bubble123,

Like most things, prices can fluctuate depending on demand. Given the time of year, ie thanks giving and the run up to christmas, I would say prices are more likely to go up than down. I would book early. Prices also very much depend on where in New York you are wanted to stay as it can vary from very cheap to very expensive. I've never been at Thanksgiving, but Manhattan is normally busy during the week at any time of year and quieter on a weekend.

Darren

The hotels are the roosevelt & 70 park avenue.. think both are by times square.. Thanks for your answer..

We were in New York from Boxing Day and left on the 3rd Jan. Because it was a staff air ticket i waited until we were confirmed about 3 months out to book a hotel. By this time the Hotels had gone up quite a bit from when i first looked.

But it was unpleasantly overcrowded, so much so that it put me off New York which is unfair. Even at Woodberry Common shopping outlet i waited in line 40 min to pay for clothes at Ralph Lauren and they had about 15 tills open.
Tiffanys on 5th Ave was a joke and customers were forming a queue for the lifts and were about 7 people deep around the jewellery counters.
We queued on the street to get into the shops Hersheys, The Ugg Store, Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister.
The queues for changing rooms rooms were about 20 people long and in the Levi store they even banged on the doors and told people to get a move on .
We were wrapped up for the cold and all the stores are so hot that you did not feel like shopping, in Abercrombie the female staff were walking around in sun dresses bare legs and flip flops.!
You could not get a seat lunch time for a drink and a bite to eat and even Mc Donalds was standing room only. Dont get me going about lack of toilets and the long waits for a wee.
So on Thanksgiving i would expect it to be the same as it is a very big holiday for them.
On the plus side the shopping is very cheap especially at Woodberry Common, the subway is quite easy to use and it is almost impossible to get lost in New York.
If you want to reserve free tickets for the 911 memorial then you need to do that online in advance and i would advise the same for the Empire State Building and The Top of The Rock.
Hope that is some help. x

Thank You fopr your reply.. We kinda have to go then as thats the only time we have from work left for this year & allready booked off.. I guess we can focus on sight seeing on the friday & hope the shops maybe quieter for the weekend.. Or just brave it.. Lol.. Obviously we want to do our Christmas shopping so hopefully will be bareable.. Dont think i fancy queing on the streets to get in places though.. was it like that most of the time you were there?
Will look at booking tickets before we go for certain places.. Did you use the hop on hop off bus?

bubble123,

Some of the popular shops can be really busy and you have to queue to get in them if you time it wrong. At the time of year you're going, it will be busy with christmas shoppers. The city was quieter at the weekend was I was their but shops are still busy. I stayed in mid-town Manhattan just off 5th Avenue so it was easy to nip out and go to the shops first thing to beat the mad rush but you're around 7th with the hotels you mention so it's 10-15 minutes walk over to 5th then you'll need to head south depending on what you're after. Most of the major designer labels are from about 50th down to 35th. I used one of the hop on hop off busses and they are pretty good to get around and see places. The water taxi's on the Hudson are quite good as well if you wanted something different and the weather is suitable. You can get tickets for things easily and cheapy when you get there although it's easier to have everything planned and booked before you go, especialy if you want to see one of the broadway shows or the 9/11 memorial.

Darren

Yes we did use the hop on hop off bus and that was good, really cold on the open top though ha ha.

All the shops were busy but we did not have to wait outside all shops to go in, just the ones I mentioned.

I would not wait until you get there to get tickets as when we went to go to the empire state building the queue went on for miles and there was a 4 hour wait
The same with the Rockefeller Centre so we just booked for later in the week. With the 9/11 memorial you have to reserve a time online ( the site is quite hard to use on a smart phone ) then they print the ticket off for you at a shop come office near the site.
We had 8 days so we had time on our side to be able to return on other days. The Staten island ferry is a good way to see the statue of liberty and it's free and if you are quick you can run round and catch the same one back.

Thank you again.. Did you book packages or seperate? Just wondered what kind of rates you got for your hotels at that time of year?
I can imagine it very cold on top of the open top bus.. worth it though.. Do they have maps so you know where the stops are etc & whats around each one?
We will defo get tickets before we go i reckon.. Do not fancy those long queues especially when our time there is limited!!

No it was not a package as our flights were free as my husband works for BA. Which is why i left it so late to book the hotel, just to make sure that we had confirmed seats.

