Harbor Cruise and Empire State Building

On Monday October 11, 2010
New York

This was our only full day in New York City so we resolved to make the most of it. Valeriy was our hiking buddy in Crimea and Olga is also into hiking so we resolved to see Manhattan mainly on foot.

The first planned activity for the day was a New York harbor cruise. But first we needed to eat. The cruise left from Pier 78 where 38th Street meets the Hudson, about a mile from our hotel as the crow flies. Our hotel was on 30th Street so I figured we would walk west to 9th Avenue and find a breakfast place by the time we got to 38th. But 9th Avenue has no restaurants to speak of. 8th Avenue has plenty, so we had to backtrack to 8th Avenue where we did find a little deli that made breakfast. They had pancakes on the menu and all of us ordered pancakes and bacon, uniquely American dishes not available in Ukraine. Valeriy and Olga ate every bit of their meals so they must have approved.

We had a little trouble finding an east-west street that went all the way through to the river. My handheld Garmin let me down in New York; there was so much interference from the tall buildings that both the car GPS and handheld were always way off. In the end, we walked almost 2 and a half miles to the pier that was .8 miles from our hotel.

Routing of Harbor Cruise

Picking the cruise was tricky. Two companies run cruises in the Hudson, harbor, and East River. Carol and I took the Circle Line cruise twice - once in the early 90s and again in August when we brought Veronika, another Ukrainian friend to New York. Both times we circumnavigated the whole of Manhattan. However, we found that the shorter harbor cruises included most of the interesting sites. Although the Circle Line also has a shorter harbor cruise, we decided on the cruise offered by the New York Waterway so that we could get a contrast. The cruises were similar; the guides were equally knowledgable and entertaining but I thought the Circle Cruise boat was a little more open with better camera lines to the sights. Click here to see the photos I took on the cruise.

On the cruise, we learned that we could catch a free bus (that is, included in the price of the cruise) going uptown, downtown or crosstown. In the interest of time, we eschewed the walking and took the crosstown bus to Macy's, a block short of the Empire State Building, our next destination. Before we got there, I was waylaid by one of the numerous red-shirted shills touting tickets to the Empire State Building in conjunction with something called the New York Skyride. It won't surprise some of you to hear that I succumbed to this scam, even though the tickets cost considerably more than regular tickets. I was sold when they promised priority entrance after we completed the virtual Skyride. Well, don't do this. The Skyride was an ok simulation flight over Manhattan. That wouldn't be so bad except you had to wait in two Disney-type antechambers before getting into the main attraction. After the ride, you got into the regular line for the observation deck elevators so the only line time you really save is the line to buy tickets. We got to the observation deck maybe 90 minutes after we entered the building.

I guess the newest big thing in Ukraine is Starbucks. Diana, the 14 year old Ukrainian who stayed with us for two weeks this summer, could not wait to get into a Starbucks. This was also the number one request from Olga's 17 year old son Matvey. For him if there is one thing his mother would do in America it would be to go to Starbuck's so she could tell him about it. He even has a Starbucks mug. The funny thing about this is that there are no Starbucks stores in Ukraine, not even in Kyiv. Talk about maximizing your brand name. Anyway, we were teasing Olga from the time we left the hotel last week pointing out the Starbucks shops on each block we passed.



The second thing Matvey wanted Olga to do was to go to the Empire State Building. Well, she was delighted when we took her to the Starbucks in the Empire State Building. We chilled there while enjoying coffees and chai lattes, which Olga liked very much. Too sweet for Valeriy though.