Is CityPASS a SCAM or worth it?! The BEST NYC DISCOUNT PASS REVIEW

hey everyone it is Sarah your local NYC guide and today I'm covering a question that I've been asked probably a million gazillion trillion times like literally it's the number one question you asked me it is is City Pass New York worth it so we will be answering that question today I have the site up right here and I'm just gonna go down the list of what they include here and by the way this video is not sponsored by anyone I'm going to be mentioning a few different brands here and the ones I like it's because I like them and the ones I don't like it's because I don't like them this is a completely honest review [Music] City Falls New Yorker says you can see New York's top attractions handpick and pack us together at significant savings and they offer you nine different things to see but you can only choose six and the total price is a hundred and thirty-two dollars they say if you bought these all individually it would be two hundred and thirty-five dollars let's see if I can find a way to get these for less than one hundred thirty-two dollars and I'm pretty sure I can by the way just taking a quick glance here there's some sketchy situations going on first thing on here is it's a City Pass admission includes the Empire State Building but I see when I go to the number four thing it includes it also is top of the rock observation deck now you don't need to go to both if you were visiting for a short period of time or even a long period of time like two weeks I just don't see the point in visiting both because they're almost the same except top of the rock is way better in my opinion because you can see the Empire State Building and that's such an iconic part of the New York City skyline so if you're on the Empire State Building you can't see it so I would just say pass on visiting the Empire State Building now the next thing is the American Museum of Natural History which I see they included the suggested ticket price as the ticket price here the American Museum of Natural History's actually pay what you wish so if you're really on a budget you don't have to pay anything so if you're trying to buy the City Pass New York most likely you're on a budget so you could just go to the Museum of Natural History completely for free so that we're still at zero dollars we've spent and let's keep moving down the list of the things include alright then we have number three which is the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is a incredible Museum they have a really amazing Egyptian exhibit and they have tons of interesting exhibit exhibitions that switch all the time now depending on if you are from New York or not the price of this actually changes they used to be pay what you wish for a very very long time and they recently just changed that rule so if you're not from New York State then you have to pay $25 unless of course you are a student students can students from only students from New York New Jersey and Connecticut can pay what they wish other than that you have to pay $25 but the good news is with admission to the Metropolitan Museum of Art you get mission to all three of their museums so you can actually kind of spread it out through the day so with admission you get into the museum mile building the modern art focus met Brauer and the Met clusters in Washington Heights and you can actually spread that out for three days so it's a pretty good deal $25 to get into that for three days okay so we're now we're moving to the fourth option here the fourth thing on their list which is top of the rock observation deck or the Guggenheim Museum so like I said earlier just do the top of the rock because it's amazing normally tickets for that are fifty one dollars if you go during sunset or forty one dollars if you go non sunset time the sunset is absolutely stunningly beautiful so colorful the lights and the city pop up it's like living in a movie it's beautiful but the only thing is that it is very very crowded during that time period so go if you would like I went and I did love it but I also went during non sunset time and it was actually much better for photos because sunset time there's so many people everywhere it's almost impossible to get like a really really good shot so the Guggenheim Museum though is also a great Museum it's an art museum but if you're already going to go to the Museum of Natural History and the museum the Metropolitan Museum of then I feel like you should just do the top of the rock instead because add some variety add some variety so now we're moving to number five which is you choose between the two again this is between the ferry access to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island or the Circle Line sightseeing cruises I absolutely recommend you do the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island once again this is just a ferry access so if you actually want to go up the Statue of Liberty then I recommend you just get the pass for that and the thing is in order to do that with City Pass you actually have to upgrade your ticket but the price for just getting on the island normally is $18 and then the price for climbing up is $21 so you might as well just get the ticket separately this it's $21 for everything Circle Line sightseeing cruises I would be hard pass on that because it's not an enjoyable experience in my opinion it's there's a lot of people everywhere it's crowded it's not luxurious there's not great options for seating instead I would recommend a classic Harbor line cruises I mean classic Harbor line it's luxurious it's nearly the same ticket price you get a table it's a 1920's style yacht they only allow about 30 people on each boat overall just way way better than the Circle Line sightseeing so please don't do that please compete listen to one thing know so now we're moving to number six which is you can choose between two again this is the 9/11 memorial museum or the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum okay so both of those are really