Post Cruise Day Tour of Manhattan on our own

[queenL]

We took the ships (Manhattan Highlights tour) the last cruise. I liked it but we did just get the highlights of Manhattan. We didn’t get to stop anywhere for souvenirs nor in the places we really wanted to spend time. This time I booked a late flight leaving us the day to explore.

 

We planned to give Uber a shot to get to Manhattan. However, we downloaded the app and to our surprise there were no cars in the area for the next hour that could accommodate us. We didn’t want to wait, so we ended up taking a cab. It was a little over $100 for a taxi SUV. Our plan was to head to Schwartz Luggage 357 W 37th street. However, there happened to be a Courtyard by Marriott a few doors down. I remembered reading from someone on Cruise Critic who ended up tipping a bellhop at a local hotel in order to avoid paying luggage storage fees. I thought what the heck. We stayed at Courtyard pre-cruise, even though it was a different location we hoped that they would still stash our luggage. They did! We gave the bellhop a nice tip and we were off to explore Manhattan. A great savings for us because we had somewhere between 8-10 bags.

 

I had purchased HOHO tickets online with Big Bus Tours. There are many hop- on hop- off services in Manhattan. We chose this one because kids under 5 were free and because you could show your tickets on your smart phone enabling you to start the tour at any point. There was a stop a few blocks away from Scwhartz, near Times Square. We did a complete circle of the red line. This took us past most of the major sites. It took about 2-3 hours with traffic. We stopped at Greenwich Village for shopping, and hung out in Times Square awhile. We returned to our luggage. We actually took a cab to the Port Authority. It is close enough to walk but we had sooo much luggage to manage. The Port Authority shuttle was $16 per adult. They didn’t charge for either of my kids. I’m glad we didn’t take the Blue Line tour too, because the line for airport security was AWFUL. I’ve been in a lot of airports in my lifetime, in many different countries. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a security line as backed up as that one was. There were many people who missed their flight waiting to get through security. I think it took about 2 hrs to check in and clear security for a domestic flight.

 

It was a little bit of a logistical hassle but it was worth it to spend the day in Manhattan.