We leave tomorrow! And the weather is looking better on Thursday and Friday so that's a relief. I did get ponchos for us to wear, just in case (heh, see what I did there). And I'm certain that if I'm prepared for rain, it won't rain.

Here's our plan:
Wed evening: Times Square

Thurs: Brooklyn Bridger, Brooklyn Heights, Lunch at Katz's Deli, Dinner TBD, Rockettes

Fri: Breakfast at Ellen's Stardust Diner, 9/11 Tour, Peanut Butter Pie break, Coney Island, Coney Island fireworks

Sat: Today Show, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Museum of Modern Art, Dinner at Carmine's, Wicked

Sun: Breakfast TBD, Central Park, Lunch is pizza TBD, not really sure for the rest of this day

Mon: SOL/Ellis Island, Chinatown/Little Italy, Tenement Museum, Dinner at WoHop in Chinatown

Tues: Head back home!

Thanks to HappyGilmore for all the suggestion and EdAudit, as well!!

If your are in Brooklyn heights Thursday dinner

http://peterluger.com/brooklyn/

It is in Williamsburg (close by)

Make a reservation early and bring cash (no credit card accepted) debit cards are ok

it is expensive but worth it , figure about $100 per adult or grown child .

If some one offers to sell you the Brooklyn bridge, you are to late I got the deed last time I was there for cheap!!!
Just my 401K, savings plus annual payments for life. ^_-

used to be a great burger place next to St pat's - the Prime Burger...although googling it it appears it may have closed...so never mind

for Katz's, I recommend sitting down and having waiter service...

Have a fabulous time. You may want to check out one of the deli's for breakfast on Sunday. We thought they were great. Don't forget your most comfortable shoes!!

edAudit - that's you I always walk past?? I give you a buck every day!!

Don't forget your most comfortable shoes!!


That is a excellent bit of advice. If you forget you shoes they most likely will be taken by the smelly person sitting on the sidewalk claiming that today is his birthday.

Not me. I am the guy suggesting that he gets a job.

I'm baaaaack! We had a great trip!

The Sheraton New York Times Square was a really good location. North of the madness of Times Square but centrally located. Only negative: there are refrigerators in the room but they charge to use them by weight. Ugh!

The subways were a piece of cake. I had an app but just ended up using the Maps app that was on my iPhone. Siri got us where we needed to go.

Wicked and the Rockettes were ah-mazing. I can't even put it into words how much I enjoyed every minute.

We did the One World Observatory. I'm extremely afraid of heights so it was... traumatic for me but my daughter and mom thought it was great. We did a walking tour of the 9/11 site and our guide was very informative.

Did Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island. She's beautiful in real life. Afterwards we ate at an Irish Pub called The Dead Rabbit. I had fish and chips- yummy! It came with mashed peas and I'm still not sure what you're supposed to do with those.

We did eat at Katz's deli. I had the pastrami sandwich, as recommended by the waiter. However, it was just pastrami and bread. Anything else (cheese, lettuce, onions, tomato) was extra and I didn't know that. I did put a bit of mustard on it. It was okay. Huge sandwich ($19.99) so I recommend sharing with someone. The place was packed and the hostess told us we missed Leonardo DiCaprio by about 20 minutes.

We ate at Carmine's for dinner before Wicked. Family style Italian restaurant. Very good. We got the Carmine's Salad, cheese ravioli and shrimp scampi. We had a ton of leftovers so we had it packed up and gave it to a hungry guy on the street.

We went to Coney Island for the afternoon. It was meh. My daughter rode the Cyclone ($10 per ride) and thought it was pretty cool. Ate at the original Nathan's and got chili dogs. Very disappointing. They came with about 2 tablespoons of chili and two blobs of orange cheese sauce. Sitting on the pier was very enjoyable. We didn't stay for the fireworks.

Ate at the "Original Ray's Pizza" (ha!) and it was very good. It was on 7th just a block up from our hotel.

