New York City – Beware Tourist Ticket Street Sellers

Our first mistake in New York City was to purchase tickets off ticket street sellers during the single parent travel time we have here. if we were to give you some luxury travel experts advice, we would recommend you be very careful when buying tickets from these vendors while on a family travel adventure, as your holiday might end up somewhat troublesome.

Ticket street sellers

This lady was lovely as one of the ticket street sellers. Make it known in no way do we blame her. She just works for a boss. We are told this 3-day pass works for 3 tour routes, and the buses come every 15 minutes, so based n that, we buy our tickets.  These hawkers are on many of the street corners and will hassle you for a sale, but read on before you make your purchase.

We are on the bus – slowly it goes

We go onto the first bus after a wai in the street for it to arrive after our purchase from the Ticket Street Sellers. We then wait for 1 hour – so much for 15 minutes. We are busting for the bathroom with the cold after sitting on the top freezing area. We manage 3 streets and by then we are busting and have to get off the bus – could have walked fast! We wait another hour for a bus and we go through 2 more streets!  This is ridiculous – off we get again.

Slow traffic

Remember – this is New York.  The streets are congested. It is Christmas. Even when the buses come, the traffic hardly moves so these buses really don’t work here.  We give up and are recommended to do the night tour when the day traffic has subsided so we come back later.

Night Tour

The night tour is just as useless. It takes ages for the bus to arrive. It is unbearably cold even though I have brought sleeping bags and we rug up but really we are miserable.

We last 1/2 a tour on the bus after it finally departs. We hardly see a thing and we give up. We just aren’t going anywhere.

The Slow Loops

Next day we waited over 2 hours for the bus to arrive so I have no idea what the 15 minutes are all about. Don’t believe what they tell you about the bus timing but take it from us that this is now our 6th attempt at a bus tour. We could not even complete 1 loop that was meant to take 1 hour.

Given the finger

I also have a photo of the man giving me the finger when I tried to resolve issues.  The service and rudeness are just completely unprofessional and this is not suitable for children when it is freezing cold and there are no bathrooms. My poor son is miserable, freezing and tired and this bus ticket is a waste of money.

Combo Tickets

You’d think we would have learned from the bus experience, but no, we get ripped off again!  Our next bad mistake was to buy a river cruise and Empire State Building combo.

But, when we arrive this was a closed entry to the Empire State Building and it was fogged in. Zero visibility so we could not use our ticket and there was no refund.

Invisible Bus

We wait two days and come back and try again. When we did, the cruise and bus that ran to it did not exist.  Yes, we had been taken for a ride but there was no ride.  We asked bus after bus and wasted about an hour trying to find the invisible bus that never existed on the ticket.

Empire State Building

Finally, we get to head up and we did enjoy the foyer of the Empire State Building.

But on the ground, we loved New York ad this came free without a ticket.

Window Displays

We loved the window displays of New York City at Christmas too.

Computer Fun

These laptops made great designs with your face – you could choose from 8 cameras.  This is a really cool interactive window display.

Saks 5th Avenue

Saks 5th Avenue was fun – we loved the kids’ department and the decor for Christmas was amazing.

Salvation Army

But the best part of the night was dancing with the Salvation Army outside the Rockefeller Christmas Tree in the street. it was so fun to ring the bells, dance and sing in the streets with them. the Salvation Army is certainly not dead!

Central Park

The next day we went to Central Park. They had fabulous Christmas Markets.

We walked around just enjoying Central Park as we had seen in the movies so many times. My son loved the playground and climbing on the rocks.

We had a fabulous time with the entertainer.

And it was such a great time discovering all the areas of Central Park.

One of the highlights was meeting Dan the Doorman at the Plaza Hotel. What a fantastic guy and the hotel was in the movie Home Alone.

We headed down to ‘The Shops’ at The Plaza and had a visit with Santa the decor down there is amazing and it is like the luxury underworld of this city.

We enjoyed desserts and dined in style on one occasion and it really was such a relaxing thing to do.

Horse And Carriage Ride Through Central Park

We then had some money we had been given by Explorason’s Godmother and Godfather to have a special time. We used part of it to have a Horse and Carriage Ride in Central Park.

5th Avenue

We then wandered down 5th Avenue and enjoyed chocolates, apple cider…and sensational shop lights.

Here ends another couple of days in New York. There is a LOT of walking and the crowds are thick and sometimes it was a bit stressful.

Tip

I think the best way to see New York on a budget is to walk. Don’t bother with the bus tours. And just buy tickets as you need them.

Conclusion:

Purchasing from Ticket Street Sellers was probably the biggest waste of money and the most frustration we encountered in NYC.  We finally went to their office only to be abused, tried to get a refund from a bus driver who swore at us and slammed the bus door in our face, and the general abuse was not worth getting paid for, let alone having to pay the company for the drama.

Questions and Comments

• Have you ever been coned by a tourist street ticket seller?
•  What is your favorite christmas activity or spot at Newyork?
• Please  leave your comments below.

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