January 2022 update: We’ve been a little quiet in recent weeks, but haven’t disappeared! We’ve been laying low recently given “omicron” going around, though hoping to travel more soon. We’re putting together some more write-ups from last fall.

If you travel to New York City, a delightful way to experience the skyline is to take a Harbor Cruise. Given that we are still in covid pandemic mode, being trapped on a large ship with crowds of tourists from all over the world was not what we wanted, so we turned to one of the smaller boats that had reserved table seating. What fun for the whole family!

Logistics

Here are the details for the cruise that we chose:
Activity: New York City Harbor Cruise
Vendor: Classic Harbor Cruise
Type of Cruise: Statue & Skyline Sightseeing Cruise
Meeting Point: Chelsea Piers (Pier 62, near W. 22nd and Hudson River)
Length: 1.5 hours
Cost: $48-$64/$28 per adult/child
Includes: Private table for your group plus 1 complimentary drink per person.

Note that the types of cruises offered could change at any time, so check the website for current offerings!

The Cruise

This highlights of Classic Harbor Cruise’s Statue & Skyline Sightseeing Cruise included views of:

• Battery Park, South Street Seaport, One World Trade Center, and the Financial District
• Governor’s Island, The Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island
• Parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and the New York City Skyline

Bording Procedures

Given the Covid restrictions that were in place during our visit, the staff did a fairly good job of handling boarding. First, we had to show our ID’s and proof of vaccination, which was quite easy with the NYC Covid Safe App. Next, they gave us a card with our table number. Finally, to allow for better social distancing during boarding, they called groups to board by table number.

Once we were on board, we found that that if groups were sharing a single table, they had plastic dividers in place to minimize sharing of air while masks were off during eating and drinking. Quite well done!

Views of the Financial District

If you are looking for views of downtown Manhattan, a cruise is a great option! When you are walking around the city, sometimes it is really hard to see the big picture. A cruise really helps you be wowed by NYC’s skyscrapers.

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Before settling on this cruise, we were really hoping to take a tour of the Statue of Liberty, but by the time we knew we were going to take a road trip down to New York City, we discovered that the crown was closed and the tickets for the pedestal were already gone. Having seen it from afar while on the much less expensive Staten Island Ferry, we decided that we wanted a somewhat closer and slower look at this iconic landmark, so a harbor cruise seemed like a good middle ground.

Of course, all of our close up pictures turned out to have me with windblown hair that resembled Cousin It…but you get the idea. There were similar issues as we tried to get pictures of Ellis Island, but it was still really cool to see the landing point for so many immigrants into the United States!

Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey

While on the cruise, you can also enjoy views of other parts of the city as well as New Jersey.

Our family experienced a delightful hour and a half and would highly recommend this particular cruise on your next trip to New York City!

Keep reading our travel blog to hear about our experiences with New York City!

Here are some more posts from this trip to NYC: