New York City Tips: Don't Do These Things!

New Yorkers aren't exactly famous for being polite to tourists, but that's just because most tourists don't know how to act in the Big Apple. The good news: It's not so hard. Just follow these simple rules of conduct—from how to behave on the subway to when it's actually okay to ask for help—and you'll blend right in on your next trip! Here's the inside scoop on what you shouldn't do in New York City.

Stop in the middle of the sidewalk

The majority of city residents don't drive, so the sidewalks are like streets, with the same type of "traffic" laws. Respect them and don't stop dead in the middle of the street to take a picture or to consult your map. Instead, "pull over" to the side so that pedestrian traffic won't run into you.

Get on an empty subway car

It's rush hour on a hot summer day, and a subway train pulls up to the station with every car packed, except for a single empty one. Score, right? Wrong—odds are, that train car is empty for a reason, be it broken air-conditioning or a spilled bodily fluid. Never go in the empty subway car … trust us on this one.

10BEST: New York City travel guide

Block the subway doors

New York City subways can get crowded! Respect the other travelers and move into the center of a subway car when you board a train. Don't cluster near the doors for 10 stops, making it hard for other people to get on and off the train. We promise that people will move and let you off when it's your stop.

Walk in a group that takes up the whole sidewalk

New Yorkers are speed-walking pros—they have places to be, and walking is the best way to get there fast. It's understandable that tourists want to walk slowly and take in the scenery, but please don't block the entire sidewalk doing it. Walk on the right side in small groups—and don't hold hands doing so. You'll take up the entire sidewalk and slow everyone down behind you.

Pay for a Statue of Liberty cruise

Don't waste your money on an expensive boat cruise that goes past the Statue of Liberty. Instead, take the Staten Island ferry, which is totally free and goes past most of the same sights. The ride takes about 50 minutes round-trip, and you can even purchase food and beverages onboard. Snag a seat outside, buy a cheap beer, and get amazing city views!

Neglect the outer boroughs

Sure, Manhattan is what most people think when they think of New York City, but it would be a shame to miss out on the other boroughs when you visit. The four other boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx) have their own unique charms and are definitely worth a visit. Plus, they're all easily accessible on the subway (or aforementioned Staten Island ferry). Bonus: Restaurants and shopping are usually cheaper in the outer boroughs than in Manhattan!

Eat at a chain restaurant

Most New Yorkers go out of their way to avoid Times Square—it's hectic, full of tourists, and teeming with chain restaurants. If you came to experience the city, why would you eat at the same Red Lobster that you can eat at back home? Live a little and patronize local restaurants instead of chains.

Be afraid to ask for help

New Yorkers may be rude to you if you get in their way, but they'll be nice if you politely ask them for help. Most locals pride themselves on their direction-giving skills (it's a sign that they really know the city), so don't be afraid to stop and ask them which direction is Fifth Avenue or how to get downtown. They really are friendly!

Rent a car

Real estate is pricey in New York City, and that goes for parking spaces as well. New York City has an amazing 24/7 public transportation system, so use it! Don't waste your time fighting traffic or searching for parking spaces. Take the bus or subway, UBER or hail a taxi instead. You'll save time and money and prevent aggravation—plus you'll get a better feel for the city once you experience getting around like a local.

Skip a museum because you can't afford it

It's not always advertised, but the admission price at many museums in New York City (even the big ones) is actually just a suggestion—meaning that you pay what you can afford, even if it's only a dollar. If your budget is tight, consult this list of New York museums where you can pay what you wish before deciding to skip a museum for money reasons.

Contributed by Caroline Morse, SmarterTravel.com

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NewYork.Com Celebrates Its One Year Anniversity With Free $25 Discount Gift Cards And Free Social Media Give-Aways Including Tours, Museums, & Shows

– From riveting Broadway Shows to engaging tours and attractions, NewYork.com has emerged as a leading online resource for planning and booking a New York City experience. In honor of its one-year anniversary, NewYork.com is giving away thousands of dollars in gift cards to customers.

For one week only from June 9 – 13, 2014, new customers can obtain a $25 NewYork.com gift card when they sign up to receive NewYork.com’s popular e-newsletter. Within 48 hours of signing up, new subscribers will receive an email containing an e-gift card and instructions. All current NewYork.com subscribers will receive an e-gift card during the week of June 9 in an anniversary celebration email.

NewYork.com has achieved great success within its first year of operation; growing its unique monthly visitors by over 200% year-over-year, increasing its social following by over 250% and expanding its hotel inventory by 400% since re-launching in 2013.  NewYork.com is committed to delivering insightful and helpful information about how to best experience New York, whether you’re local, looking for things to do or planning a visit,  which has helped build a strong social following on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+ in addition to a growing and loyal site following.
“This is a significant milestone for NewYork.com,” said Stephanie Baker, SVP Marketing. “We are committed to producing interesting content and offering a wide range of products that represent the best of New York. We look forward to expanding our partnerships, offering an even wider range of New York experiences and sharing our insider knowledge of the city to increase NewYork.com’s value to our subscribers and customers.”