Ate breakfast at Ellen's Stardust Diner which was fantastic. The waiters/waitresses sang the entire time. Food was okay.

Ate breakfast at the Brooklyn Diner (not located in Brooklyn, actually it was on 57th or 58th). It was very good.

We did the hop on/hop off bus tour. One of Uptown and around Central Park and the night one which went over the Brooklyn Bridge and through downtown.

Rode a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park. Loved that.

Went to the Museum of Modern Art. What a mistake. Very pretentious and not very good art. There were a couple of Van Gogh's but that's it. My mistake for misunderstanding "modern art." I would've much rather gone to the American Museum of Natural History (I think that's what it's called; it's the one in Night at the Museum) but that didn't work out. My favorite piece was titled, "A Navel" and it's a small black circle on a white piece of paper.

We did the Today Show on Saturday. We were first in line so we got a really good spot. Unfortunately, Saturday isn't the best day. The footage from that day isn't available so I'll never get to see myself on TV. It was actually pretty boring and we left early. Ate at that little bakery with the windows that look out onto the crowd and watched from there.

We went to Pastacherrio Rocco (or whatever it's called) for dessert. I had a chocolate cake thingy that was very good. I wish I would've had the cheesecake with the fresh fruit on top instead. But oh well.

We did not eat at any Chinese restaurants in Chinatown because my daughter doesn't like Chinese food. I was a bit turned off by the aquariums with fish/shrimp/lobsters in them anyway so I was okay with not eating it.

Times Square was just mass chaos. We didn't stay very long but we did check it out.

So, it was a great trip. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. But I have to say, I'm so glad to be back to the peace and quiet of Montana. NYC was fun to visit but I couldn't stay any longer and I don't know that I'll go back.

hostess told us we missed Leonardo DiCaprio by about 20 minutes.

Congrats glad you had a good time

hostess told us we missed Leonardo DiCaprio by about 20 minutes.

honestly, they have a list of 5-7 celebrity names behind the counter, they just use the next name on the list to tell the tourist rubes this...

" there are refrigerators in the room but they charge to use them by weight. Ugh!"

Heavy people have to pay more?

well they could not get the soda ban passed

New York City advice

The Mets should bring Tebow up quickly.

Thank you Helpful BOLers! Just made my reservations at the Park Central Hotel.

hope you aren't going in the summer...hot and nasty when the temps get above 85...

We are going in October, so hopefully a great time.

that is a great time to go...weather should be cool enough to do a ton of walking

Thanks. Looking forward to this bucket list item!

For future readers...

We stayed at the Doubletree Times Square and loved it. The rooms are VERY nice sized for NYC and very comfortable. We had a fridge and microwave (no extra charges.) We were high enough up (32nd floor) that we couldn't really hear Times Square noise.

We also did the Hop On / Hop Off and used that as our main form of transportation. It went everywhere we wanted to be. Highlight was the Museum of Natural History - that place is HUGE and you could seriously spend days there. Plus they had a Mummies special exhibit that was really cool - not just Egyptian mummies either. Although my favorite was the Egyptian mummified baby crocodile. Do not eat at the Museum though, go outside and hit up a food cart.

We did three of the routes on Hop On / Hop Off - Uptown, Downtown, and Mid-town, and the harbor cruise.

I did wish we'd had another day, I would have liked to have gotten to Central Park zoo, and to see another show (we saw Phantom, which I think is really worth seeing on Broadway.) And I wanted to eat at Sylvia's but we just didn't have time.

Thanks! We are sad that we won't be able to see a Yankees game. Last game is listed for the week before we get there. Maybe there will be playoffs?! We also want to see a show and to do a river cruise. This must be when you try and pack 25 hours in a 24 hour day.

PM me your email address and i'll send you a word document with a ton of recommendations, things to do, places to eat, shows, and also what not to waste time on. I've been 5 times in the past 9 years, this is built from those trips...

Will do. Thanks!

September - October is the best time to visit NYC. If you're still looking for advice on places to go and things to do, shoot me a PM.