We were going to take a tour around the statue of Liberty which range from $13 to about $90 depending on the time of day and features. While looking at Yelp I noticed that you can travel from South Ferry to Staten Island for free!

We decided to take this option as it had good reviews – lots of people waiting and it was a large ferry. The ferry on the way over was the “John F Kennedy” and it had standing areas on the sides of the boat – the return one did not – I can’t remember its name.

Here are some photos of Downtown Manhattan from our Staten Island Ferry

 

 

The old lady – the “Statue of Liberty”

 

 

 

The view over downtown Manhattan (click the photo for a larger view)

The view over Manhattan from Staten Island

We arrived in New York about 2pm and bought tickets on the Airport Express Bus Service to take us into Manhattan ($15 each). All worked pretty well. We were going to get off at Penn Station which is basically across the road from our hotel. But Pam suggested we get off at Grand Central and get one of the free shuttles (tips required) to the hotel.

We were told to wait for the shuttle and it seemed like it never came – about 30 minutes later it turned up and we were on our way. Slow going in New York City traffic.

We finally arrived at hour Hotel – Affiania Manhattan – on the corner of 7th Avenue and 31st Streets

 

We were given keys to our hotel room on the 19th floor. But when we got in there it was like we entered a building site (not the room) what sounded like on the next room was drilling (into concrete) – and next door was a building site – Unacceptable.

I phoned up the customer services who told me that there were “no” rooms available to move to and tomorrow we could move to a different room.

This was no good so down to check-in and asked for the manager. A lady came out and found us a room on the 4th floor that “might” be better as there is construction on that side of the hotel all night.

So we will wait and see what happens..