As we’ve just passed the vernal equinox and the days will get increasingly shorter (sad, but true!), this will become a bona fide Harbor Lights cruise in September with sunset times between 7:30 and 6:40. The boat’s departure will change to 6 p.m. on September 27 through the end of the Waterfalls exhibition, October 13.
The vessel seats about 400 with indoor and outdoor seating on both the main and upper decks but your best bet for waterfall viewing is the main bow deck which opens about 15 minutes after departure, weather permitting, with a notification from the cruise announcer. The deck quickly floods with eager photographers so be ready to make a dash and park yourself on the starboard side for optimal viewing of the Statue of Liberty and Governors Island, Brooklyn Piers 4 & 5 and Brooklyn Bridge falls. When the ship turns around for the trip downriver, you’ll be set up to check out the Manhattan Pier 35 falls without having to sally across the crowded deck.
Leaving from Pier 83 at West 42nd, the 2-hour cruise makes a half-circle around the island of Manhattan, arriving at the Governors Island waterfall at 7:55 p.m.. The second waterfall at Brooklyn Piers 4 & 5 follows immediately and although the ship doesn’t get as close to this one as to the other three, the sun’s reflection off the buildings of Brooklyn Heights more than makes up for it. The Brooklyn Bridge falls is next on the starboard side and the approach offers choice views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, the falls, the East River and Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park.
The Manhattan Pier 35 falls is next up on the port side at about 8:10 p.m. Depending on the progression of daylight savings, this is a great photo op to catch the sunset behind the Manhattan Bridge and the Municipal Building.
The cruise advances north an additional 20 blocks or so with great views of Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront and the Empire State Building before turning around and heading back down river. The return trip affords another pass at the Manhattan Pier 35 and Brooklyn Bridge falls but the Brooklyn Piers 4 & 5 and Governors Island falls are just a little too far off for the standard digital camera lens, as the ship hugs the Manhattan coastline on its trip back to Pier 83 on the Hudson.
The ship sells beer and wine for $6.50, plus snacks and other beverages from $2 to $7. You can drink alcohol anywhere on board and there is a smoking area on the main deck port side. If you’re on deck to watch the crew tie up at the pier, check out their awesome nautical knots.
Onboard, the ship’s announcer, warned that cabs can be rare at the pier late in the evening. Upon exiting, there were a few limo drivers and pedi-cabs, but your nearest subway is the A/C/E at 42nd and 8th.
Tickets can be reserved online, by phone at (212) 563-3200, or purchased at the pier. Circle Line recommends you arrive 45 minutes prior to departure time.
Also note that this Circle Line cruise is operated by Circle Line at 42nd Street, sometimes called Circle Line uptown. It’s a different company than Circle Line downtown, which operates its own waterfalls cruises, including the shorter, free one.
NYC & Co. has revived the third-night free hotel deal for the summer, offering just what the name implies at The New York Palace Hotel, Hotel Plaza Athénée New York; Jumeirah Essex House; Loews Regency Hotel; The London NYC; The Plaza; The Sherry-Netherland Hotel; The St. Regis Hotel, New York; Trump International Hotel & Tower; and the Waldorf Towers.
The Premier Hotel, (formerly The Premier at Millennium Broadway,) said it has re-launched and now has a Women Travelers Floor.
The schedule posted on the NY Water Taxi website lists two morning departures from Pier 11 at Wall Street and two return trips from Rockaway.
The morning boats will leave Manhattan at 9:15 and 11:45 a.m. while the afternoon boats leave the beach at 2:30 and 5 p.m. There’s one stop in both directions at the Brooklyn Army Terminal.
The service is scheduled to start July 4 and will run through September 1, according to the website for the National Park Service, which operates the beach and surrounding Jamaica Bay wildlife area.
Eliasson's NYC Waterfalls officially on through Oct. 13
For 110 days, artist Olafur Eliasson’s New York City Waterfalls will pump 35,000 gallons of water per minute up and over four man-made towers – including one taller than the Statue of Liberty – inviting the public to the waterfront to not only explore the installation, but to have a good think.
“I don’t want the quantifiable elements of this project to be out in front of the unquantifiable,” Eliasson said Thursday during the Circle Line Downtown’s inaugural waterfalls cruise. While water can evoke dreams, it also has a very tangible side: “You get wet if you get into it,” he said.
And while you can’t swim under Eliasson’s waterfalls, you can approach them by boat, bike, on foot, or ponder them from the bridges or new bars and cafes set up just for the waterfalls. Two-years in the making, the Public Art Fund raised $13.5 million from private donors plus $2 million from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, acquired more than 20 permits and arranged for 270 tons of scaffolding (which was erected by the same guys who normally erect scaffolding around new York City buildings.) Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city’s Economic Development Corp. estimates the tourism boost will contribute $55 million to the city’s economy. (And yes, the international media were going bonkers at Thursday’s launch events.)
