Just a New York minute!

The kids were screaming to stay, begging not to go, mouths agape at the human-like figures surrounding them, and that was before performing on the American Idol stage! What they did not know: they were learning while having fun in New York City museums.

New York City is a wealth of historical and cultural sites mixed with a fast-paced, high energy, always entertaining style. Sure, there are must-sees, like the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Central Park and Rockefeller Center. With a double-decker sightseeing bus tour you can check most of those off your list quickly before getting into the real value of a New York City family vacation: learning while having fun.

New York City Museums

American Museum of Natural History
“The kids didn’t want to leave. In fact my son wants to move to NYC. Why, I asked him … because the museum is there!”

The American Museum of Natural History, that is. The quote, from a Harrisburg PA family who toured the museum recently, is indicative of what Museum staff hears frequently. Why not, since the Museum was rated the top attraction in New York City by Zagat Survey US Family Travel Guide.

Well-known for its 94-foot long blue whale, Hayden Planetarium space shows and the world’s tallest freestanding dinosaur mount, the Museum has opened an intriguing exhibition entitled Traveling the Silk Road that brings to life one of the greatest trading routes in human history, from Xi’an and Turfan China through Uzbekistan to Baghdad. Children will become world travelers, collecting special stamps in Silk Road “passports” issued to them at the exhibition entrance, smelling real spices in the spice market, meeting a life-sized camel model, observing live silkworms and enjoying live musical performances. Hands-on activities and interactives will bring to life the golden age of the Silk Road.

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum
History isn’t all dinosaurs and ancients, though, at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. Kids can stand alongside President and Mrs. Obama – or at least their wax likenesses – in a replica Oval Office. Other public figures on display include President Clinton, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Princess Diana, Malcolm X and President Abraham Lincoln. What makes Madame Tussaud’s particularly interesting for families is that all the figures are free standing and accessible, so kids can pose with the lifelike statues. It’s not just history, either, as pop culture abounds. There’s Miley Cyrus, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Beyonce and Serena Williams.  Kids can even sing and record their very own performance on the American Idol® stage – where Simon Cowell will judge them.

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum’s mission is to inspire youth by exploring the “humanity behind the hardware.” The “hardware” includes a genuine aircraft carrier, a submarine, 30 aircraft including the super-secret A-12 Blackbird spy plane and the supersonic Concorde. On weekends there are free demonstrations that incorporate hands-on activities geared towards families. During recent weekends families explored the use of robotics in space, tested how to land a vehicle on Mars without crashing, and learned about rocketry as they participated in a hands-on demonstration of the four forces of flight and created their own parachute and space capsule. 

Hotels

Well, hotels might not be educational but unless you have friends or family with whom to stay, they are a necessity. No surprise that New York City has so many choices, so here are some family favorites to make the selection easier:

Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square
As the name suggests, the Doubletree  Guest Suites Times Square is located in … Times Square. It might be a bit costlier than some other hotels but there are good reasons for that.
1)    Did we mention it’s in Times Square?
2)    Every room is a 2-room suite

Being in Times Square means that so much of what-to-do is within a short walk from the hotel. Broadway theaters, kid-friendly restaurants like Planet Hollywood, Toys R Us, Hershey’s Times Square, M & M’s World Store, Central Park, Rockefeller Center – and even the Empire State Building and Macy’s are only a little further of a walk. Times Square is also a safe location in a safe city (New York City is the safest major city in the US, according to the FBI’s Crime in the United States, the preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2008.)

The Doubletree’s most important distinction is that it’s the only all-suite hotel in Times Square. Rather than trying to cram the family into one small hotel room, the Doubletree’s 2-room suite has a living room, private bedroom, kitchenette area and even a work desk with high speed internet access.

Sheraton Manhattan Times Square
Just a few short blocks from the heart of Times Square is the Sheraton Manhattan. Now completely non-smoking, the Sheraton Manhattan has an indoor swimming pool, a rarity for New York City hotels. It’s also in a great location in the Times Square/Theatre District area, close to Central Park and just half a block from Broadway. Rooms with two double beds can be requested. The hotel also provides rollaway beds in king-bedded rooms, at an additional cost.