interesting and different museums but as you can see this list is very heavy with museums and there's a reason why it's very heavy with museums it's because almost all of the museums on this list you can get in for free you heard me right you can get in for free with all of the museums on this list and so they make it look like you're getting a lot when in reality you could get all of these for nothing so the 9/11 Memorial Museum that you can actually get in for free on Tuesdays after 5:00 p.m. so if you plan your time strategically you could just go that time period but if you can't plan for that maybe you already have something on Tuesday than normally it's $26 the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum that Museum is actually on a ship that's docked in the harbor of New York and it has all different types of planes and Navy equipment and all like the military stuff on it it's really it's really interesting and different than any other Museum here and so that is actually free on select Fridays from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. so I'll link below a link that has when it's free because it changes and you can just plan around that but if you can't plan around that then otherwise it's $33 so now let's just break this down we're gonna go all the way through from top to bottom how much would you actually spend if you would do this yourself versus if you buy the City Pass with the options they give you number one is Empire State Building which I think you should pass on for top of the rock so that's you're not gonna go there and my I don't recommend you go there so we're gonna snot include that the American Museum of Natural History that is free it's pay what you wish so let's just say you paid $0 then we have the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is $25 then we have the top of the rock observation deck which is $41 then we have the ferry access to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island which is $21 if you want to go all the way up for $18 regularly and then we have the 9/11 Memorial Museum and the intrepid see art and space museum which you can get in for free if you are strategic so the total price is $84 if you do this yourself versus buying the City Pass for a hundred and thirty two dollars so by not doing the City Pass you save fifty dollars so is it a scam I mean I think it is I'm just gonna go ahead and say it obviously this is my opinion but if you just do the math it's pretty simple that you can get this for cheaper and I know that many of you may be on a budget so I have a solution for you there is another discount path that I think is absolutely fabulous and I would highly recommend using it and this one is called the New York sightseeing flex pass this one is fantastic it is it allows you to go to not an option of six but over a hundred different attractions you can go to and it's valid for 30 days you can actually choose how many attractions you would like to visit and the more attractions you choose the more money that you save from them you can choose anywhere from two attractions out of the 100 to twelve attractions and you don't even need to choose in advance that's the awesome part about this you can just do it as you go so you have the list of all the attractions and if you're feeling that like you want to go to something one day and then you're like you know what actually let's go to this instead you can make those quick decisions right on the spot it's awesome like that you just show up with the card put it on the ticket counter they scan it and you enter without waiting it's it's like the dream discount pass in the city it's it's the only thing you should do the other great thing about it is that it includes airport transfer so if you're flying here then you can use that to get in from the airport that you fly into super convenient as well it also includes discounts on lunch location one of the only passes that include one world observatory which is actually the best view of all buildings in the city because it's the highest and you still can see that in part state building but you can see that Statue of Liberty you can see New Jersey you can see Brooklyn you see everything from there more than you can see on any other place now the price of this one depends on how many attractions you choose but it still ends up being cheaper but remember that if you're visiting the city that many of the museums and some attractions there are free dates for that and I have a whole video on how to do NYC for free so I'll link that below so you can access that and just double check that the things you're you're gonna select you can't get free some other way because you know you gotta be strategic with this stuff after all they are all businesses and they're trying to make money so you have to be smart about it so in summary a City Pass no New York site sings has absolutely those are my opinions this whole video is opinion so you guys something else that these are my opinion so if you want to share your pages you can start a YouTube channel about your opinions but these are my opinions as a professional tour guide and it's someone that's lived in New York for my entire life so I hope that helped you now if you're visiting New York I have tons of other videos on things to do eat and see and much much more so you can check those out and I will see you next time thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Sarah Funk

Views: 112,185

Keywords: new york city, new york travel, new york travel guide, things to do in nyc, what to do in new york city, nyc travel guide, nyc budget tips, nyc budget trip, nyc budget deal, citypass new york, citypass new york review, city pass nyc, nyc discount pass, new york sightseeing pass, new york sightseeing flex pass, new york sightseeing pass review, new york pass review, new york pass vs sightseeing pass, new york explorer pass, new york explorer pass review, nyc travel tips

Id: _N09WraiakU

Length: 12min 55sec (775 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2019