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CityPass New York City

January 9, 2017 by Island Miler

Before I get into the rest of my trip report, I want to go over CityPass.  For those you that have never heard of it, CityPass is a collection of attraction passes sold at a discounted rate.  The passbook itself usually runs over $100, but the combined value is often a lot lower than the face value of the individual passes.  And this being the wife’s first visit to the Big Apple, we opted to purchase the CityPass New York City.

Update:  It has been brought to my attention that I mixed up the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so I’ve corrected this in the post.  Thank you!

CityPass New York City

How to Use CityPass

Ok, so did the CityPass New York City really save us money?  If you use it in its entirety, CityPass does in fact save you money.  But you really do have to make sure you’ll use everything, which is something we didn’t do.  In fact, in some cases, we found it better to have not use CityPass, but more on that later.  In the case of New York, CityPass saves you up to 41% off standard admission.  It’s available in a variety of cities around the U.S., including New York of course.

screen-shot-2017-01-06-at-7-26-56-am

New York’s CityPass includes 6 tickets for some of The City’s most iconic attractions, including the Empire State Building, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met).  For the three other tickets, though, you’ll need to choose between different attractions:

  • Top of the Rock Observation Deck OR Guggenheim Museum
  • Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island OR Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise
  • 9/11 Memorial & Museum OR Intrepid Sea Air & Space Museum

When I ordered the pass, I opted for electronic delivery, and simply printed the proof of purchase.  At our first site visit, I had to exchange the proof of purchase for the physical CityPass book.  You can have the book mailed to your home too, but it takes longer and may carry an additional fee.

After obtaining your book from your first attraction, you simply tear out the coupons for the attraction you’re visiting and present them at the window.  In some cases there will be dedicated lines for CityPass holders, and in some cases there aren’t.  There’s also inconsistencies on whether or not each of the attractions will issue another ticket or not.

Our Value

Of the available passes, the wife and I used the following:

  • American Museum of Natural History ($35)
  • Top of the Rock Observation Deck ($34) +$15
  • Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island ($18.50)
  • 9/11 Memorial & Museum ($24)

So we really used four of the six passes at a total face value of $111.50.  So we fell short of the $116 we paid for each of our CityPasses.  Further, we really wanted to visit Top of the Rock during the day and at night, so we ended up purchasing additional tickets.  Without the CityPass you can actually pay $49 for a “Sun & Stars” pass giving you two entries during a given day.

Ironically, CityPass does give a two-for-one deal like the “Sun & Stars” pass at the Empire State Building.  The only caveat there is you can only visit the 86th floor, while other passes are available to visit the 102nd floor too.  Had we visited the Empire State Building and The Met, though, the total face value of our tickets would have been $170.50.  Or, if you include dual entry privilege of the Empire State Building, the total would have been $204.50.  So at straight face value, if we had used all of our CityPass New York City passes, our total savings would have been 32%.  This is 9% lower than the 41% savings CityPass advertises.

Maximizing Your Value

Admittedly, the 3 options you have to choose from vary greatly in value.  For example the Circle Line Sightseeing Tour is valued at about $29 to $42, depending on the route you choose.  The Guggenheim and the Intrepid are valued at $25 and $26, respectively.  So if you focus on just value, the maximum face value of your visits could be $196, which translates to a 41% savings.  Doing this would mean the tickets you’d have to use are:

  • Empire State Building
  • The Met
  • American Museum of Natural History
  • Circle Line Sightseeing Tour
  • Intrepid Air Sea & Space Museum
  • Top of the Rock

A Cheaper Option

If you’d still like to save with a CityPass, but don’t want to have to visit six attractions, CityPass does offer the C3 Pass.  With C3 you simply choose 3 of attractions from the CityPass list (plus Hornblower Sightseeing Cruise) as you you go.  C3 costs $74, which savings up to 25%, again depending on which attractions you choose.

Final Thoughts

CityPass didn’t work for us.  The wife and I didn’t want to visit The Met or the Empire State Building, so that was already a huge loss in value.   Plus, the inability to buy the Sun & Stars pas at the Top of the Rock meant we had to spend even MORE money.  If I had done my homework and ran some simple numbers, I probably would have figured this out ahead of time.  So, it would have been better for us to not buy CityPass on this visit.  Whether CityPass is right for you or not, however, depends on what you’d like to see and do.

A Big Apple Holiday Adventure

  1. Introduction
  2. Alaska Airlines HNL-SEA
  3. Alaska Air N Terminal Lounge + SEA-JFK
  4. Renaissance New York Midtown
  5. Getting Around in New York
  6. Restaurant Review:  Noreetuh
  7. CityPass New York City

Filed Under: Destinations, Island Miler, Trip Reports Tagged With: CityPass, CityPass New York, CityPass New York City, Discounts, Manhattan, new york, New York City, travel savings

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. CityPASS says

    January 9, 2017 at 9:20 AM

    Hi JeffSetter,
    Thanks for your trip report! Just wanted to clarify a few things mentioned. We advise that you do not tear out the tickets in the booklet as they may be considered invalid. Please present the entire booklet at the admission of each attraction. You mention MOMA in your report, but it is not included with any of our products. Thanks again for your post.

    Rachael
    CityPASS

    • Island Miler says

      January 9, 2017 at 2:08 PM

      Aloha Rachel,

      Mahalo for your response. That’s a great tip, as the book does indeed contain important information regarding expiration. We have noticed, however, that some of the attractions insisted we tear out the tickets ourselves. Regarding MOMA, the New York CityPass does indicate Metropolitan Museum of Art as an option, which is abbreviated as MoMA. I believe it’s one of the 3 fixed tickets and not one of the flexible ones.

  2. beth says

    January 9, 2017 at 11:58 AM

    It’s also worth noting that the Natural History museum is a donation based entry so you can pay $0 and get in.

    • Island Miler says

      January 9, 2017 at 2:09 PM

      Did not know this. Thanks for the info, Beth!

    • CityPASS says

      January 10, 2017 at 11:13 AM

      True. General admission to AMNH is a suggested donation. However, CityPASS admission includes a Space Show or a giant screen film in 3D and 2D. The normal admission price for that is $27. Thanks for the comment!

  3. AsherO says

    January 9, 2017 at 7:54 PM

    MoMA stands for Museum of Modern Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (or in short, The Met) is a completely different Museum.

    CityPASS probably makes you keep the tickets in the book to prevent you from buying one book and dividing it between two people.

    • Island Miler says

      January 9, 2017 at 8:18 PM

      Ah, thanks for that clarification, AsherO! My error.

  4. Sam S. Barnes says

    January 18, 2017 at 11:05 AM

    It’s worse than that. Both the AMNH and the Met operate on a “suggested donation” basis: the ticket prices you see are the suggested amounts you are asked to contribute upon entry, but you can pay any amount you like, even one penny. (Of course, you can also pay *more* than the suggested amount.) Oh well, live and learn!

    • Island Miler says

      January 18, 2017 at 2:42 PM

      Thanks for the info, Sam S. And you bet! I’ll likely never purchase CityPass for NYC again, nor will I recommend it. Beyond the overstated value, it simply doesn’t fit what I need in The City.

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