To redeem the $25 NewYork.com gift card, consumers must:

• Visit NewYork.com and become a subscriber – http://www.newyork.com/newsletter/, they will receive a confirmation e-mail and within 48 hours receive their NewYork.com gift card with instructions on how to redeem it to make a purchase of $100 or more on one of the hundreds of activities, events, shows, tours and hotels that are featured on the site.
• Each gift code is valid for one purchase only through July 31, 2014

NewYork.com will also be running prize giveaways across its social media platforms using the hashtag #CheersToAYear from June 16^th through 20^th. The winners will be chosen at random from participants who correctly answer NewYork.com’s Scavenger Hunt Question of the Day.

Each day, they will give away a pair of tickets to a popular attraction to the winner of the Scavenger Hunt. Tickets they will be giving away include:
Circle Line - any cruise excluding specialty cruises
CitySights NY – “All Around Town” Tour
Intrepid – Admission to the museum
New York Water Taxi - any New York Water Taxi or Circle Line Downtown Cruise
Ripley's Believe It or Not! - Admission tickets
American Museum of Natural History - 2 SuperSaver Tickets and a hardcover book detailing the making of their famous dioramas
On Location Tours - any tour offered
Madame Tussauds - Admission tickets
Blue Man Group – Admission to a show



In the travel and entertainment arena, NewYork.com features 60+ Broadway and off-Broadway Shows, 165 New York City tours and attractions, 14,000+ Zagat-rated restaurants and 400+ hotels. In addition to providing an unmatched platform for consumers to book their New York City itinerary in a single transaction, the user-friendly website also offers in-depth content on everything pertaining to the city. Site visitors will discover hundreds of hidden gems, local hangouts and celebrity hot spots, Broadway gossip, historical haunts and much more while visiting NewYork.com. Exciting tips written by real New Yorkers highlight all aspects of city life including: the best food trucks in Brooklyn, fine dining establishments near Wall Street and the trendiest boutiques in Soho. There’s even information on finding a job and the best places to rent and buy property. NewYork.com has it all covered; it is connected to everything.

To plan a memorable New York City experience, visit: http://www.newyork.com/

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September 11 Museum Opening To The Public May 21st.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, Chairman of the Sept. 11 Museum, with museum President Joe Daniels, addresses a news conference in the venue, in New York, Wednesday, May 14, 2014. Leaders of the soon-to-open Sept. 11 museum are portraying it as a monument to unity and resilience. (AP Photo)

 (AP) - The museum devoted to the story of Sept. 11 tells it in victims' last voicemails, in photos of people falling from the twin towers, in the scream of sirens, in the dust-covered shoes of those who fled the skyscrapers' collapse, in the wristwatch of one of the airline passengers who confronted the hijackers.

By turns chilling and heartbreaking, a place of both deathly silence and distressing sounds, the National September 11 Memorial Museum opens this week deep beneath ground zero, 12½ years after the terrorist attacks.

The project was marked by construction problems, financial squabbles and disputes over the appropriate way to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in New York, Washington and the Pennsylvania countryside.

Whatever the challenges in conceiving it, "you won't walk out of this museum without a feeling that you understand humanity in a deeper way. And for a museum, if we can achieve that objective, we've done our job," museum President Joe Daniels said Wednesday.

The privately operated museum - built along with the memorial plaza above for $700 million in private donations and tax dollars - will be dedicated Thursday with a visit from President Barack Obama and will be open initially to victims' families, survivors and first responders. It will open to the public May 21.

Charles G. Wolf, who lost his wife, Katherine, planned to be at the ceremonial opening.

"I'm looking forward to tomorrow, and I'm dreading tomorrow," he said Wednesday. "It brings everything up."

Visitors start in an airy pavilion where the rusted tops of two of the World Trade Center's trident-shaped columns shoot upward. From there, stairs and ramps lead visitors on an unsettling journey into 9/11.

First, a dark corridor is filled with the voices of people remembering the day. Then visitors find themselves looking over a cavernous space, 70 feet below ground, at the last steel column removed during the ground zero cleanup - a totem covered with the numbers of police precincts and firehouses and other messages.

Descend farther - past the battered "survivors' staircase" that hundreds used to escape the burning towers - and there are such artifacts as a mangled piece of the antenna from atop the trade center and a fire truck with its cab shorn off.

And then, through a revolving door, visitors are plunged into the chaos of Sept. 11: fragments of planes, a teddy bear left at the impromptu memorials that arose after the attacks, the sounds of emergency radio transmissions and office workers calling loved ones.

