New York passes

[littlefeet1972]

Hi everyone we go to New York in 4 weeks for the first time. We want to visit all the main attractions and do as much as we can in the 5 days we are there.
Would you recommend get the city passes before we go.
Or get individual ticket for the attractions while there or before we go.
There are 2 adults 16 year old and a 11 year old.

Any other tips would be great.

Thanks

[littlefeet1972]

Also we want to visit a few tv / films building. What would you recommend.
Thanks again

[familybell]

We used this one sightseeingpass/en/new-york
Think we had the 10 attractions, worked out much cheaper than the 3/4/5 day unlimited passes you get. Think you have 14 days once you activate the pass and we had more than enough attractions, we even did the ride, madam tussuads, ripleys etc which we wouldn’t have paid separate for
They did stop the Empire State Building but it may be worth paying for that separately although they did offer a free voucher for $40 or so that we used to buy Empire State tickets but they may have finished that deal, worth a look

[Guest]

Do you want to go to the Statue of Liberty? Onto the island, and possibly clime up to the pedestal / crown.

If so you have to book this separately. We did SOL pedestal climb first boat of the day, on the first day to surf the jet lag.

The reason I asked is that a lot of the passes have SOL as one of the key ticket options. If you have done it separately you will not need it again, so check the options on the NYC passes carefully.

Do you know which things you want to do? Think up. Tope three skyscraper trips are top of the rock, one world, and empire state building. Do you want to do all, some or none. They all give different things, but will be on different passes.

I would spend a bit of time on what you fancy doing each day, work out what you can fit in and see what works for you from there. Some are as much as you can see or so in a set number of days, others are a set number of trips.

[littlefeet1972]

We would like to do
Statue of Liberty / ellis island
Empire State
9/11
Rocker fella centre
Chrysler building

So what ticket/passes do you suggest

[Caroian]

The passes can be very cost effective if you are going to visit a number of the high cost attractions that are included on them. However, everyone's needs are different, so only you can really work out which pass might be best for you. The way we've always done it is to make a spreadsheet with a list of all the attractions with entrance fees that we want to do - and most importantly are likely to be able to actually fit in to the time available - the cost for individual entrance tickets and then a column for each of the passes and whether it would be included. This allows you to see the total cost of a realistic itinerary by buying individually vs using a pass. It's a bit of leg work, but the saving might be worth it.

The main passes are The New York Pass and The New York Sightseeing Pass which give access to lots of attractions, or the Freestyle Pass or Sightseeing Flex Pass which both give you a certain number of attractions you can visit.

If you go in 4 weeks, it's likely you are too late for tickets to the Crown of the Statue of Liberty, so you could use a pass to access the island and then go on to Ellis Island (you need to book access inside the statue seperately and they sell out quite a way in advance). However you may still be able to book tickets to go inside the pedestal at the base of the statue (there is a museum inside) and these aren't included in any of the passes, so if you were to do this you'd be paying on top of the pass price.

Of the other items on your list - you can't go up the Chrysler Building and by Rockefeller Centre I assume you mean the Top of The Rock observation deck - this along with the Empire State Building is included in a number of passes. What other plans do you have? There are many attractions not included in any passes, many free things to do and many other things that are included in different pass options. Really, you best bet is to make a list of what you want to do with the costs and go from there!

[sam7]

We went for 5 nights a few years ago. I wrote a list of must do's, and would like to do, one of the pass sites showed the price of entrance to the attractions it covered and I realised that for us it was not cost effective. Many 'attractions' are free.
We did a hop on hop off bus that included a Broolyn and an evening tour, haggled with the sellers on the street (well they asked if I was interested I hesitated as we were on our way to book with a different company and they halved the asking price). The Empire State building (did first think in the morning, took advantage of being on UK time), Liberty Island (didn't want to go up the statue), Ellis Island (do the free tour, amazing), top of the rock (we did the morning and return at dusk visit)

[John]

we went for a week and bought the new York pass. It saved money on entrance fees but best of all for me was that it was also a 'fast pass' for a lot of the attractions where we could jump the queue's. It really paid off for the empire state building, the day we went I estimate it would have been and hour plus to queue, not for us...straight to the front

[littlefeet1972]

Thanks for your help

[Squiggly2902]

We bought the 10 attraction explorer pass which worked out at £13 for each attraction (there was a 20% off code for Get Your Guide. Com which worked out considerably less than any discounted tickets I could find). We did the following;
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
Empire State
Top of the Rock
9/11
Luna Park unlimited theme park pass (Coney Island)
The Ride
Spyscape
The Intrepid
The Met
Woodbury Common shopping outlet trip.