Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

New York For A First Timer...

josephml1

By josephml1,
in East Coast Departures

 Share

Recommended Posts

ZoneHPH

ZoneHPH

Posted
Posted
johnql and ZoneHPH, thanks so much. We will be arriving at JFK around noon Saturday and sailing Sunday afternoon, so we don't have much time. We'll take the subway to Battery Park and ferry to the Statue of Liberty, dh wants to do the Empire State Building, and I think dinner at Carmine's is in order. There are 10 of us going and most of us doing our own thing. Just not enough time to really really enjoy the city, but we can hit the highlights! Thanks so much for your help. If you're ever in Oklahoma, I know the BEST places!!

 

i dunno...but i think the ESB is a waste...now. before it was nice because you had the twin towers to appreciate. but now...nothing else to see except for the chrysler building.

 

on this one i say go to the Top of the Roc (Rockefeller building)...from there you can take pics OF the ESB in the background.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ZoneHPH

ZoneHPH

Posted
Posted
ZoneHPH, got it! Name Game says Carmine's isn't the best.... are you two going to duke it out???

 

mama taught me never to hit a lady. name_game and i have a great partnership.

 

she pays her electric bills...i keep the lights on in her apt. *wink*

 

seriously...carmines is nice. but if you do choose to go there...go to the one uptown on broadway...the one in times square is just too touristy for me. but there really are many other nicer italian places to eat. the novelty of carmine's is their portions...e.g. a slice of cake is the WHOLE CAKE...pretty much.

 

rather you go to Little Italy on Mulberry St. and just follow your nose. Ferrara's is good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BabySis

BabySis

Posted
Posted

ZoneHPH, we travel lots and we really despise the touristy places... so Ferrara's it is. Do we take a Taxi from Times Square?? In Oklahoma we DRIVE ourselves everyplace.... you have more cars in NYC than we do in our entire state!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ZoneHPH

ZoneHPH

Posted
Posted
ZoneHPH, we travel lots and we really despise the touristy places... so Ferrara's it is. Do we take a Taxi from Times Square?? In Oklahoma we DRIVE ourselves everyplace.... you have more cars in NYC than we do in our entire state!

 

teh only reason NYC has a lot of cars is because of people from my state of NJ! hehehehehehe we're the ones causing the traffic there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Name game

Name game

Posted
Posted
mama taught me never to hit a lady. name_game and i have a great partnership.

 

she pays her electric bills...i keep the lights on in her apt. *wink*

 

seriously...carmines is nice. but if you do choose to go there...go to the one uptown on broadway...the one in times square is just too touristy for me. but there really are many other nicer italian places to eat. the novelty of carmine's is their portions...e.g. a slice of cake is the WHOLE CAKE...pretty much.

 

rather you go to Little Italy on Mulberry St. and just follow your nose. Ferrara's is good.

 

Thanks Zone. Don't know if you read on the other thread, the San Gennaro feast this year is September 13th through September 23rd.

 

http://www.sangennaro.org/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
willysgrandma

willysgrandma

Posted
Posted

If you want great Italian food at a good price, look at Tony's Dinapoli on 43rd and Broadway. I've never had a bad meal the the food is the most reasonably priced in that area. The place is packed all the time.

 

http://www.tonysnyc.com/

 

I think Carmine's is overpriced and a bit overrated.

 

John's Pizzeria is also great. If you do, ask to sit in the big room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Name game

Name game

Posted
Posted
Name Game - ZoneHPH..... sorry for listening in.... that sounds like something we would all love.... thanks for the info.

 

Babysis, you might want to go to Puglia Restaurant.

http://menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&restaurantid=2181&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=35

 

http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/7113507/new_york_ny/restaurant_puglia.html

 

It's down by Little Italy. Great place. That's also where the feast is held. Above are two different websites with reviews of the restaurant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CruisinHoneymooners

CruisinHoneymooners

Posted
Posted

DH and I just recently made our first trip to NYC, and I thought that maybe you'd be interested in input by another newbie. We stayed four nights (6/24-6/28) pre-cruise. With some good research, NYC can absolutely be thoroughly enjoyed on a budget. :)

 

We stayed at the Ameritania Hotel at 54th and Broadway. I will say that I scoured the internet every chance I had for a couple of months before booking this hotel. I was able to get us a rate of $141/night via NYC.com. We absorbed all of the reviews we could find for this hotel before actually deciding to book it, realizing it wasn't going to be 4+, but feeling comfortable that the negatives we read about were things we could live with. We are both very happy that we did decide to book it. We, personally, had a fantastic experience, and the location was perfect!

 

I agree that you should definitely make the time to see a show. Personally, I have a hard time seeing how a trip to NYC could be complete without it. We saw Beauty and the Beast, and it was absolutely amazing! Unfortunately, this show will be closed the end of this month.

