We are visiting NY for the first time next week. To give our general info - we are staying in Long Island City and have 4 full days to be tourists - we are planning to purchase the subway pass (unless convinced otherwise?), purchasing a CITYPass and planning busy days. Our family is pretty generic - not too into anything (not particularly artsy/historical/etc.) and we tend to be more browsers than in -depth viewers. Think short attention span but plenty of energy :) Our kids are on board with seeing as much as we can in a few days so we are prepped to be busy :) I also tend to be pretty frugal and always looking to get the most for my money without totally cheating us out of something. Now with that background, on to my questions:
1 - we want to see a Broadway show and plan to use a TKTS booth..based on the app it looks like our choices will likely included 1984, Cats, Chicago, BronxTale, Miss Saigon and possibly Waitress (of which two of our daughters are waitresses)...any suggestions for the age groups we're dealing with (20/18/14)?
2 - We don't have a true itinerary and will probably base days on the weather/etc. but our general groupings by day of what we'd like to hit are:
Early AM - Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island (possibly check out the TKTS booth that is south and try to get tickets for this night?)
Midday - WallStreet- bull/Trinity church/Federal Hall/Eat at foodtrucks?
Afternoon - 9/11 Memorial & Museum
PM - Broadway show or Top of the Rock?
AM - Met Museum
MIDDAY - Central Park
AFTERNOON - Museum of Natural History
PM - again - either Broadway/Top of the Rock/Empire State Building
AM/Midday - Highline/Chelsea Market
Afternoon - neighborhoods? Chinatown? Soho?
PM - whatever we haven't done yet - Broadway/Top of the Rock/Empire State Building
The last day we plan to leave for anything we didn't fit in, or anything we find interesting along the way or possibly a trip to a beach (any suggestions???--we're from Illinois, we just like to see water). Anyway - any suggestions on things you would tweak or maybe a better way to group things?
Lastly - any suggestions of food places you can't miss? Particularly cheap food eats or great desserts? That's the kind of crowd we are? Basically I'm open to all suggestions and advice, just excited that our family will have a great vacation and looking for any suggestions on making it more memorable :) Thanks so much in advance for all help!