Day 11: 20 May 2017, Saturday

It’s Day 2 of our stay in the Big Apple and we have two objectives today – to catch a musical on Broadway and to go on an open-top bus sightseeing tour around Manhattan.

The musical that I wanted to watch was Sunset Boulevard and I had already done my homework beforehand. Each day, there would be a limited number of Rush Seats tickets available for sale at the Palace Theatre’s box office at 10am. These tickets are for the balcony seats and they are sold at a discounted price of US$42. The regular tickets range from US$65 to US$299, so they’re really quite pricey.

However, I think most people don’t buy full price tickets for shows anyway. If you’re not purchasing Rush Seats tickets directly from the theatre’s box office (check the show’s website to see if they offer such tickets), the other option is to buy discounted tickets from TKTS, which sells same-day theatre tickets at up to 50% off.

There are four TKTS booths in New York (click here to see the locations and opening hours), but the most accessible one is at Times Square, under the famous red staircase. However, note that discounted tickets are not available for all shows. For example, popular shows like The Lion King are never on sale. Also, the discount ranges from 20% to 50%, and it is valid for certain categories of tickets only. Nevertheless, it is still cheaper than buying full price tickets and it is worth going early to queue up for the best seats. Be sure to download the TKTS app to check real-time listings of shows available for sale.

To get our Rush Seats tickets for Sunset Boulevard, we went to Palace Theatre at 9:20am to queue. The theatre was just 3 minutes’ walk away from our hotel so it was super convenient. Despite us being 40 minutes early, there were already 8 other people in front of us.

At about 10:05am, the doors opened and we entered the theatre box office and bought our tickets. I found out that there were discounts for tickets in the other categories as well. I cannot remember how much discount was offered, but we decided to settle for the cheapest ones. Mission accomplished!

After that, we were off to take the open-top, hop-on hop-off bus ride. There are a few companies offering similar bus rides but we chose Big Bus Tours because it was included in our New York City Explorer Pass. I should probably tell you more about the New York City Explorer Pass now.

New York has many famous attractions and perhaps the most economical way to make the most out of your visit is to buy a discount pass. There are a few different types of discount passes available. Click on each one to visit the official website.

• Option 1: The New York Pass

• Option 2A: New York CityPASS

• Option 2B: New York C3 CityPASS

• Option 3: New York City Explorer Pass

These passes vary only slightly differently but they all work on the same general principle: They allow you to visit multiple attractions for one low price, and they are probably cheaper than if you were to buy tickets for the individual attractions separately. In other words, they help you to save money.

So the next question is: How do I decide which is the best pass for me?

 

Option 1: The New York Pass

The New York Pass differs from the other passes because it is the only one that allows you to visit an unlimited number of attractions you can fit within a specified number of days. There are passes for 1/2/3/5/7 or 10 days.

At the time of my visit in May 2017, a 1-day pass costs US$109, 2-day pass US$189, 3-day pass US$191.20 and a 5-day pass US$239.20 (the prices for the 3 and 5-day passes reflect seasonal discounts). However, at the time of writing in December 2017, the prices have increased by about US$10, so be sure to check the website for the latest prices.

The New York Pass gives you entry to 90+ attractions (click here to see the full list). All the popular sights are included and it is the most comprehensive among all the passes. However, it does not include a trip to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, but it does give you a US$7 discount off the roundtrip Woodbury Bus ticket (usual price US$40 for adults).

The pass will activate once you visit your first attraction and end at midnight. If you purchase a multiple day pass, the pass will operate on consecutive calendar days and conclude at midnight each day as the pass goes into its second day of use and so on.

The New York Pass is good if you have a lot of energy to cram in as much as you can each day. It potentially allows you to save more money than the other passes if you maximise each day. It can be done if you plan your itinerary well and visit attractions that are near to each other, so as to cut down on travelling time. However, bear in mind that you will still need to queue for most of the attractions, sometimes up to an hour or more depending on the time of your visit.

Also, if the weather is bad for the days that your pass is active, you have no choice but to suck it up. For example, if you’re staying in NYC for 5 days but have only bought a 2-day pass, and it happens to be foggy on those 2 days, there is no point going up to the Empire State Building because you won’t be able to see anything. So you’ll need to change your plans to perhaps visit some museums instead. You cannot postpone your visit to ESB to the third or fourth day when the weather is better because the pass operates on consecutive calendar days upon first activation.

