The window displays for Macy’s opened this week and so did Lord and Taylor. The Christmas market is open at Bryant Park (behind the library on 5th and 42nd) as is the Union Square Market. The tree in Bryant Park just as nice as the one in Rockefeller Center.
I second seeing the Baroque Christmas tree at the Met. Whoever mentioned Toys R Us in Times Square hasn’t been there in a while as that store is closed as is the long gone FAO Schwarz on 5th Avenue. As a New Yorker who works in midtown, I avoid Times Square like the plague unless I have to go get theater tickets or plan to visit the TKTS booth. You can also download an app called Today’s Tix which has offers although any discount offers during the holiday season will be hard to come by.
Check out https://www.show-score.com/. On the top of the page, use the link for “deals” to see the availability of discount tickets. You might also want to see what others have said about a show of interest; show-score works for plays like “rotten tomatoes” does for movies. I recommend you also read through some of its “guides.”
If you end up in NYC and want to grab “day of” or sometimes a day or two before tickets, check out https://www.todaytix.com/ and read broadwayforbrokepeople.com. to find out how lotteries and rush tickets work.
OK, here’s my super-secret non-touristy best tip ever for an unforgettable skyline view:
Spend the cost of a subway ride (and back) for the Roosevelt Island tram, which parallels the 59th Street Bridge across to the island. Hang out for a while, depending on weather, at the shoreline and enjoy the view of Manhattan.
If you go in the daytime, there are some museums and such to check out, but really, I’ve never been in daylight, as the best reason to do this is the twinkling city lights.
Pick up the tram at 59th and 2nd; you need a MetroCard.
I’m going to use a Subject test analogy here. Museums have a pay what you wish option, because they want to be assessable to constituents who can’t afford the admission price. Same way subject tests are ‘optional’ because they don’t want to put a financial burden on low income students. So if you can afford the suggested admission, you should go ahead and pay that.
My city tip: depending on how much total time there, you don’t have to spend hours in any one place. Eg, see what you want at the Met, you don’t need to do the whole circuit thinking you must, and then head out to the next part of your adventure.
And, people watch, wherever you are.
You go to Times Square to see it. I can’t imagine an out of towner skipping it.
From the rockefeller center website - The Tree will remain lit and can be viewed until 9pm on January 7, 2018. The holiday shops at Bryant park are open until January 2nd. The week between Christmas and New Years is very popular for holiday lights sightseeing as that is when the kids are home from school.
Following up on the museum talk. The MET is huge. We always just see whatever special exhibits we are interested in or whatever area has been redone since our last visit. The pay what you want policy is an agreement with the city. NYC has given the MET so much free land (mostly parts of Central Park) and this is how the MET pays them back. There has always been controversy to this policy - people sueing because the cashiers were aggressively asking for full pay and when the MET is having a problem balancing their budget asking the city to allow them to change the policy.
We did our Saturday after Thanksgiving NYC trip and it was wonderful. Temperatures in the upper 50’s so we even walked through Central Park a little (it was packed). Bergdorf windows are great this year and the Saks outside lights show (runs every 15 minutes or so) is very nice (although I liked the music better last year). St Patrick’s is wonderful -inside and out - since they cleaned it a few years ago the white of everything practically shines now. We actually avoided Times Square (but as natives we go there quite often for shows etc.) My tip for this year is when nature calls use the bathrooms up on the 4th floor of Saks (empty and clean - not every department store has nice facilities anymore - the ones in Macy’s were gross last time we used them). By the end of this week the trees in Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park will be lit (were not lit yet last weekend).
Change to what I said in post 29. New policy at the MET - For the first time in half a century, visitors to the world’s largest cultural institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will have to pay a mandatory admission fee of $25 if they do not live in New York State under a new policy that begins March 1, the museum announced on Thursday.
Oh that is awful. We just visited the Brooklyn Museum which has a suggested admission price but it’s voluntary. They were very nice and didn’t give us a hard sell or anything.
I’m still haunted, in a good way, by those giant charcoals by Robert Longo.