Signature City New York

Program Registration: 4:00 p.m. Join us in the meeting room to register with the program staff and receive a final itinerary and any updated information. The location of our Road Scholar meeting room will be sent to you the week before in a welcome email from the program provider. Hotel security will also be able to direct you. If you arrive after this evening's scheduled events, the Group Leader will leave an envelope with the Front Desk; please ask for it when you arrive. Orientation: 4:30 p.m. In the same space, the Group Leader will greet everyone and lead introductions. We will review the up-to-date program schedule, discuss roles and responsibilities, logistics, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer questions. We will learn from a series of local experts who will give lectures and lead field trips. We will be walking a lot and using the New York City subway system which involves going up and down flights of stairs, long corridors, and often crowded conditions. It’s what New Yorkers do every day! Everyone will receive a MetroCard. If you've been with us before and have a Senior MetroCard, please bring it with you. Periods in the daily schedule designated as “Free time” and “At leisure” offer opportunities to do what you like and make your experience even more meaningful and memorable according to your personal preferences. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. Program activities, schedules, personnel, and indicated distances or times may change due to local circumstances/conditions. In the event of changes, we will alert you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

In the Tick Tock Diner just off the lobby of our historic hotel. Dinner in the diner is included even if you arrive late. Dinners are early in order to have plenty of time available for engaging in evening activities as a group and individually.

After dinner, we'll meet the great-great-grandson of Washington & Emily Roebling, the husband-and-wife team responsible for building the Brooklyn Bridge. Theirs is a unique family story which reminds us as we begin our week-long exploration of NYC that it is a city of 8.5 million people, and sometimes the people behind the famous sites are as interesting as the work they leave behind.

In the Tick Tock Diner.

We’ll be joined by a historian for an introductory lecture on New York City, a city with its own unique personality. Navigating NYC requires some basic directions: Uptown & Downtown are relative based on one’s current position and are helpful when using the subway, but Midtown is a defined place, the central business district of Manhattan Island. 5th Avenue is the dividing line between the East and West sides. Following our lecture, we’ll walk to Fifth Avenue for a visit to the famous NY Public Library and their incredible “Treasures” exhibit.

Bag lunch in Midtown.

We’ll stroll up 5th Avenue to Rockefeller Center where we’ll stop in at Radio City Music Hall for a private look behind the scenes. We’ll then stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral before returning to the hotel for a break. Reconvening in our meeting room, we’ll meet a former National Parks Ranger for an historical look at Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty in anticipation of our visit tomorrow.

At a neighborhood restaurant.

After dinner, we’ll have the opportunity to explore Times Square with an expert and learn about the history of the area and the Broadway Theater District located there. If a show is on your agenda during your free time, the famous TKTS discount ticket booth is a marvelous resource you might consider. It generally has a strong selection of the shows currently playing both On- and Off-Broadway. Our expert will point it out and provide direction and insider tips on how best to utilize it.

In the Tick Tock Diner.

We’ll take the subway downtown to the very bottom tip of Manhattan where we’ll board the ferry for our day on Liberty & Ellis Islands. We will explore both islands at our own pace to see and do what interests each of us most. Liberty Island features a wonderful state of the art museum dedicated to the statue. It is not to be missed. Additionally, you may choose to stroll around the island while listening to the included audio guide or join up with a NPS Ranger. The Statue of Liberty was an amazing gift to the people of America from the people of France — our oldest ally — celebrating freedom and democracy. We’ve seen this national monument in countless movies and TV shows and may even take it for granted, but at its unveiling on the Fourth of July 1884, it was the biggest event in the country. Years later, these words of poet Emma Lazarus were added: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Since the opening of the new museum, the Park Service no longer includes entry into the pedestal or the statue as part of our admission. If this is something you would like to do, these tickets may be arranged separately, in advance of the program and at your own cost via the NPS exclusive ticket seller: www.statuecruises.com. Note: Choosing to arrange this for yourself will require a great deal more time on Liberty Island and will necessarily reduce your time on Ellis Island.

This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to have what you like. Both Liberty and Ellis Islands have cafeterias.

Next, it’s on to Ellis Island. From 1892 when the immigration station opened until it closed in 1954, more than 12 million people coming to America passed through Ellis Island. This was their “golden door” to new lives. Today, the descendants of these immigrants make up almost half of all Americans. The Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration tells the story of where people came from and what their experience was like. The museum includes numerous exhibits, an included audio guide, NPS Ranger-led walks, a documentary film, and the family research center where you may choose to look up the historical documents that pertain to your family’s history through Ellis Island. We’ll reconvene with our Group Leader mid-afternoon for a stroll through the Financial District, the oldest inhabited part of the island. This walk will include the 9/11 Memorial. A subway ride will take us to Little Italy for dinner.

