We took the subway down to the 9/11 Museum to be there right when they opened at 9am. Unfortunately, there was some construction work, so we had to make an extra train change and they were all running behind schedule. We did end up making it on time, but we had to grab breakfast on the way. We got all our tickets through 365 Ticket USA which seemed to offer tickets at about 10% off for everything we wanted to do. Check with the sites to see if you qualify for other discounts like senior or AAA.
I thought the 9/11 Museum was very well done. There were a couple different sections telling the story of the lead up, day of, and the changes in the world afterwards. To me, the museum had two goals. First, it documented the timeline of events. Second, and more importantly, it captured the human aspects of the crisis. The message was one of both remembrance, but also hopefulness. It truly showed the way humanity came together to support each other in a crisis.
One tip I would give is to skip the movie. The line is really long and it is not that great in my opinion. We actually ran out of time here as we had tickets for the observatory at 11am. You could easily spend 3 hours here and a half day if you want to read everything.
We headed over to the One World Observatory which was about a block away from the 9/11 Museum. There was only a short line for security and the elevators and then we were at the top. We had absolutely perfect weather and visibility from the tower. We walked around the observation deck a few times taking in the sights and pictures. I would say an hour is sufficient for the observatory.
Our next stop was the Circle Line Cruise. On the way we picked up some sandwiches, chips, and drinks. There was no problem bringing food onto the boat even though they sold food onboard as well. We signed up for the Best of NYC tour which was a 2.5 hour tour circling Manhattan. I really enjoyed the tour and we got to see all of the boroughs and the Statue of Liberty from the water. We forgot the sunscreen so we got a little bit sunburned though.
We headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. Dinner this evening was at Aureole in the Liberty Room. We did the 3 course pre-theater menu. I had the mustard greens, salmon, and panna cotta. Samantha had the pasta, chicken, and mango pudding. Everything was absolutely great and we would definitely recommend the restaurant. The wine menu was enormous as well – about 35 pages. We had to rush a bit though because we were running a bit late for our show that evening.
We won the opportunity to buy tickets for Cats through the online ticket lottery. These seats were even better than the previous night as we were on the orchestra level about 15 rows back. I really enjoyed the show, and I actually liked it more than Phantom of the Opera. It just seemed like it was better performed and the actors had more cohesion.
After a long day of sightseeing, we were beat and went back to rest up for our race in the morning.