed down to the Barclay's Centre for the NHL match - NY Islanders v Buffalo Sabres.

It was a gamble going tonight - but tickets for next week were a lot more expensive! We all got a Karate Kid bobblehead (the actor is a fan of the team). His daughter did a great job on the National anthem.

The seats were high up but we had a great view. There was a punch up in the first 5 minutes! By the end of the second period it was 3-0 to NY. We decided to leave - we had had fun but were struggling.

It took about 35 mins to get back and after a quick brush of teeth we were all in bed by 10pm.

Numbers for the day: Steps - 13209 and 4 subway rides.