Tuesday, October 2, 2012

New Jersey/New York Trip - Part 4

Gray Line Double-Decker Bus Tour:
In my earlier post (New Jersey/New York Trip - Part 3), I mentioned to you about Gray Line bus tour, so let me give you little info on what it is.  Before booking my tickets to NJ/NY trip, I had researched a little bit on what kind of tours does NY have that we can use.  My main purpose of this tour was to have a kind of transportation that would take us around NY and show us the famous spots without us being on foot a lot.  The main reason for this is that my dad has a knee problem and due to that he can not walk long distances or for long period of time.  So I came across Gray Line double-decker bus tours after googling around little bit.  Now, Gray Line isn't the only bus tour that is out there in NY.  There is also another bus called City Sights tour and some other companies, but the reason I chose Gray Line is because with the time and days we had on our hand to cover the things we wanted, they had the best price option per person.  I looked at all their tours, and the one that attracted me the most was their Classic all loops tour (48 hours) which included downtown loop, uptown loop, Brooklyn tour, and night tour along with a ticket to either Statue of liberty ferry or citysights 60 minute cruise, either Empire state building or Top of the Rock, and  South street seaport museum.  They give you the option to cover all these things in 48 hours plus they give you little extra time (1 or 2 days) to cover the other things like museum or empire state building.  Each of the classic all-loops 48 hour tour was about $95/person but I had called them up and one of the agents had told me that he could get us 10% discount on the tickets if we get it from him, so it was going to come up to $85/person.  After all this research I finalized Gray Line double-decker tour to be our guide for NY.

Now, moving on to the trip details.  I had not booked the tickets until the day before we were going to go, meaning until Day 6 I had not booked them.  Initially, my dad was going to come with us to the tour but due to all the walking on Penn station and from Hicksville station, he was having knee pain and decided to skip the tour.  So with that, it leaves 3 of us to go on the tour and I book our tickets the night before we go.  If you ever need to book Gray Line through phone, ask to speak with Jared who gave us the 10% discount.  I don't know if every agent you talk to gives you discount.  I had talked to couple of different agents when I had questions but only Jared told me that he could get me 10% discount if I book it through him.  Anyways, they just give you a confirmation number after you book it online and send you an email confirmation as well.  The only negative comment I have for Gray Line is that no matter where or how you book your tickets (whether phone or online), you have to go to their visitor center on 8th ave. and 47th street to pick up all the tickets!!  That's waste of time I think for everyone because that takes up extra time.  I got the confirmation on the phone and went to bed hoping to get up early and start my NY adventure :).

Day 7 is packed with bunch of sight seeing and activities, so you better get some rest as well before reading my next post :)

Have fun!!

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