Pros: Practically all the attractions for you to choose from. Potentially the most savings depending on how efficiently you plan your itinerary and how much you cram into each day.

Cons: The pass runs on consecutive days so there is less flexibility on weather-dependent activities/attractions. You are also likely to rush through each attraction in order to maximise the usage of your pass.

Conclusion: Good for those who like bang for their buck, have lots of energy and want to see/do everything in a limited period of time.

 

Option 2A: New York CityPASS

Instead of a buffet spread of 90+ attractions, the New York CityPASS allows you to save 43% on admission to just 6 of the top New York City attractions. These attractions are handpicked because they are the most popular in NYC. Of the 6 attractions, 3 of them are fixed:

1. The Empire State Building

2. American Museum of Natural History

3. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

For the remaining 3 attractions, you have 2 options for each:

4. Top of the Rock Observation Deck OR Guggenheim Museum

5. Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island OR Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises

6. 9/11 Memorial & Museum OR Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

The New York CityPASS costs US$122 for adults and US$98 for youths. It is valid for 9 consecutive days starting with the first day of use, so you have ample time to visit the attractions at your own pace. This pass is good if you already want to visit the attractions listed above. But if you’re not so keen on some of attractions, especially the fixed ones, you have no option of changing them. So it is rather inflexible in that sense.

Pros: You can visit the 6 attractions at your own pace within the 9 calendar days.

Cons: Limited choice of attractions. Of the 6 attractions, 3 of them are fixed and you cannot change them for anything else.

Conclusion: Good for those who already want to visit the attractions listed anyway, and for those who prefer a relaxed pace.

 

Option 2B: New York C3 CityPASS

To get around the inflexibility problem, New York CityPASS introduced the C3 pass, which allows you to visit any 3 of the attractions. It is the same list of 9 attractions of the CityPASS plus one more: Hornblower Sightseeing Cruises. So there are 10 attractions in total, and you can pick any 3 of them. The benefit is that you are not constrained by the mandatory attractions.

The C3 pass costs US$78 for adults and US$58 for youths. It is also valid for 9 consecutive days starting with the first day of use. Compared to the regular CityPASS, the savings are not as great but you get the added flexibility of choosing your favourite 3 attractions among the 10 listed.

Pros: You can visit the 3 attractions at your own pace within the 9 calendar days. You get the flexibility to choose any 3 out of 10 listed attractions.

Cons: Less savings compared to the regular CityPASS.

Conclusion: Good for those who only just want to visit 3 of the listed attractions anyway.

 

Option 3: New York City Explorer Pass

The New York City Explorer Pass is somewhat of a hybrid between the all-you-can-eat buffet style New York Pass and the more streamlined New York CityPASS. The Explorer Pass allows you to pick a specific number of attractions to visit: 3/4/5/7 or 10 attractions. There are 63 attractions for you to choose from, including all the popular ones and the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets round trip bus tour. Click here for the list of attractions.

At the time of writing in December 2017, the prices for adults are as follows: 3 attractions (US$84) / 4 attractions (US$110) / 5 attractions (US$125) / 7 attractions (US$160) / 10 attractions (US$199). The pass is valid for 30 days after your first attraction visit, so you have more than enough time to visit the specified number of attractions at your own comfortable pace.

Pros: A wide number of attractions to pick from. Flexibility to visit at your own pace (within 30 days).

Cons: Potentially less savings than the New York Pass.

Conclusion: Good for those who know what they want to visit, and for those who are staying in NYC for an extended period of time (up to 30 days to visit all the attractions).

 

After weighing all the pros and cons of each discount pass, I decided to get the 5-attractions New York City Explorer Pass because I knew specifically what I wanted to do:

1. Empire State Building (Usual price: US$34)

2. Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island ferry cruise (US$18.50)

3. Hop-On Hop-Off Big Bus New York (US$62)

4. The RIDE (US$55)

5. Woodbury Common Premium Outlet bus tour (US$40)

Without any discount pass, the total amount for these 5 attractions would be US$209.50. With the 5-attractions Explorer Pass (US$125), I saved US$84.50. The New York CityPASS is not suitable because the attractions provided don’t match with my desired ones.