 

I will leave the restaurant recommendations to those who have had more time to compare different places. However, our experience was that anything truly NY will be enjoyed. We made it a point to try NY pizza (visited the Famous Original Ray's right across the street from our hotel), and I think I may have been ruined on "regular" pizza from that point forward! ;) We also hit Junior's at Grand Central Station one day, where we drooled over a grilled pastrami (for DH) and an amazing Reuben (me) before going straight to heaven with our first sampling of real NY cheesecake! We did have dinner at a little Italian place right next door to our hotel one evening called Angelo's, and we found it to be delicious. I'm sure there may be better places somewhere within the city, but we found them to be excellent for our sampling of Italian offerings in the city. Hmmm...now I've gone and made myself hungry! :p

 

We relied mostly on the subway system for transportation, and we both found it to be extremely convenient. We purchased a full-day pass each day. At $7pp, it was definitely a budget-friendly way to get around the city. I have to admit that I was a bit worried about whether it was "really" safe, but my mind was at ease our first trip. We were also really surprised by how fast we were able to get everywhere. Our first experience was from our hotel (Subway station one block away) to Yankee stadium. To our astonishment, it didn't take us much more than 15 minutes to get there.

 

I saw that you'd mentioned purchasing the City Pass, and I wanted to make sure that you knew of another option available, the NY Pass. The NY Pass is more expensive, but it is also good for a lot more things. If you plan on hitting a lot of the major sites in the city, my opinion is that this is the best way to go. We saved a significant amount of money with the card, and it saved us a lot of time waiting in line for tickets. We purchased it when they had a sale, so it became and even better deal. FYI: They are currently offering 20% off for a 3-day pass, if you buy by 7/19

 

NYers are very friendly (believe it) and will gladly give you directions or advice. We LOVE our city.

We found this to be very true! We encountered many people who were more than willing to help us find our way, and we were asked often how we were enjoying our trip.

 

On a side note:

You mean like yesterday when the humidity was such a killer and there was a blackout uptown and there were no trains running and the buses were packed and walking a block made you sweat like a pig?

 

This was our last full day in NYC, and I have to say it was the only time we felt completely overwhelmed by the big city. We were at Grand Central Station when it happened, trying to figure out how to get ourselves to Circle Line pier on 12th, and it was a nightmare figuring out transportation!

 

Not to mention that you can visibly tell in many of our pictures that DH (who grew up in the desert and has never really be subjected to humidity) spent most of the trip completely drenched from the humidity! LOL

 

 

Okay, I guess I've made this a lot longer than I planned (sorry!). :o I do hope that it was somewhat helpful to someone, though. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
emmy

emmy

Posted
Posted
DH and I just recently made our first trip to NYC, and I thought that maybe you'd be interested in input by another newbie. We stayed four nights (6/24-6/28) pre-cruise. With some good research, NYC can absolutely be thoroughly enjoyed on a budget. :)

 

 

Thank you ever so much for this first timers perspective.. we also want to do 3-4 days pre cruise in April and read all your info with much interest. Thanks for the hotel info.

 

Can't wait to experience New York..again many thanks for taking the time to write this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CruisinHoneymooners

CruisinHoneymooners

Posted
Posted

I'm glad that the information may be useful to someone. :)

 

One other thing I just realized that I forgot to mention:

Amongst all of my research, I came across a web site that we found to be very helpful. HopStop.com is similar to the many web sites around that give driving directions, but it is specifically for the Subway system. We found it very helpful in pre-planning our days to be able to look at the routes ahead of time.

 

Also, depending on the area you are from, you may be surprised to learn that NYC far more reasonably priced than some may think. We were pleasantly surprised to find that most things, especially dining, were very comparably priced to our local area. Of course, this may be because we also live in somewhat of a touristy locale, but we still expected many things to be more expensive than what we commonly found. :)

 

Also, the NY Pass can be purchased for advance use. When you purchase, you get a certificate that can be redeemed to pick up your card for a year. The three days then begins the first time you actually use the card. So, you can definitely watch for a sale and purchase ahead of time to save yourself even more money within a year of your trip. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Name game

Name game

Posted
Posted

http://www.newyorkpass.com/index2.asp?AID=10398714&PID=2125159

 

I am so glad you had a good time in New York. Sorry you had to deal with that really hot and humid day, the one that made me so cranky on here.

As for the New York Pass vs. The City Pass, you are absolutely correct. It is much better. I might have been the one to recommend the city pass but I meant the New York Pass. It covers the same things but more and you can buy for more than one day at a discounted rate. They also sometimes run sales.

I'm also very glad you found New Yorkers to be nice, I have to agree that we are. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CruisinHoneymooners

CruisinHoneymooners

Posted
Posted
I am so glad you had a good time in New York. Sorry you had to deal with that really hot and humid day, the one that made me so cranky on here.

 

We truly did enjoy every moment of our time in NYC, and we are already anxious to be able to try to plan a trip back. Next time, though, we will make it our entire trip so that we have more time in the city. There are still so many things that we want to see, and many places we want to go back to when we can take more time there. Probably after the Yankees build their new stadium, we'll make another trip out there. Next time, though, it'll be when they're actually playing a game! :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites
josephml1

josephml1

Posted
  • Author
Posted
DH and I just recently made our first trip to NYC, I do hope that it was somewhat helpful to someone, though.

 

Thank you very much for an excelente review about your trip.

 

I know it be very usefull for me and other readers of this thread.

 

Again Thank you for the advice.

:) :) :) :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Name game

Name game

Posted
Posted

Even though I live here, I still need directions to get to places. Hopstop is a staple for any New Yorker as well as visitors.

Restaurants can go any which way in New York from cheap, reasonable, expensive, ridiculously expensive. There are deals to be found everywhere.

The best time to visit New York is in the Fall. Those hot and humid days of summer can be a killer. Spring can have some humid days as well. You have to experience those days at least once to understand them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...