new york logistics? to save money on a hotel

My second time to New York, but the first without an experienced person organizing things. I have two nights to stay in New York prior to taking a cruise out of New York. I need a hotel that isn%26#39;t going to break the bank. Is it a reasonable option to stay in New Jersey and visit new york sights? I have booked tickets to Spamalot for one of the nights, again where is this theatre? I%26#39;m lost, please help me.

details: flying in to JFK

cruise - norwegian dawn, port? just said new york, i don%26#39;t have the details yet.

show - Spamalot Venue:

Shubert Theatre

225 West 44th Street (Between Broadway and 8th Avenue)

So where is the best place to stay? How should i get from airport to hotel? hotel to show? hotel to port?

any other suggestions would be great, I%26#39;m at a total loss.

cheers,

Googs

new york logistics? to save money on a hotel

The best place to stay to sightsee and go to theater is IN Manhattan. All the theaters and the Manhattan cruise terminal are near each other. But I can%26#39;t tell you which port your ship leaves from. There%26#39;s one in New Jersey and another in Brooklyn. If your port is not the Manhattan one, you either have the inconvenience of getting there from Manhattan (car service is probably best) but having an easy time while you%26#39;re here sightseeing and going to the theater. Otherwise, stay near the pier and be inconvenienced the rest of the time. Doesn%26#39;t make sense to me.

When is this happening and what%26#39;s your hotel budget? How many are you?

new york logistics? to save money on a hotel

The best place for you to stay sounds like in/near Times Square (and your theater). To get from the airport you can either use a taxi or car service (about $60 for up to 4 people) or a bus to Port Authority (~$15/person) and walk from there to hotel. The Westin is the nicest hotel close to Port Authority (it%26#39;s actually across the street) and would also be around the corner from the theater and not far from the Manhattan cruise terminal. It is pricey though. A budget option would be Radio City apartments but it%26#39;s so popular it%26#39;s hard to find a room there free.

radiocityapartments.com

thanks for the quick reply. It must be the manhattan port since its not new jersey or brooklyn. i%26#39;ll try the radiocity site and see what i can find. don%26#39;t laugh but i was hoping to find something under 200 a night, for two of us that is clean (bug free)! May 17th arrival - check out May 19th. I also have a night on our return May 26th, so i%26#39;ll have to find a hotel for that night as well. i haven%26#39;t had any thoughts for that hotel stay. we%26#39;d be leaving at 5:30pm from JFK.

I%26#39;ve emailed Radiocity apartments, just waiting for a reply. Another question came up. While i was searching for hotels i was asked what area, i typed in Broadway but that wasn%26#39;t an option. Which area am i searching for?

Manhattan east side

Manhattan south

Theatre district

Midtown east side

Upper west side

Central Park

I can also search for a hotel near an attraction, is there an attraction in the area you have suggested?

googs, look at the topics under the green NEW YORK CITY portion on the upper left hand side of this page.

read NYC Overview to get basic information, check out hotels, attractions and maps as well. on each hotel is a %26#39;map this hotel%26#39; feature. once you get that info, use the map feature (or go to google maps) to see what section of town it is in. attractions are all there as well so once you settle in and have a bit of confidence about the cities%26#39; basic layout, you will get an idea of what you might want to see.

you sort of answered your own question about what area you want to be in.....the theatre district followed by the west side of the city.

as far as getting from point a to point b, under the overview section you will find the detailed directions you need to get where you need to go.

also, go to the NCL website and once you register/log in and give your cruise info, you should be told which port you will be sailing from.

i dont mean to sound harsh, but do a bit of homework yourself then ask specific questions on the forum.

i find when i was planning my trip (and the one im planning to nyc next weekend) that doing this searching was the most enjoyable way to spend a few hours and the information that i came across in searching was invaluable to me once i was in the city.

one more thing, there is a search bar on the upper left....you can type keywords in there and the forum will find threads that will answer your questions in detail.

To be near the theaters for the first stay you%26#39;d want theater district, midtown west or times square. But I did some searching for you and even the basic places seem to be pricey for 5/17-19 (the Travel Inn is $300/night!!) You might want to consider booking something cancelable (the cheapest ';ok'; things I see are around $269-280 plus tax) and try bidding on priceline for a 4* hotel in midtown west.

For your 1 night on the return before going to JFK, what do you plan to do on that day? You could theoretically stay anywhere. You might find better deals downtown in the financial district of near the South Street Seaport, which wouldn%26#39;t be a problem if you%26#39;re taking a cab or car service to the airport. They could go over the Brooklyn Bridge. Might even be nice to stay in a different area.

nywhiz,

thank you very much for all your help, i was able to book at radio city and its within my budget.

buca45,

Yes you were too harsh!

I had spent hours on research and all i had was more questions, there is so much out there re: New York its overwhelming, well to me it is. Fortunately there are people like nywhiz who have a wealth of information and don%26#39;t have a problem sharing it.

i apologize googs.........didnt mean for it to come out that way!!

i agree, when you first start researching for things regarding NYC, it seems overwhelming. believe me, sitting in barnes and noble and then in front of this computer for hours going from google maps to guides to this forum and back and then to the mta site........yes frustrating doesnt even begin to tell how i was feeling.

but as i said before, once i finally got the basics down, i started to connect all that info together and then started to find out the %26#39;hidden secrets%26#39; of the city that this forum offers.

yes its hard work, but the more you read and the more time spent in front of a map all pays off in the end. other than a brief subway %26#39;seperation%26#39; from my friends, we didnt get lost or have any problems navigating this huge wonderful city.

again, my apologies for sounding mean, but to research on your own is, in the end, enjoyable. good luck!!!

Googs,

We did a NCL cruise on the Dawn out of NYC last year. Don%26#39;t remember exactly which pier but it%26#39;s somewhere around 50th. We stayed at Novotel. It was less than 10 minutes by car (doorman at Novotel had one of their drivers run us over, don%26#39;t remember the exact cost). One night we walked down to the theatre to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. It%26#39;s about a 10 minute walk. We had an incredible view of Times Square from our window. Room was clean, comfortable and not small. There%26#39;s a ton of stuff to do in easy walking distance. We took a cab in from JFK. I%26#39;d recommend that, especially with all the lunggage one tends to drag along for a cruise.

Which itinerary are you doing? We did the eastern caribean. Enjoyed most of it but NYC was definitely the highlight of the whole trip.

We%26#39;re going on the Norwegian Dawn, which is the same ship you were on its going to Bermuda. Any suggestions for travelling on the Dawn? First time travelling Norwegian.