"We wanted a very gradual, quiet descent, for that connection to actually emerge," said Carl Krebs, an architect on the project.

The project recently faced objections about how Muslims are depicted in a documentary film, and complaints from some victims' relatives about the decision to place unidentified remains behind a wall at the site.

"I'm still processing" the impact of seeing the museum, said Anthony Garner, who lost his brother Harvey on 9/11 and visited on Wednesday. He said it will show visitors "that they're in a very sacred place and a very historic place.

Producers Add Thursday Matinees On Broadway

This theater image released by Sam Rudy Media Relations shows Carley Rae Jepsen as Cinderella, center right, dancing with Joe Carroll as the Prince, during a performance of "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway." Three musicals this week have added Thursday matinees to their eight-show weeks in an attempt to offer more options to audience-goers and stand out from the rest of the pack. The shows making the move are “Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella,” “Mamma Mia!” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” (AP Photo/Sam Rudy Media Relations)

Contributed by Mark Kennedy, AP.

Catching a Wednesday matinee on Broadway is so last year. The hot thing now is Thursday afternoon shows.

Three shows making the move are "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella," ''Mamma Mia!" and "The Phantom of the Opera." ''Matilda the Musical" may experiment with the idea this summer.

The change means families will be able to get to see another matinee, a lifeline for family-friendly shows. And with the city bracing for summer tourists, offering a Thursday matinee lets theater lovers cram in more shows if they come for a long weekend.

For performers, it means more flexibility and an end to five-show weekends. Elena Ricardo, who plays Sophie in "Mamma Mia!," now has Sundays completely off and can go to church and brunch. "I can't wait," she said. "I hope other shows catch on to this as well."

Pop star Carly Rae Jepsen, who plays Cinderella, now has her Wednesday nights free and she said she will use the time to work on her next studio album.

"A lot of the producers I'm booking time with are happier when I'm saying, 'Let's start at 6' versus 'Let's start at 10 in the morning,'" she said. "I personally always preferred going to a matinee. I don't know what it is - maybe having a lazy dinner afterwards - but for me the perfect New York day is catching up with friends, a matinee and then a dinner somewhere."

The Thursday step is the latest to scramble the traditional eight-show Broadway week that has seen the addition of shows on normally dark Monday, earlier curtains on Tuesday night, the scrapping of two shows on Sunday and even nine-performance weeks during holidays.

Jon Jorgenson, who plays Sky in "Mamma Mia!" said the move makes sense for long-running international hits, which draws tourists unfamiliar with the old Broadway show schedule and want to see shows on Thursday afternoon or Monday night.

Broadway producers are competing with more on-demand forms of entertainment and this is seen as an attempt to show audiences more flexibility. The West End in London has long had Thursday matinees.

Joe Carroll, who plays Cinderella's prince, loves the change and is looking forward to finally be able to see other Broadway shows now that he's free or "have the night off to feel like a real human being."

Travelore Tips: Get An Insider Look At Central Park With Official Central Park Tours, Launching March 1st

 

Official Central Park Tours, launching March 1, 2014, are the only tours designed and led by the organization with more than 30 years of experience restoring and maintaining the iconic park: Central Park Conservancy.

 

The new tours are filled with insider information on the historic, design, and horticultural details of Central Park.  Visitors are sure to get the most out of their exploration of 843 acres of lawns, ponds, woodlands, and so much more when they’re led by Central Park Conservancy’s expertise.

 

Dozens of tours are available; subjects, locations, and length vary. Samples can be found below:

• Welcome Tours: Starting on the perimeter of Central Park, Welcome Tours focus on the general history and design of Central Park as visitors are led through the Park’s gorgeous landscapes to a Conservancy visitor center. This free tour, which is 45 minutes long, is a great introduction to Central Park for a first-time visitor.
• Premier Tours: These enhanced tours are 90 minutes long, giving visitors a closer look at the Park from a range of insider perspectives, including history, design, and ecology. Tickets start at $15.
• Custom Tours: Do you want an individualized tour unlike any other? Custom tours are perfect for a small group of people who want to take a tour designed by Central Park Conservancy experts around what interests them most about Central Park. Pricing for custom tours start at $150. Van tours are also available for up to six people.

For the independent visitor, Central Park Conservancy has developed a host of self-guided tours that can be downloaded and printed, or accessed on most smartphones. Visit www.centralparknyc.org/tours for a complete list of Official Central Park Tours, both expert- and self-guided.

 

About Central Park Conservancy

The mission of Central Park Conservancy is to restore, manage and enhance Central Park in partnership with the public, for the enjoyment of present and future generations.  A private, not-for-profit organization founded in 1980, Central Park Conservancy provides 75 percent of Central Park's $58 million park-wide expense budget and is responsible for all basic care of the Park. For more information on Central Park Conservancy, please visit centralparknyc.org.