Could I have saved more with the New York Pass? No, because the 2-day New York Pass costs US$189 and the 3-day pass costs US$191.20, which are already more expensive than my 5-attractions Explorer Pass (US$125). Furthermore, the New York Pass does not include the Woodbury Common Premium Outlet round trip bus tour, so that was a major disadvantage for me. I also preferred to have a more relaxed time rather than to rush from attraction to attraction, so the Explorer Pass was the best option for me.

To use the Explorer Pass, the most convenient way is to download the Go City Card app onto your mobile phone. After making payment, the order will be sent to your app. You just need to present the QR code on your app to be scanned at each attraction to receive your admission ticket. The app also contains a digital guidebook to all the 63 attractions, including addresses, maps and opening hours of the attractions. It’s very convenient.

After the long digression, back to the Big Bus. We used one of our 5-attractions in the Explorer Pass to redeem a Classic Ticket on Big Bus Tours. It entitles us to one day usage of the hop-on, hop-off bus. As the term implies, you can hop on the bus at any stop and hop back on again anytime to complete your journey. There is pre-recorded commentary on board as well as a live English-speaking guide.

There are three routes you can explore – Uptown, Downtown and Midtown. Click here to see the routes. A full circuit on the Downtown and Uptown routes takes approximately 150 minutes each, while the Midtown route takes approximately 90 minutes to complete. The routes are designed so that you can see all of the famous landmarks that NYC has to offer. As our hotel was located conveniently in Midtown, most of the Midtown sights were within easy reach so we did not need to take the Midtown bus tour. We took the Uptown route first.

The nearest stop to our hotel was at M&M’s World, located at the corner of 48^th Street and 7^th Avenue, just 2 minutes away from Palace Theatre. We approached one of the many Big Bus agents roaming around the area to redeem our tickets. The agents are dressed in burgundy jackets with the Big Bus logo on them, so they’re pretty easy to spot. After scanning the QR code on their mobile terminals, they issued us a printed ticket each. Keep this ticket properly as you’ll need to present it each time you hop on the bus. At about 10:50am, we were on our way!

The Uptown route was supposed to ply Central Park West but there were some road closures today so they modified the route slightly. As we headed north along Madison Avenue, we drove past St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Apple store.

The bus then made a left turn at Central Park North before rejoining the original route at Amsterdam Avenue. We saw the Cathedral of St. John The Divine, a beautiful, Gothic-style church known for its annual blessings of the animals. We then saw Riverside Church and Grant’s Tomb (General Grant National Memorial). Along the way, we also saw many buildings with iconic metal fire escape stairways like those depicted in the classic 1961 film West Side Story.

The bus then rolled into Harlem and we passed by the legendary Apollo Theater at Dr Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard. It was a thrill to see the Apollo Theater in person because this was the venue where countless legends such as James Brown, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Michael Jackson and more performed and earned their stripes before they became greats. I was tempted to alight here and visit the theater but decided to move on with the bus tour.

The bus then turned to 5^th Avenue, driving past the Museum of the City of New York and the Guggenheim Museum. At about 12:05pm, we alighted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met).

The Met is the second most visited art museum in the world (after the Louvre), with 7.06 million visitors in 2016. It contains an extensive collection of paintings and sculptures from America, Europe, Asia, all over the world really. I had previously visited art museums in Paris, Rome and London and found them to be overwhelming. I also cannot pretend that I am able to appreciate all the magnificent artwork. The collection is so big that after a while, all the paintings and sculptures start to look alike. As such, I wasn’t too keen on visiting the Met, so we skipped it.

We then took a stroll through Central Park. It was 16 degrees Celsius and it was a cloudy day. Loads of people were picnicking on the beautiful lawns, running around, boating in the lake or simply strolling around the massive grounds.

We then spent 20 minutes being entertained by a group of break-dancers/acrobats.They did some breakdancing and somersaults here and there. They were very well rehearsed, throwing out coordinated lines in a call and response manner, complemented by fancy music. They then picked people to form up in a line, and said that one of their guys would jump over them as the finale act.