The exhibition consists of four waterfalls:
Under the Brooklyn Bridge at the Brooklyn-side anchorage (80 feet wide, 90 feet high)
Piers 4 and 5 in below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade (30 feet wide, 120 feet high)
(For reference, if they were buildings, they’d be nine to 12 stories each. The Statue of Liberty is 111 feet tall from her heel to her top.)
The waterfalls, here through October 13, will be turned on daily at 7 a.m. (but not until 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and remain on until 10 p.m. nightly. They’ll be lit up after sunset. However, they may have to be turned off during extreme winds, storms or a heat wave.
Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist, has been coming to New York since the 1980s. He’s well known for his large scale, often environmental works. He’s written an artist statement for NYC Waterfalls; two excerpts:
“When water flows down the East River, we tend to see it as a simple surface, framed by a neutral urban waterfront. By elevating it into waterfalls, I wish to amplify its physical and tangible presence while exposing the dynamics of natural forces such as gravity, wind, and daylight. My idea is to encourage people to identify more with the waterfront of New York City; this is a call for the revitalization of areas that until recently have been under-utilized as creative and recreational spaces because people have focused primarily on the interior grid of the City. There is a huge unrealized potential waiting to be explored and this is located right at our feet.”
“The Waterfalls appear in the midst of the dense social, environmental, and political tissue that makes up the heart of the City. They will give people the opportunity to reconsider their relationships to the spectacular surroundings. I hope to evoke experiences that are both individual and enhance a sense of collectivity: the Waterfalls will invite people to explore them on their own, but due to their size and locations, they will also generate expectations, opinions, and actions that can be shared. This relationship between individual experiences and the social contest is crucial for me. I believe that by seeing a work of art – a waterfall for instance – we become co-producers of the work and its social context. Taking part in this type of collaboration requires that we take responsibility within the city that we live.”
Eliasson’s waterfalls philosophy echoes some things he said in April at the Museum of Modern Art at the opening of his “Take Your Time” exhibition (which closes June 30.) His press conference there was held in a room dominated by an electrical fan on a rope arcing erratically around the room. He wondered aloud what affected the direction of the fan’s swings – does the temperature, the number of people in the room and their body heat, possibly change the artwork? “Maybe that turbulence constitutes the space,” he said. “It’s a dialogue between you and the space.”
At MoMA, the title of the exhibition itself asks the viewers to slow down, take your time, and think about your surroundings. “If you step out of commoditized time, you step into yourself.”
Likewise at the waterfalls on Thursday, Eliasson said “this is not about consuming a space. It’s about using a space. To evaluate your relationship to it.”
And like the swinging fan, the waterfalls change – with the wind, the tide, the clouds, the sun and moon, the temperature and even the passing boats. “This is something you want to see several times,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday. “It’s going to expand minds and give us a lot to think about.”
In this video clip, Eliasson explains how the waterfalls work and riffs on their sustainable aspects:
Yes, everyone's drowning in NYC Waterfalls coverage today, so here are some quick bits you may not already know. ...
The waterside decks of the South Street Seaport afford views of all four waterfalls.
But if you want to eat and drink while contemplating their meaning, head to the Seaport's new outdoor Waterfall Cafe that boasts views of all four falls. An offshoot of nearby Sequoia, they open at noon daily, seven days a week. Closing time depends on the weather and business -- sometimes 10:30 p.m., or earlier. Burgers, ($10,) salads, ($7 to $18,) mussels, ($9,) desserts ($6.50,) beer ($6 or $7,) wine ($8 by the glass/$26 by the bottle,) and margaritas ($9) are all on offer.
Directly across the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy today opened Pier 1 as a park that will be open daily 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Labor Day. The pop-up park juts 315 feet into the river just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. It's home to a café operated by Rice, (which told NewYorkology they have a beer and wine permit for the site,) and is outfitted with picnic tables, benches, bike racks, trees, grass and a sandy area. Pier 1 park will get its own free shuttle bus from June 27 through Labor Day, with stops at Borough Hall and High Street at Cadman Plaza West. Shuttle hours: Fridays 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays noon to 10:30 p.m.
Bike and Roll will be offering a twice-daily bicycle tour of the waterfalls. They depart from the South Street Seaport at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. for a two and a half hour ride that goes over the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, making eight to 10 stops. Normally $40, those tours are free this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Call (212) 260-0400 to reserve a spot.