Other Family-Friendly Hotels
The Marriott Marquis is an attraction itself. Its soaring atrium lobby is a must-see; its rooms are comfortable and spacious. The Crowne Plaza Manhattan is newly-remodeled and also features rooms a bit larger than standard New York City hotel rooms. Both the Marriott Marquis and the Crowne Plaza are located in Times Square. The Novotel New York has recently remodeled as well, and several of its rooms have views overlooking Broadway down to Times Square.

So Much More
In addition to the ubiquitous double-decker bus sightseeing tours there are specialized tours focusing on the City’s many TV and movie sites, cruises around Manhattan island, walking tours of popular neighborhoods, Harlem gospel music excursions and even a bus tour of Brooklyn highlighted by visits to arguably two of the best pizza restaurants in New York.

There’s Discovery Times Square Exposition, a huge exhibit space in the former New York Times building that will be home to the first display of King Tut artifacts to visit New York City in over 30 years. The world champion New York Yankees play 81 games at the new Yankee Stadium from April through September. And of course there’s Broadway, with Wicked, The Lion King and Mary Poppins still going strong.  

Help Planning

Trying to plan an entire New York City family vacation can be difficult and time-consuming, particularly if you are not familiar with the City. Consulting a travel agent is wise advice.  You or your travel agent should contact a tour company like New York City Vacation Packages (www.nyctrip.com or 877-NYC-TRiP) that specializes in leisure travel to the City. They can arrange accommodations, transportation, sightseeing, Broadway shows, museum admissions and even meals, coordinated with your planned activities, and often at a price lower than purchasing everything separately. They include free admissions to many of the popular sites and attractions in New York City.   

It happens. All the planning done, all the suitcases packed, all the anxieties soothed, all the apprehensions set aside. You get on the plane - and the horror strikes.

Where are my travel documents? Where is my hotel confirmation? Where are the theater tickets? Where are the sightseeing vouchers? Where are all the instructions?

"Did you pack them?"
"No, I didn't pack them. They were on the kitchen table so we wouldn't forget them."
"The kitchen table? I thought you put them in your purse."
"No, you didn't tell me that. You said you'd put them on the table so you wouldn't forget them. Don't tell me you don't have them."
"OK, I won't tell you. But I don't have them."
We can only imagine what the rest of the plane ride was like.

Thanksgiving morning, 9am, my phone rings. Sure enough, this little drama was reality for a family from Florida. No documents. No theater tickets. Nothing. Having just arrived in New York City for the holiday, they were semi-panicked.

So was I.

The family had purchased tickets to two prime shows for the weekend - tickets that were sitting back home on their kitchen table. 5 seats for that afternoon's performance of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, plus Friday's Billy Elliot show, were going to be difficult if not impossible to replace.

My first act was to call Applause Theater and Entertainment, our preferred ticket broker in the City. Knowing they'd be open on the holiday, I was still surprised to find the company's president, Rich Gladstone, working. I explained our customer's predicament and Rich thought about it for a bit, then came up with a solution. His solution required him to stay around in the City for half of the day, certainly delaying his family's Thanksgiving dinner plans, while he performed his magic to make sure our guest's family enjoyed their Radio City and Billy Elliot performances.

Meanwhile, I had the relatively easy task of re-issuing the sightseeing, dining and event documents.

At 1:40pm on Thanksgiving day I received an email from the formerly-frantic Floridians. "Joel, we are sitting in Radio City Music Hall waiting for the show to start.  Rich was fantastic.  His service on a Thanksgiving holiday was nothing short  of extraordinary. Joel, you too, are unbelievable, helping my family over this holiday. You saved our trip. Thank you!  Thank you! Thank you!"

I guess there are several morals we can take from this.
1) It's important that our company has relationships with vendors who truly care about our mutual customers.
2) It's important that customers select travel sellers who back up their product in times of need - with real people, not URLs, FAQs and voice-response units
3) It's important to check the kitchen table before you leave the house

Thank you, Rich, for going far above and beyond in helping a traveler and his family. And thank you, Floridian family, for entrusting New York City Vacation Packages with your 2009 holiday in New York City.

