A New York Family Tradition
I grew up on the East Coast and was lucky to go on several field trips to the Statue of Liberty when I was a little girl. But, now that I’m married and have two children, I haven’t made it a priority to take them to see the statue when we go back to visit family. It just didn’t seem like an interesting draw at the time and there was too much else to do. Then, when it was closed to the public after 9/11, the statue completely dropped off our radar.
Then, in July, it was announced that the Statue of Liberty was re-opening to the public, I decided that it was time to take my family to New York and let them experience the importance of the statue. It took some planning on my part, making reservations at a New York boutique hotel, and booking tickets. The only way to get to the statue is by ferry and that costs $12.00 for adults and $5.00 for children. The tickets will also let us visit Ellis Island and Liberty Island. It cost me an additional $3.00 to venture up the crown. This tickets are for specific dates and time; the children need to be 4 feet tall and must be able to walk up all the 354 steps and walk back down; there’s no elevator. They limit groups to 10 people at a time, which makes for 3 trips per hour and 240 people allowed each day, so booking this trip was the tricky part, but I managed it quite well.
We were one of the first people on the ferry the day of our outing. We had to wait about an hour before we got our turn to climb the stairs inside the statue. We took full advantage of using the free ranger guided tour, which we were glad we did, because this way we didn’t have to read all the panels with information, all we had to do was listen and climb. Before we started our climb, we had to check in and they provide lockers for us to stash all our belongings. Basically, we could only take a camera and a cell phone. No food or drinks, so I made sure my children were well hydrated before the climb.
My children, two girls, were so thrilled with the tour! Before we started the climb to the crown we visited the museum, another perk of the Crown tickets, which hosts full scale replicas of the Statue’s face and foot! Amazing site, the toe was bigger than my seven year old daughter! My entire family made it up to the crown without any problems and no complaints. The view from the crown is stunning.
When we got back to our hotel, my two girls told me that when they have children, they will arrange to take them to see the Statue of Liberty. I almost cried.
Related posts: