A few nights ago we turned on the “Tony Awards” (Broadway’s equivalent to the Academy Awards), that were taking place in New York City, to watch the Live Broadcast of “Hairspray” which was set to take place on Royal Caribbean’s “Oasis of the Seas” Cruise Ship, while it was sailing in the middle of the Caribbean…
…we sailed on this Ship (click the highlighted link in the paragraph above to see our pics) just before it was launched to the public almost 3 years ago… WOW… quite the Ship!!
Her & her sister the “Allure of the Seas” are the two biggest Cruise Ships in the World, they can accommodate over 6,000 guests per ship.
Anyways, it was definitely fun to see “Hairspray from the Oasis” on National TV as we watched that show ourselves in that very Theatre so it brought back some great Memories!
But watching the Tonys also reminded us of how much we love going to “Live” Theatre & Musical shows, especially in a great city like New York City where Broadway is a huge part of the culture there!
**Cruise Lovers Note** New York City is an awesome place to Cruise from…
…as #1, it’s one of the most electric cities in the world and #2, Cruising past the “Statue of Liberty” is a really unique & special thing to experience. Here’s our Cruise from New York City photos & videos to see what we’re talking about.
FYI, some of the most popular places to Cruise to from New York are Canada/New England, Bermuda & the Caribbean.
Now there are a ton of great things to see & do when in New York City, as well as seeing the shows, so here’s our list of our top things to see & do in New York City… at least they’re the things we’ve enjoyed the most during our couple of visits there! 🙂
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1. Watch a Broadway Musical… as mentioned above, this is probably our favorite thing to do while in New York City & we recommend everyone experience a minimum of one in your life so you can, at the least, say you did! 🙂 In New York City we’ve seen Rent, Aida, Chicago, Billy Elliott, Wicked, In the Heights & Once… and have loved them all!!
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2. Take the Hop On/Off Bus Tours. Definitely one of the best ways to see this humongous city! They have several “loops” where you can go uptown, downtown, to Brooklyn or you can even do (which was probably our favorite) a Nighttime tour. We love these ever popular bus tours as not only are they a way to see the “best of the best” that New York City offers but they can be used as transportation too which helps you avoid expensive New York City Taxi rides. 🙂 There are a couple of companies who offer these tours and you can pick them up in multiple areas around the city but this site will give you an overview of what’s available: http://www.newyorksightseeing.com.
3. Bike around Central Park. Now our first time in New York City we made the mistake of not visiting Central Park… there was just too much to do to see it all in 3 days! But the 2nd time, not only did we visit the Park, we biked right around it. In our opinion, this is a great way to see Central Park as to walk around the entire place would take forever but a couple of leisurely hours on bikes and you’ve pretty much seen it all. Like Stanley Park here in Vancouver, we just love New York City’s “in the middle of it all” Central Park!
4. Enjoy a slice of New York Pizza. Come on, how can you walk past hundreds of pizza places, that all look awesome, and not “grab a slice”… there are tons of places around New York City that offer some great Pizza but “Sbarro” is definitely one of our favorites! 🙂.
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5. Walk through & people watch in Times Square at Night. We’ve all heard it said that New York City is “The City that never sleeps” and this is definitely true! No matter what time of day or night it is, there’s people everywhere! And nowhere is there a better example of this then in Times Square… you can pretty much people watch here anytime you choose. But do it at Nighttime, the way those billboards light up the square when the Sun goes down is simply… “Electric”!! 🙂
6. Visit the Wall Street District. Love it or hate it for all the money that gets made/lost there, the bottom line is Wall Street, and the Stock Exchanges that call home to this district, are a major center of the financial Universe… and it’s something else to check it all out! You can visit the Federal Reserve & it’s Billions of dollars worth of Gold, you can look down onto the New York Stock Exchange trading floor, rub the “Bull’s” head for good luck, etc.
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7. Cruise Past The Statue of Liberty. Now this is fun!! As we mentioned above, our 2nd visit to New York City was for a Canada/New England Cruise. (Click Here to see our pics) It was awesome as we enjoyed the city for a night before & 2 nights after the Cruise. Now not only is this a great place to Cruise from due to the opportunity to visit this great city before/after but it’s one of the most scenic “sail-aways” you’ll have from any Cruise Port. The Bridges, the City’s Skyline, etc. are all awesome and sailing past the “Statue of Liberty” is pretty amazing… something all serious Cruisers should have on their “Bucket List”! 🙂 And as the “Statue of Liberty” is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s another one you’ll be able to check off your list!
8. Enjoy a slice of New York Cheesecake. Now we’re guessing we don’t need to write this as a suggestion in order to convince you to try a piece of ooey, gooey cheesecake when in the “Big Apple”… but we figured we should at least remind you of this yummy dessert that’ll be available (EVERYWHERE) when you hit the big city. The only questions you have to decide for yourself from here are “What toppings will I get?” and “Do I have it before or after the slice of New York Pizza from # 4?” 🙂
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9. Visit “Ground Zero”. Of course, a trip to New York City (especially if you’ve never been there before) wouldn’t be complete without visiting this historic area. We always want to make sure our Vacations “touch” us in some way and a visit here will no doubt do that. We haven’t been there in a few years now but from the reports of all the rebuilding that’s been done there, we know a visit there will be a testament to America’s resilience and how any hardship can be overcome! And of course, just having the chance to pay your respects to the thousands of lives lost there, and to the Heroes who saved many, will really make your trip to New York City a special one!
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***Note*** Shortly after we published this Blog Post one of our readers got back and said “Hey, what about the Museums, you didn’t mention them?” And you know what, he’s right! Although it didn’t work out that we made it to any New York City Museums during our 1st two trips there, New York City has some of the World’s top Museums like “The Museum of Natural History”, “The Metropolitan Museum of Art” & “The Guggenheim”, as well as tons of others. So if you’re an art lover make sure that’s on your list of things to do when in this great city!
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We hope you enjoyed our “Top Things To See And Do In New York City” list…
…and please, if there’s anything awesome we left out drop us an email so our readers can make sure they don’t miss it when there.
Ready to book your Cruise leaving from New York? If so, contact Shawn and he’ll help you get that next great Cruise Vacation planned & booked! 🙂
We appreciate You!
Nancy & Shawn
Your Trusted Cruise Experts!