As they hyped up the ending, they went around collecting donations from the audience. They were egging the audience members to donate more and they must have collected close to a thousand dollars altogether. In the end, the finale was about as anti-climactic as it could be. Instead of jumping over the 10 people, they removed some of them so the guy only jumped over maybe 5 people, which was quite easy to do. It was entertaining to watch but it was ultimately a con job. Don’t be foolish and part with your money!

We then walked over to Strawberry Fields, a memorial dedicated to former Beatle John Lennon. The 2.5-acre landscaped garden is named after the song “Strawberry Fields Forever” by The Beatles, which was written by John Lennon. The entrance to the memorial is located on Central Park West at West 72^nd Street, directly opposite the Dakota apartments where Lennon once lived (his wife Yoko Ono still lives there).

On 8 December 1980, Lennon was shot dead by crazed fan Mark David Chapman in the archway of the Dakota. The Strawberry Fields memorial was then opened on 9 October 1985, on what would be his 45^th birthday. The centrepiece of the memorial is the circular mosaic of inlaid stones with the word “Imagine”, the title of Lennon’s 1971 anthem for world peace.

When we visited, there was a busker strumming his guitar and he happened to be singing “Imagine” at the time. Dozens of fans were gathered around the mosaic and I waited patiently for my turn to take a photo. It was one of my NYC bucket list items. Mission accomplished!

At about 1:55pm, we hopped back on the Big Bus. On the way, we passed by Carnegie Hall, another renowned concert hall. The bus then drove along 7^th Avenue and Times Square before we dropped off at 42^nd Street.

For lunch, we popped into McDonald’s for a quick bite. I was pleased to see that they served all-day breakfast and they had McGriddles! I ordered a Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddles and it was so good! We used to have McGriddles in Singapore but it was removed from the menu a few years ago for unknown reasons. We should seriously petition McDonald’s to bring McGriddles back!

At about 3:15pm, we hopped on the Big Bus again for the Downtown tour. As we drove along 5^th Avenue, we passed by the Empire State Building, Flatiron Building and Washington Square Arch before turning to Broadway and passing by Noho and Soho. By the way, Noho and Soho stand for “North of Houston Street” and “South of Houston Street” respectively.

We then passed by Chinatown and the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, caught a glimpse of One World Trade Center (formerly known as Freedom Tower) and saw the famous Charging Bull statue at Wall Street before we reached the southern end of Manhattan and the bus turned back northwards.

On the way back, we saw the United Nations Headquarters building, the Trump World Tower and Rockefeller Center before we alighted at Times Square at about 5:45pm.

With that, it was the end of our Big Bus Tour. By taking the Uptown and Downtown routes, we had covered most of Manhattan’s sights and landmarks within a day. It was our first time taking a hop-on hop-off bus and we enjoyed the experience. The live guide on board was informative and provided great anecdotes, adding another dimension to the tour. I would say it is a very good way to see the city, especially if you’re short of time. You get to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. I highly recommend it.

After a short rest at the hotel, we headed out again at 7:30pm to catch our Sunset Boulevard musical at Palace Theatre. I was so looking forward to it because I had performed the musical score during my army band days, and I loved the songs in the soundtrack. So when I learned that Glenn Close would be reprising the role of Norma Desmond again, 23 years later, I knew that I had to catch it no matter what.

It was nice to see many audience members dressed to the nines for the occasion. I had put on my smartest shirt as well. The theatre was very regal and beautiful, exactly as you’d expect from a world-class theatre on Broadway. Our balcony seats were right at the top level, which was no surprise because we bought the cheapest tickets. The view was slightly obstructed and I had to lean slightly forward in order to see the action at the front of the stage.

Finally, at 8pm, the curtains lifted and the show began. The familiar strains of music, performed by a live orchestra, filled the hall and I felt elated. When Glenn Close made her grand entrance, she received loud applause and cheers. There was no doubt who the audience came for. And when she sang “With One Look”, I instantly felt the hair on my arms stand up, no kidding. It was so good.

The show ended at about 10:30pm. Glenn Close was magnificent, as was the rest of the cast and musicians. She received an extended standing ovation, forced to come back on stage at least five times because the audience wouldn’t stop clapping! Well deserved. So happy to have caught the musical. It was a great way to end Day 2 in NYC!