We stayed the Park Central Hotel and we had a room for 4 adults and it was £2700 for 8 nights, it was the 31st Dec that pushed the price up, about $750 for that one night. But i must say it was worth it because we came out onto 7th Avenue at 11.30 to watch the ball drop in Times Square, so no 7 hour wait in the freezing cold.
The buses do have maps but do not really show the shops more the attractions, but you can walk to a lot of the shopping areas.
Soho had lots of shoe shops great for Ugg boots. You can get coach trips to Woodberry Common which is a Premium outlet with 200 designer stores, if you google it you can get a list of them up. This costs $40 per person round trip. Well worth it and we have shopped at Premium Outlets all over america.

Watch the restaurants on times square as even the chains like Hard Rock and even Applebees are a lot more expensive than elsewhere in America. Some of our best meals were in diners off of times square and much cheaper. We liked Applejacks round the back of our hotel. x

Bubble123,

I would definitely book things seperately rather than a package as you can make big saving. With flights, you can often make big saving by connecting via a European hub. The last time I went, the savings by connecting via Amsterdam nearly paid for the hotel and adds an additional hour or two to your journey. Hotels just shop around. There's plenty options getting to and from the airport and taxis are fixed prices.

Darren

The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday- that is the busiest day of the shopping year. It does not let up all that weekend. After that it's 'normal' Christmas shopping crowds.

Thanks again everyone. Was looking at flying with Virgin Atlantic again.. We were booked to stay at the park central last year when we unfortunatley couldnt make it.. we paid then 760 for 5 nights for late november..
Luckily only lost 16 when we had to cancel.. Thats one of the reasons i booked it incase the visa wasnt here in time..
You know the woodbury common outlets can you get the bus when ever you like? Or if you go are you there for say a whole 8 hours or which ever?
Like the ones in vegas & orlando you can come & go as you please? I realise that these are further out & just wondered if the buses run regular?

emdia43 wrote:

The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday- that is the busiest day of the shopping year. It does not let up all that weekend. After that it's 'normal' Christmas shopping crowds.

Are the crouds alot worse than christmas crouds?

bubble123,

The hop on hop off busses are every 10 minutes or so throughout the day so you'll not have a problem getting on one providing you're on one of the routes. There's also the regular busses and subway so it's easy to get around. Many places are also walkable if you fancey a stroll through the city.

Darren

Info. on travelling to Woodbury Common and Hop on Hop off Bus loop

http://www.newyorksightseeing.com/tourpage.php?item=WC

Thanks again everyone for your help.. I like to be a little prepared for when we go.. Can you use the hop on hop off bus to go down to catch the ferry to statue of liberty? I like to know kinda what we are going to be doing.. As time there will be limited its important to have a plan or at least rough idea of what we are doing

Yes you can get the ferry from Battery Park. I believe the company who do the hop-on hop-off bus sell a ticket for the ferry to the Statue, you may find it easier to book through them rather than having to queue up to buy a ticket at the ferry terminal. Lots of info on tours and tickets on the website I gave you.

Thanks Judith.. Really appreciated

bubble123 wrote:

Thanks again everyone. Was looking at flying with Virgin Atlantic again.. We were booked to stay at the park central last year when we unfortunatley couldnt make it.. we paid then 760 for 5 nights for late november..
Luckily only lost 16 when we had to cancel.. Thats one of the reasons i booked it incase the visa wasnt here in time..
You know the woodbury common outlets can you get the bus when ever you like? Or if you go are you there for say a whole 8 hours or which ever?
Like the ones in vegas & orlando you can come & go as you please? I realise that these are further out & just wondered if the buses run regular?

emdia43 wrote:

The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday- that is the busiest day of the shopping year. It does not let up all that weekend. After that it's 'normal' Christmas shopping crowds.

Are the crouds alot worse than christmas crouds? :)

I live in the USA.
Thanksgiving weekend everywhere the malls are jam-packed because stores start their sales. Some people love that, it's the start of Christmas season - my daughter always goes shopping then,for bargains, she likes the atmosphere, whereas I avoid it - all the traffic jams, standing in line . Once that weekend is over it settles down, weekday shopping is fine, the closer to Christmas the busier it gets again....

Judith wrote:

Yes you can get the ferry from Battery Park. I believe the company who do the hop-on hop-off bus sell a ticket for the ferry to the Statue, you may find it easier to book through them rather than having to queue up to buy a ticket at the ferry terminal. Lots of info on tours and tickets on the website I gave you.

The staten Island ferry is free and you do not get a ticket just wait in line and get on the ferry. The hop on hop off buses do stop here. Some of them do a more expensive ticket that includes a boat trip round the statue of liberty. But we did not do this x

Just to remind you bubble123 that you can't actually visit the Statue of Liberty by riding the Staten Island ferry, you just get the view when riding past.
At the moment due to damage from the hurricane the statue is closed but it could possibly be open by November.