Ellis Island

[lucyd]

We really want to visit Ellis Island prior to our October cruise to Montreal but are concerned that it may be too difficult for my 80 year old friend.

 

138East posted that if we stayed in Midtown we would have to travel to the tip of Manhattan just to get to the Ferry.

 

Great input - we had not considered that and now wonder about possibly staying in Lower Manhattan instead of Midtown.

 

Has anyone been to Ellis Island? How long does it take to tour and what areas are open to the public? My friend and I are both nurses and would love to see the old hospital if that is open.Perhaps there are some package tours that include the transportation.

[138east]

We really want to visit Ellis Island prior to our October cruise to Montreal but are concerned that it may be too difficult for my 80 year old friend.

 

138East posted that if we stayed in Midtown we would have to travel to the tip of Manhattan just to get to the Ferry.

 

Great input - we had not considered that and now wonder about possibly staying in Lower Manhattan instead of Midtown.

 

Has anyone been to Ellis Island? How long does it take to tour and what areas are open to the public? My friend and I are both nurses and would love to see the old hospital if that is open.Perhaps there are some package tours that include the transportation.

 

 

The only way to get to Ellis Island from NYC is to take the ferry from Battery Park/South Ferry. From NYC advance reservations are strongly suggested.

https://www.statuecruises.com/#/

 

https://www.nps.gov/elis/planyourvisit/index.htm.

 

You pay for the ferry. Ellis Island is free. It did mention that a number of wheelchairs are available to use for free. The old hospital area is not open to the public.

[waterbug123]

We really want to visit Ellis Island prior to our October cruise to Montreal but are concerned that it may be too difficult for my 80 year old friend.

 

138East posted that if we stayed in Midtown we would have to travel to the tip of Manhattan just to get to the Ferry.

 

Great input - we had not considered that and now wonder about possibly staying in Lower Manhattan instead of Midtown.

 

Has anyone been to Ellis Island? How long does it take to tour and what areas are open to the public? My friend and I are both nurses and would love to see the old hospital if that is open.Perhaps there are some package tours that include the transportation.

 

I visited Ellis Island several years ago and found it extremely fascinating. Yes, you have to take the ferry from battery point. You can stay in lower Manhattan, and it may be cheaper than midtown. It's kind of dead at night though, so expect to travel back toward midtown for dinners, shows etc.

 

We rented headsets at Ellis Island so we could tour at hour own pace, and spent several hours, and I probably could have spent even longer, but it depends on how much that kind of thing fascinates you. There is also a genealogy room where you can research relatives that may have come through Ellis Island when they immigrated.

[Got2Cruise]

Financial District no longer dead at night. Plenty of choices for dinner.

 

 

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[George C]

Financial District no longer dead at night. Plenty of choices for dinner.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

I worked in this area in late 60's and the 70's was really surprised at all the new restaurants and bars that were added since, dozens a couple of blocks from Frances tavern which I also think is a must stop for a drink ( Washington gave farewell address here and in a couple of blocks from the ferry)

[philpcruiser]

Ellis Island was whacked by Hurricane Sandy a few years ago. Does anyone know if all is back to normal yet?

[Boston Mom]

Ellis Island is definitely an interesting place to see. My husband and I took the kids a few years ago and we were able to find my grandmother's name on the passenger list for her ship over from Ireland, and some photos and other information from her ship. We were there for about 5 hours and I could have spent longer. We did a walking tour with a NPS ranger which I think took about 45 minutes, and then walked around quite a bit on our own afterward.

 

Once you get over to the island everything is pretty handicapped accessible. There was a woman in a wheelchair in our ranger group and she was able to access everything on the tour. The whole ferry experience could be a bit more difficult on someone with health problems though - the day we were there the lines were astronomically long and there was nowhere to sit down or to get out of the blazing hot sun. The ferry ride over was crowded too - not even close to room for all of the passengers to sit down.

 

I don't know about damage from Hurricane Sandy as we last visited prior to that.

[coupeb]

We visited Ellis Island the fall of 2013 (year after Sandy) and while it was open, some exhibits and display cases were empty with a note that the items were being repaired due to Sandy damage. Not a lot, and I expect all will be open by now.

[markeb]

The National Park Service has no alerts posted regarding closures from Sandy, so it appears the museum is open and operational.

 

To the OP, there is quite a bit of information on the NPS web page at https://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm. BTW, they do mention a 90 minute hard hat tour (advanced reservations required) to select parts of the hospital. I suspect it would be mildly to moderately strenuous. The link on the home page doesn't specify any restrictions for the hospital tour, though...

[George C]

Most of South street Seaport was still closed as of last May from Sandy