Starting Friday, you can call the city's 311 information line and listen to artist Olafur Eliasson talk about his waterfalls, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during this morning's news conference.
The waterfalls will be turned on daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. except Tuesdays and Thursdays when they will run from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Summer Restaurant Week set for July 21 to August 1
Reservations are now open for Summer Restaurant Week, which this year will run from July 21 through August 1, except on weekends.
The deal gets you a a seat at some of New York's best restaurants for a three-course prix fixe lunch for $24.07, or dinner for $35. Tax, tip and drinks cost extra.
Participating restaurants include Del Posto, Le Cirque, Cipriani Wall Street, 21 Club, Bar Boulud, Telepan, Chanterelle, Delmonico's, 11 Madison Park, Le Colonial, Aquavit, Tabla, Craftbar, Asiate, Blue Fin, Carnegie Deli, The Carlyle Restaurant, Gallagher's, Indochine, Calle Ocho, Esca, Kittichai, Gordon Ramsay, Water Club, River Cafe, Tavern on the Green, and Terrace in the Sky.
Many of the tables can be booked for free on Open Table, which is also an easy way to see which restaurants have openings at the time you want to go.
HotelChatter flags a great booking bargain: Quikbook has quality NYC hotels for under $200.
Tablet Hotels current NYC offers include 6 Columbus from $255, Bryant Park Hotel from $289 and SoHo House from $525.
The Standard, "coming soonish" offers lovely eye candy courtesy its webcam (right.)
Thompson LES hopes to open July 22, according to HotelChatter.com.
Morgans plans to reopen September 16 after renovations with rooms from $599, according to the hotel's website.
There are five potential new hotels on tap for the Gowanus Canal neighborhood already home to Hotel Le Bleu, the Holiday Inn Express and the Comfort Inn, according to the Brooklyn Paper.
Bloomberg quotes a Lodging Econometrics report that says 55 hotels are in the works for Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and New Jersey's Hudson County.
A Smith Travel Research study found that 91 percent of hotels surveyed now offer wi-fi and that only 15 percent of them are charging for Internet access, the Associated Press reports. bad news for the rich: "charges for Internet access were most common at more expensive properties."
You can get a $30 TV dinner at the Loews Regency Hotel, according to the New York Times.
The NYC City Council wants to bump up the hotel tax to 8 percent, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg says no. "International tourism is down throughout our country something like 17 percent. It is up 9 percent in New York. Killing the golden goose is not a smart thing to do," he's quoted in the NY Sun.
Free NYC Waterfalls cruises on Circle Line Downtown
Circle Line Downtown, which will be operating the "official" cruises of the artist Olafur Eliasson's NYC Waterfalls once they officially start running Thursday, will be offering a limted number of free tickets on most of its 30-minute cruises this summer.
"In the spirit of public art, Circle Line Downtown and the Public Art Fund are making these tickets available so that everyone has an opportunity to experience the Waterfalls," a Circle Line spoksewoman told NewYorkology via e-mail today.
The free tickets will be available on all of the 30-minute cruises on board Circle Line's Zephyr and Patriot boats through the duration of the exhibition (October 13.) The regular price for the 30-minute waterfalls cruises are $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and $5 for children. The free offer's not good on the company's Shark speedboat, or waterfalls cruises of longer durations.
Free tickets are first come, first serve and you can only get the tickets by calling (866) 925-4631. One order per household. They're accepting orders now.
Also note the freebie offer is only for Circle Line downtown, which is not the same company as Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises (or Circle Line/Circle Line Uptown/Circle Line 42nd Street, as they are sometimes called.) Circle Line Sightesing, however, is among the other companies offering waterfalls cruises, along with the NY Water Taxi and on the yacht Manhattan.
See the Tropolism blog for the latest renderings of the pop-up park that will open near the Brooklyn Bridge to allow for great waterfalls views.
And here's two more NYC Waterfalls hotel packages:
The Carlyle waterfall package inlcudes buffet breakfast, a one-hour cruise and cover charge and signature cocktails at Bemelmans Bar.
All W hotels in NYC are offering a waterfalls package that comes with NY Water Taxi vouchers, Bliss Sunscreen and a pair of cocktails.
Riders on the NY Water Taxi's new free shuttle to Ikea in Brooklyn are getting more than they bargained for -- free waterfall previews.
The guys over at NY Water Taxi just sent NewYorkology a few pictures taken this morning of the Governors Island waterfall - now with water. It looks like artist Olafur Eliasson's team is running more tests in advance of the official June 26 debut of his NYC Waterfalls.
