Just back from 3 nights / 4 days in NYC. My 12 year old son bought the one day Sightseeing Pass for the two of us as a surprise... So sweet and generous. I perused the reviews here to learn how to make the most of it - honestly I am not a "sightseeing tour" type of person but I can say based on the help we got from reading reviews, we had a fantastic day.
We opted to not partake in the hop on/ hop off bus. Seemed to be so many negative complaints about the bus. We spent time reviewing our options and mapping out our day ahead of time which seemed to be crucial to us being able to experience so much.
We visited the following attractions (yes all in one day!), for a total value of $461 if you paid entry at each attraction:
* One World Observatory
* Behind the Scenes at Radio City Music Hall
* Top of the Rock
* MOMA
* Gulliver's Gate
* Madame Tussaud's
* Ripley's Believe it or Not
* The Ride (entertaining bus tour around Midtown)
We read about the long lines at various attractions and most especially people saying that they got to One World Observatory only to be told to return three hours later. Since that particular attraction is so far away from all others, it would have killed our day if we had to return, so we decided to get there first and a bit early. We arrived at 8:30, got a timed ticket for 9:15, killed some time having a bagel and coffee and went to check in and were admitted early -- actually got upstairs at about 9:05 as there was no line (elevator to the 102nd floor takes less than a minute!). When we got upstairs, I felt the building swaying and it freaked me out so we didn't stay too long. The views are bar none - my favorite view was of the bridges to Brooklyn. Stunning. When we were leaving at about 9:30 the line was VERY long so we were happy about getting there early. To get there we took the E train from 34th Street right by our hotel, couldn't have been easier, faster, and also economical way to travel.
We did not visit the 911 museum as we had been there just two years ago and spent quite a bit of time then. New to us (aside from the OWO) was the underground passage from the train to One World Trade Center, the shopping plaza underneath the amazing architectural feature. Very cool.
So, then back on the train, this time taking us to Rockefeller Center. We went straight away to Radio City and got tickets to the 10:15 tour, had to wait less than 10 minutes. The tour was a favorite of both of ours and I highly recommend it. We got to meet a Rockette! The art deco features of this venue are simply amazing.
From there, right next door to check in at Top of the Rock. We had about an hour to kill and it was just about lunch time so we had lunch (wanted something nice and restful (i.e. sit down and get served) so went to DelFrisco's right there at Rockefeller Center) and returned to head up for another skyscraper tour (honestly one was enough for me, but my son wanted to do this... I don't do well with heights).
Left there and went to MOMA (more for me than my son - I hadn't been in a while and wanted to show him the masterpieces on the 5th floor - we also greatly enjoyed the photography exhibit on the 3rd floor). I kept us moving at a fast clip in the museum as I didn't want to lose my son's interest. No line here by the way.
Radio City, Top of the Rock and MOMA were all within steps of each other... from here we moved down and to the West a bit (on foot, maybe 20 minute walk tops) to Gulliver's Gate - not something I would have paid for if I didn't have the pass but glad we went! It was very cool. And then to Madame Tussaud's. I thought it would be awful but it was awesome - we both loved it! I sent a picture of my son high fiving the pope to my mom and she was flabbergasted wondering where we were! gotcha! Some of the figures were so incredibly accurate that it was eerie! Then right next door to Ripley's Believe it or Not - terrible! hated it! so glad it wasn't something we spent out of pocket on.
We had about an hour to kill before "the Ride" (which you meet right across the street from Ripley's). We went to Shake Shack and sat for a while - needed it after a long day of here and there. Split some fries and a shake and then it was time to get on the bus. It was really fun. Total touristy but if you let yourself go and clap along, sing along, and laugh, it would be hard to not have a good time. I won't spend too much time reviewing the experience as you can look it up here on TA, but it was worth it (again not something I likely would have done if we didn't have the Pass, but this was the beauty of the pass, pack it all in while we could).
A couple of tips... my son bought the passes online ahead of time and we printed out the voucher at home. We were under the impression that we had to go to the Sightseeing Pass office on 8th Ave. to turn these vouchers into actual Passes, but that wasn't the case. The only reason why that would have been necessary is if we wanted to use the hop on/ hop off bus (which as mentioned we opted not to do, mostly felt it would slow us down and everything we planned was pretty easy to get to on foot or by subway to the world trade center, also I really got steered away from the bus by other reviewers here).
Another tip, if you are in an area with several attractions, consider going to the one projected to have the longest line first, get your tix and then visit another while you wait. We thought we'd go to MOMA while waiting to get up to the Top of the Rock but there was just enough time for lunch so that worked better.
We had been previously out to the Statue of Liberty so we didn't do that, but I could imagine if we had wanted to do that we wouldn't have done so many other things... It was a really long day and we were super tired by the end but loved all the things we go to see, do and experience.
Both of us picked the Radio City tour as our favorite and Ripley's as our least favorite. Of the two sky scraper tours, we both thought One World Observatory had the better views, but try both! My son was sooo excited to go the Madame Tussaud's.. I thought it was going to be totally cheesey but I thought it was great! We both loved it.
Our timing on this was Friday April 20th. So not the busiest time of year but we were visiting during Massachusetts school vacation and there were school groups around the city. The longest line we actually had to stand and wait in was Madame Tussaud's which was 20 minutes. We had breakfast while waiting at OWO and had lunch while waiting at TOTR.
I hope my tips are helpful for some -- I certainly felt the reviews I read on here were extremely helpful to us on how to structure our day.