In historic Little Italy. Many of the immigrants coming through Ellis Island first settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, once the most densely populated neighborhood on earth. Little Italy is only one of many historically ethnic neighborhoods in this area.

After dinner, we’ll visit the Empire State Building for a bird’s-eye view of the nighttime skyline. Stay as long as you wish and return to the hotel at your leisure.

In the Tick Tock Diner.

We will board the legendary A-train to explore one of New York’s richest cultural neighborhoods: Harlem. Established in 1658, Harlem was a rural Dutch village for most of two centuries. The development of railroads fostered a growth spurt at the turn of the 20th century and became home to a large community of Jewish immigrants. Entertainment professionals such as Milton Berle, Harry Houdini, and composer Richard Rodgers were raised and got their start here. In the 1920s, having been displaced elsewhere in the city and through the effects of the Great Migration, Harlem quickly became the unofficial “capital” of Black America, giving rise to the Harlem Renaissance in the arts and humanities. After years of disinvestment in the latter half of the 20th century, the world is finally realizing what New Yorkers have known all along: Harlem is vibrant, eclectic, and diverse, an essential example of New York’s constantly evolving energy.

At a neighborhood restaurant in Harlem.

We’ll head back downtown as a group, and the afternoon will be free time. Those who wish to return to the hotel or explore independently are welcome to do so. This is an excellent opportunity to check something off your bucket list or maybe take in a Broadway matinee. If you wish to attend a theatrical performance, you may want to order tickets in advance. The app TODAYTIX may be helpful in this regard. The fees are modest and significantly below those paid on Ticketmaster or Telecharge. And don't forget the TKTS Discount Booth in Times Square for day-of tickets which you'll see and learn about after dinner on Day 2. Many performances are available at 20-50 percent off regular prices.

On your own to enjoy what you like. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions.

At leisure. You might like to take in a show, explore on your own, or enjoy some R&R at the hotel.

In the Tick Tock Diner.

An art historian will join us to provide an overview of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We’ll get tips on navigating its galleries before heading up to the museum. On the way, we’ll traverse Central Park as our Group Leader talks about its history and points out areas of interest. Some 42 million people visit Central Park each year. Its 843 acres are managed by the private, not-for-profit Central Park Conservancy, formed in 1980 to improve and restore the park to prime condition after a period of decline. Central Park today may be America’s most famous park, providing respite and inspiration for residents and visitors alike.

On your own to enjoy what you like. The Metropolitan offers several options or, if it's a nice day, you might take the opportunity to grab a famous New York City hot dog from one of the vendors out on Fifth Avenue; your badge allows re-entry to the museum.

We’ll explore The Met at our own pace. Bring your smartphone and ear buds! The Met has recently moved all of their audio guides online for easy and free access in the galleries. We recommend downloading the Bloomberg Connects app for this purpose. The Met, founded in 1870, is one of the world’s greatest museums with a collection spanning more than 5,000 years of creativity. Its artistic treasury from every corner of the world includes paintings, arms and armor, costume, decorative arts, musical instruments, photography, works on paper, and much more. There are 26,000 objects from ancient Egypt, the largest collection outside Cairo; 2,500 European paintings, one of the most extensive collections anywhere; and the most comprehensive collection of American decorative arts, paintings, and sculpture in the American Wing. The Beaux-Arts façade and Great Hall of the flagship building — designed by architect and founding museum trustee Richard Morris Hunt — opened in 1902. Today, tens of thousands of objects are on view at any given time. We’ll regroup mid-afternoon and return to the hotel for a break before dinner.

At a neighborhood restaurant. Share favorite experiences with new Road Scholar friends during our farewell dinner.

Bringing our week full circle, we’ll hop on the subway one last time and head downtown for a stroll over The Roebling's iconic Brooklyn Bridge. Returning to the hotel, the remainder of the evening is at leisure. Prepare for check-out and departure after our closing session in the morning.

In the meeting room.

As a final highlight, we’ll be joined by a New Yorker for a closing discussion about living in the city: how current New Yorkers manage it, how celebrated writers have portrayed it, and how we have experienced it this week. We expect the session to end by 10:30 a.m. This concludes our program. If you are returning home, safe travels. If you are staying on independently, have a wonderful time. If you are transferring to another Road Scholar program, detailed instructions are included in your Information Packet for that program. We hope you enjoy Road Scholar learning adventures and look forward to having you on rewarding programs in the future. Don’t forget to join our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!