If you are considering this day drip in national pride please, please, please go here and buy your tickets before hand. We did not plan so well, in fact we decided this would be a fun trip the morning of and then were utterly shocked when we turned up at Battery Park on Saturday afternoon in July to an almost hour long wait in the ticket line! Once we had obtained our tickets then began the over an hour wait in the security line. This is not one of those probe a stick in your backpack, think airport security scanners. Something the obviously none english speaking elderly couple in front of us did not understand.
Amusingly enough they kept announcing at the ticket line that there was no wait in Jersey if we wanted to catch a ferry to the New Jersey ticket and security station.
Admission to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island is free you pay for your ferry ticket, and there is only one ferry that is allowed to land at the islands. The $12 ticket isn't too bad when you realize what you are getting for it: three ferry rides and two national landmarks.
At long last, tickets in hand. We set out on our ferry.
The ferry was surprisingly not that crowded but I didn't try going on the top deck I was getting all the wind through my hair I needed on the second floor deck.
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| I am really proud of this picture. |
You get some fantastic views of skyline on your ferry ride
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| Soo tall. |
Now we did not opt for the pedestal or crown tours, the crown tours were booked up weeks ago. I will be honest there isn't much to do if you didn't sign up for a pedestal tour. Right infront of the statue is slamed with people trying to take pictures with the statute. Now the area of the island behind the monument is a beautiful park with plenty of trees to hide in the shade. Lots of people were picnicking or just naping in the park enjoying a fantastic view of the city.
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| New York City! |
We joined in lounging in the park before catching the next ferry to Ellis Island.
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| The Holding Room |
I went here once in high school and either it didn't make a very big impression on me or they have done a tremendous amount of work on the museum since them.
It was a fantastic monument to the past. We stumbled on to exhibit after exhibit of immigration progress and the history of Ellis Island. One exhibit took you step by step through the immigration screening process as well as life for those detained on the island, as well as explaining the intention of every step. There was so much to look at we finally ended up just breezing through rooms as we had other plans to get to. It almost seemed a shame the ferry didn't stop here first. It seemed you could spend an entire day reading through exhibits, watching films, partaking in reenactment immigration hearings, and researching your ancestors. This part of the day by far overshadowed the Statue of Liberty.
If you are interested in this trip I suggest these things so you can spend more time touring and less time in line:
1. Buy Tickets in advance and print them off at home
2. Base out of New Jersey if it makes since
3. Go in September, or at least a Tuesday... anything but a Saturday in the summer ... how dumb were we to not think there would be a line.
Summary
Cost:
Transportation (train & subways) $13.50
Statue of Liberty $13
Total $26.50
Time: 7.5 hours
Average : $3.53 /hr entertainment
Perks:
A bit of sun and that warm and fuzzy national pride feeling.
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