New York City Vacation Packages (NYCVP) is offering a 2-night stay in midtown Manhattan so locals can see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and take part in some of the festivities that attract tourists to the City during the holiday season. 

“Thanksgiving Staycation” packages begin on November 25, with accommodations at a choice of several midtown hotels including The Warwick Hotel, Flatotel, Intercontinental Barclay, New York Helmsley, W New York, Westin New York at Times Square and several Hilton properties. Package prices start at $409 per person based on two adults sharing a room at the Holiday Inn NYC-Manhattan 6th Ave. 

Vacations include a Wednesday afternoon guided excursion to the balloon inflation and parade staging area, followed by a tour of department store window displays. On Thursday morning before the parade, guests are invited to a private continental breakfast at Applebee’s Grill on 50th St., one-half block from the 7th Ave. parade route. “Staycationers” can step outside the restaurant to watch the parade and use the comfort and convenience of the facility during the entire parade. 

Also included is a Thursday evening traditional Thanksgiving buffet dinner at the Manhattan Club and an exclusive Breakfast with Santa on Friday morning. Guests will receive admission passes to several popular sites and attractions in the City, including the Empire State Building Observatory and the American Museum of Natural History, and special reduced rate parking coupons for Central Parking garages. All taxes and most gratuities are included in package prices. 

Space on NYCVP’s Thanksgiving Staycation is limited and must be reserved in advance. Bookings can be made at travel agencies, on the company’s website www.nyctrip.com or by phone at 877 NYC-TRiP. 

New York City Vacation Packages is a tour company devoted exclusively to leisure travel in the Big Apple. The company is a member of NYC & Company, the National Tour Association, American Society of Travel Agents, ASTA Tour Operator Program, Greater Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, New York State Travel and Vacation Association and the Better Business Bureau. 

New York City Vacation Packages (NYCVP) assures travel agents that they can book New York City packages for their clients without concern for the new Hotel Room Occupancy Tax for Room Remarketers law that went into effect on September 1.

“Our company is in compliance with regulations issued by the City regarding the application of the tax to room remarketers,” says Joel Cohen, NYCVP’s Vice President. “Our pricing includes all taxes on all features of the products we sell and we intend to remit the tax to the City as required by the law.

“Our recommendation to travel agents is stated on our website nyctrip.com: ‘…travel agents who book fully commissionable vacation packages through NYCVP should not be affected by the tax with respect to those packages so long as travel agents charge clients the NYCVP-quoted price for all FIT (non-group) bookings and do not add a service fee to the booking,’ Cohen explained. “For almost all of the FIT bookings that we handle, the travel agent does not have to do anything further regarding the tax, does not have to register with the City, does not have to remit any additional tax, and can simply collect his/her commission in full compliance.”

Although NYCVP disagrees strongly with the City’s new legislation, the company will comply with the law and has received their Certificate of Registration.  NYCVP, as a member of the ASTA TOP program and NTA, is joining both those organizations in urging the City to reconsider the tax as damaging to potential tourism business.

“Regardless of our position on the legislation and its very confusing procedures,” Cohen continued, “we feel it’s important for travel agents to understand that they do not need to register and do not need to remit tax to New York City if they purchase an FIT vacation package through NYCVP. We have included taxes on the entire retail cost of the hotel room so agents and customers are protected.”

New York City Vacation Packages is the largest independent tour company in the US selling New York City exclusively. The company can be contacted by phone at 877 NYC-TRiP or on the web at nyctrip.com.

While we agree in principle with ASTA’s position on the newly-implemented Hotel Room Occupancy Tax for Room Remarketers, we disagree with their interpretation of the law as it applies to travel retailers. In the ASTA Member Alert of September 3, 2009 they state

Under the new tax computation procedures, whenever a travel retailer purchases New York City vacation packages from other travel sellers and then sells the packages to their own clients without knowing the cost of the hotel component of the package, it must use the following method of collecting and remitting taxes - “a 15-percent markup on 70 percent of the average retail rate of a similar room … to compute additional rent.” 

