Playtimes HK Magazine September 2018 Issue | Page 57

features
k
or
Y
Ne w
NEW YORK
Is ‘the Big Apple’ worth the
mammoth flight time and jetlag with
children? Louise Drake finds out
W
hen the opportunity arose
to meet Daddy in New
York for a long weekend
I found myself in a bit
of a dilemma: kids or no kids – read,
‘shopping or no shopping’. Being the
good mum that I am, I decided it would
be a great experience for the children,
so a family holiday it was.
Ghostbusters, Night in the Museum,
Home Alone 2, Miracle on 34th Street;
a trip to New York was like visiting
movie paradise as far as the kids were
concerned, and I have to confess it
felt a bit like that for me, too. I couldn’t
wait to see the yellow taxis I’d seen in
so many films, the steam escaping the
manholes and all the iconic sights.
One of the most iconic attractions
has to be the Statue of Liberty. There
are a few companies offering trips to
visit Lady Liberty, they involve a ferry to
Liberty Island and access to the statue,
along with a visit to Ellis Island, home
to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.
When visiting the Statue of Liberty you
can book tickets to allow a climb just
to the pedestal or all the way up to
the crown. Some tickets also allow
you to skip the queues, which can be
long and hot in the summer months.
Security checks can take a while, too.
We opted to jump on the Staten
Island ferry and take in the statue from
the water. The Staten Island Ferry is
what remains of an extensive ferry
system that used to transport people
around New York’s boroughs and
suburbs before the bridges were built.
Today the ferry transports 22 million
people a year between St George on
Staten Island and lower Manhattan,
and at no cost. Yes, you read that
correctly, it’s free. It runs 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, at 15-20
minute intervals during the week and
30-minute intervals at the weekend.
The Staten Island Ferry is
essentially a commuter ferry, but an
iconic one. A trip on the bright-orange
boat is not unlike a trip on the Star
Ferry, although at approximately 25
minutes it’s a longer journey. It’s best
to head to the right-hand side of the
top deck when heading toward Staten
Island, so as to get the best views of
the Statue of Liberty, but the crowds
will probably make it obvious. The
ferry gets closer to the statue on the
outbound leg of the journey, so has
better photo opportunities then. You
might not get up close and personal
to the statue, but it’s more relaxed
and a much cheaper way of seeing it;
you also get great views of Governors
Island and Manhattan Island. When you
arrive at Staten Island, you can either
explore, or hop straight back onto a
return ferry, as we did.
Central Park was a big hit with
the children and allowed them to
run off some steam. Climb the Alice
in Wonderland sculpture (when we
were there it had added theatrical
entertainment courtesy of a drama
student in full costume reading from t he
book), take a football to kick around,
join in a softball game, row a boat in the
September 2018
55