I just read some reviews written here by people blaming the pass for their misfortunes and I honestly wonder: how bright are these people?
We purchased our tickets on their website as there are lots of similar websites out there but charging much more, so this site offers some great deals you cannot find on other sites and printed the bar codes on A4 papers in order to show to the 7 attractions we chose to visit in NY, out of the hundreds of options available, my ticket for 7 attractions being 179 USD or around 141 GBP at this moment in time:
1. I visited Moma, the Met, Guggenheim, the museum of Natural History, Intrepid, the Freedom tower and also took the cruise from the Battery park (to Liberty island including the transfer to Ellis island with free entry to the museum there, which is amazing, plus return cruise to Battery park so 3 trips for the price of 1)
2. Of all the above, to most I had to join dedicated queues for the people with pre-paid tickets or vouchers, show my bar code for the NYsightseeing pass and get in return a ticket for that location
3. The worst was the cruise to Liberty-Ellis-back to harbour because the queues were massive going in a thick circle of around 800 people despite having several box offices where most of the people had passes just like us and I guess the queues were because the cruise company did not prepare properly for this even in May. After having your bar code scanned, you are given your tickets with the time you can go on the ferry, so if the tickets finish for the day, then you have to come the next day to try to get on the ferry. If you purchased your ticket directly with them (the way I did with the 9/11 museum for example) then you go straight to the second queue for the ferry where you also have to pass the airport style security. The next queues from Liberty or Ellis island seem to be smaller and faster. In order to avoid these queues I would suggest to come here very early in the morning (if you visit on a beautiful summer day for example when most of the people will be thinking like you) or chose to buy the ticket directly with them and use your NYsightseeing pass for another attraction
4. We called from London on their dedicated number featured on their site (thus not having to pay international charges) and the staff was very efficient and friendly explaining everything when we were wondering if the 3 ferries were all included in our price, for example. Also the Ellis island museum entry is included in the price, so clearly is very advantageous to have this ticket part of the NYsighseeing pass, so you will have to decide what suits you
Also consider buying a NY Metro card: we got ours after getting out of the air tram at JFK airport (where you have to pay 5 dollars to get out although no one mentions this anywhere) and then a 33 dollars 7 days Metro card although we stayed only 5 days in NY, which is of great value for money:
1. we took the express train from Jamaica station straight to Lexington/51st street where our hotel was located and arrived there in some 15-20min
2. we took Lexington/51st to travel to Highlands intersection in Queens in order to take the bus to LaGuardia airport
3. We took the green line travelling north and south of our hotel located between Lexington/51st and Grand central (some 5-10min between both these stations)
4. We even took bus 50 from near our hotel travelling west to the Intrepid museum thus not having to change lots of subway lines
What a great way to travel in NY!!!!! I highly recommend it to everybody, rather than paying for every single trip individually that would have cost us so much more!!!!
Both the pass and the metro card saved us lots of money, time and aggravation!!!