That statement is correct in certain circumstances, but is misleading to travel agents who might book their New York City vacation packages with reputable tour companies who have registered with the City and who have already made proper arrangements to pay the additional markup tax. New York City Vacation Packages (NYCVP), an ASTA TOP member, is one such company who has already included the markup tax in the price quoted to the travel agent, and who will remit the tax to the City as specified in the City’s Statement of Audit Procedures.

Travel agents who book their clients’ vacation with NYCVP do not need to be concerned about the new tax law, so long as they charge clients the NYCVP-quoted commissionable price for all FIT (non-group) bookings and do not add a service fee to the booking. We further agree with ASTA's position that the interpretation of the tax is vague, confusing and generally unacceptable, but we are concerned that ASTA's interpretation will lead to even more confusion on the part of travel agents. We request that ASTA clarify the Alert so that travel agents can properly service their New York City-bound clients.

UPDATE 9/4/09 2pm: ASTA has informed us that they are changing the wording on their Alert based upon our recommendation. Thank you ASTA.

In June, 2008, when New York City was celebrating another record year for tourism into the City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted in the New York Sun, "We don’t want to have more taxes that would hurt the economic well-being of this city. For example, a tax on tourists is a terrible idea. We desperately need tourists from around the world. … Killing the golden goose is not a smart thing to do."

In the summer of 2009, when New York City tourism was declining for the first time in many years, the Mayor and city council made not one, but two announcements that directly conflicted with the Mayor’s “Killing the golden goose” statement. They asked, and were granted, permission from the State of New York to increase the sales tax one-half percent, effective August 1. Then they amended the City’s Hotel Occupancy Tax to require travel resellers to remit tax directly to the City on their markup, service fees and booking fees.

The upshot of these actions is pretty easy to determine: increased hotel cost paid by consumers, either upfront or at checkout.

The secondary effect, yet undetermined, is how travel agency commissions will be treated. If agency commissions are taxed too, as some believe they will be given the vague wording in the law’s recent amendment, then travel agents will be disinclined to sell New York City as a destination. Given that the City is the top selling destination in the US, and travel agents account for a significant portion of sales, the result could be catastrophic.

Paul Ruden, senior vice president for legal and industry affairs for the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) was quoted in the July 27 issue of Travel Weekly:

     "If we’re talking about a travel agent who earns a commission on a hotel room and [the commission is] going to get taxed on occupancy, [then] the same commission is being taxed two times, as income and as a hotel occupancy." He added that the same was true for any service fees or mark-ups agents apply to a New York hotel booking to generate income.

     "Our view of the occupancy tax ordinances is that they’re written in a way that captures things that were not intended," Ruden said. They are written, he added, by "people who don’t know about the industry who just want more money."

        And where would the “more money” come from? Obviously the consumer.

      Joel Cohen, Vice President for nyctrip.com, a tour company promoting tourism to the City, does not agree with the logic behind the City’s recent announcements. “Demand is down, so New York City decides, basically, to raise the price for tourists. Is that really wise? It’s Economics 1-0-uh oh. Then to compound the issue the City wants to make it more complicated and more expensive for a tour company, an online travel agency, or indeed anyone selling New York, to generate tourist business.

     “What happens when demand for New York City falls even more? Will the City continue to ask for increased contributions from travelers?” Cohen continued. “The long-range impact of their recent actions could mean a significant loss of travel-selling partners who have contributed greatly to the past success of the destination.”

      Instead, Cohen suggests, the City should invest more in encouraging tourists to take advantage of the benefits the City offers. “There are travel partners, like nyctrip.com, throughout the US who, with a little bit of help from the City, could provide a huge return. But instead of supporting their promotional partners with marketing dollars, they tax them.”

      Business travelers, too, are concerned. In a letter to Mayor Bloomberg the Business Travel Coalition stated in part, “The legal obligations, accounting complexities and audit and compliance requirements alone are overwhelming to contemplate. Add higher taxes to that and you have a recipe for economic disaster for NYC as a business travel and meetings destination. Organizations worldwide will drive business to other cities because of this new tax. NYC hotels will lose existing business during an unparalleled downturn in business travel demand; the city will lose jobs and revenues."

      With the amended law scheduled to go into effect on September 1, it is unknown how hotel resellers will react. As of August 1, the City’s finance department has yet to determine the regulations and procedures necessary to assure compliance.