Which New York pass is the best?

[julie42]

Trying to plan for our upcoming NY trip and am baffled by all the different available tourist passes...explorer pass, city pass, NYPass!
They all offer different things.
Which ones have you had?

[parkgirl]

Why don't you write down the things you want to do and cross check which one lets you do what you want. You should be able to pick the best for you then.

[Chunky Peanut]

Agreed i swear the majority of people who buy these passes waste so much time trying to max them out visiting places they'd never have bothered with and in turn miss out on visiting so many other places that cost nothing at all.

[grant_w]

We had a 3-day New York Pass.
These are good if you want to cram as much as possible in.

We used it for - Big Bus Tours, SOL + Ellis Island, 9/11 museum, Empire State Building, Top of the Rock, USS Intrepid, Radio City tour, Circle Line trip. All of which we wanted to do. We were then able to go to Madam Tussauds and The Ride in the evenings which we wouldn't have paid for on their own, but it gave us something to do other than sitting in our room watching TV

[DisneyDaffodil]

We have bought the 5 attraction Exploror Pass. We picked it because it has lots to choose from and we can decide which to use it for when we get there so don't have to stick to a rigid plan.
We want to do Empire State Building and TOTR. Want to see Statue of Liberty but not sure whether to do this as a tour or on a boat ride around Manhattan so just taking photos from the boat. Also may do hop on hop off bus or the RIDE but can decide which when we get there as they are all included in the pass.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by grant_w

We had a 3-day New York Pass.
These are good if you want to cram as much as possible in.

We used it for - Big Bus Tours, SOL + Ellis Island, 9/11 museum, Empire State Building, Top of the Rock, USS Intrepid, Radio City tour, Circle Line trip. All of which we wanted to do. We were then able to go to Madam Tussauds and The Ride in the evenings which we wouldn't have paid for on their own, but it gave us something to do other than sitting in our room watching TV

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Is the Ride good for the evenings? We wondered about things to do in the evening too so this may be a good option with our pass.
Was circle line cruise good, which one did you do? This is another one we are considering with our pass.

[grant_w]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

Is the Ride good for the evenings? We wondered about things to do in the evening too so this may be a good option with our pass.
Was circle line cruise good, which one did you do? This is another one we are considering with our pass.

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The Ride is more an entertainment bus trip rather than a sightseeing trip, I believe the after-dark trips are way more popular than the daytime ones. Be aware though, you have to go to their ticket booth (inside Madam Tussauds) to get a booking for this using the NYPass, and there is an almighty queue before the ticket booth opens, so get there early.

We were at the Intrepid museum and Circle Lines has a terminal right next door so we got on the first boat available, purely for timing purposes. We did the trip down to SOL. We really enjoyed it and got some excellent photos.

[Willeve]

I have used boththeNew York Pass and Explorer pass. NY Pass was ok to use, but you need to make sure you maximise your attractions to get good value, and I found that the days we didn't have it(arrival/departure days) I didn't want to do attractions as we would have had to pay. I feel Explorer Pass is much better value- includes hop-on-hop-off bus, Empire State, Top of the Rock. I always pay separately for Statue of Liberty as it is not expensive. Your attractions need to cost over $25 to make that ticket economical. As a pp stated, work out what attractions you want first, then check out the best value.

[Mrs dee]

Hello - ok I've been twice and never used a pass. Mainly as they restrict me... i.e. Must use by x amount of days or things I don't want or need. Just didn't feel good value ... until ... explorer pass. I'm going to get it for the first time. All the things we want to do and will do there but will save us about £100 odd pounds from paying on the door .

[Mrs dee]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

We have bought the 5 attraction Exploror Pass. We picked it because it has lots to choose from and we can decide which to use it for when we get there so don't have to stick to a rigid plan.
We want to do Empire State Building and TOTR. Want to see Statue of Liberty but not sure whether to do this as a tour or on a boat ride around Manhattan so just taking photos from the boat. Also may do hop on hop off bus or the RIDE but can decide which when we get there as they are all included in the pass.

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Hi sorry to barge in . I've done the free staten island ferry which takes you past sol then last year we went to the island and walked round. Didn't go up it as kids weren't keen but liked being up close to it. We were struggling for time and don't do Ellis island as worried kids would be bored although we might've liked it. One thing I'd say and I'm not sure which pass / but someone turned up to sol boat and had some sort of pass. They were told they had to go a booth quite a bit away to book/ use pass etc . Just bear this in mind - I just booked sol boat on my own x