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Doing the Statue of Liberty
'Crown Access' Tour
As with all tourist activities, a bit of good planning goes a long way - especially with something as
security sensitive as this. My handy guide, based on recent experience, will tell you everything you
need to know - including a few photo opportunities that you may otherwise not think of!
Booking
If you've set your heart on doing the Crown Access tour, and not just visiting the island, the first
thing you need to know is that you have to plan ahead. You can't just show up on Liberty Island and
expect to get all the way to the top - in fact, you can't even get as far as the Pedestal without some
prior planning. Since 9/11, security for visiting the Statue of Liberty has become far tighter, and
particularly with the Crown, as they are only able to get so many people up to the top in a given time
period. Which means there are only so many places per day.
In reality you probably need to buy your tickets online at least two
months in advance, and even further ahead in peak season. There are
a number of different sites you can use - just Google 'Crown Access
Statue of Liberty tickets' to find one - but we opted for
www.statuecruises.com as they are the tour operator that runs the
boats. From here, you can book just the boat trip, the boat trip plus
Pedestal Access, or the boat trip plus Crown Access. We booked in
March for May, and at the time of writing this, in late June, the first
available ticket is for 9th September!
The cost includes an audio guide and is currently $21 for ages 12+, $12
for 4 to 12 year olds and $17 for seniors - which they class as 62+. This
is based on travelling from Battery Park at the South end of Manhattan
- although trips from Liberty State Park, New Jersey are also available. Only four tickets per
household (card holder) can be purchased, so if you are a larger group, you will need to buy 2 sets
simultaneously to guarantee getting the same slot. Note that children have to be 4ft tall and able to
climb the steps alone, as they are too narrow to carry anyone or anything.
As outlined above, options include just the boat trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, without any
Statue access; access as far as the Pedestal, and full Crown Access – but of course these are the
tickets that are far more difficult to get hold of.
The Pedestal is not a bad intermediate option if you can't get
Crown tickets on the date you need. It's surprising until you
actually look at it, but the Pedestal is about half of the total height
of the overall structure! So you still get a really good view, and
certainly a very unusual view of the Statue itself, which you
couldn't possibly get anywhere else.
Once you've bought your tickets online, you need to print out the
necessary paperwork with the barcode on it, and bring this with
you on the day of your visit. You will also find that they specify a
range of tour start times, which are generally on the hour, and this
is done to spread out the volume of visitors throughout the day
and minimise queues.
But as the boats run regularly, if you prefer to arrive earlier - as we
did - this didn't seem to be a problem. Bear in mind though that the last time for Crown Access is
3.30 in the afternoon, so do not leave it too late or you may not be able to do the tour, even if you
have the right ticket.
Boats run backwards and forwards from Battery Park all day, and if you don't want to do Ellis Island
as well after your Statue visit, then you do not have to - you can just stay on the boat and go all the
way back to Manhattan.
Getting there
The easiest way to get to Battery Park is by the subway on the red line - either the 1 or 9 train to
South Ferry. But be aware, to exit at South Ferry for Battery Park you need to be in the front five
coaches of the train. They do make announcements about this, and there are also markers on the
station platform. The other nearby station is Bowling Green on the green line - you'll need the 5 train
- which is about an extra 10 minute walk.
When you exit the South Ferry subway station, walk straight ahead through the park and you will see
the Statue Cruises boats on your left. Carry straight on - about a three minute walk - to the large
circular brick building which should now be on your right. The ticket collection points, and ticket
purchase points, are in the centre of this building in an open courtyard. When we visited on a sunny
afternoon in May, the queue of people who had not already bought a ticket was all the way round
the block and back through the park - so I would highly recommend getting there early, or buying
tickets online beforehand – even if you only want to do the boat trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island.
Assuming you have bought your tickets in advance, simply go to the ticket collection window which
is on the left hand end of the row, show them your printout, and they will exchange this for your
tickets. One thing to mention, if you happen to be in the area in advance, you can collect boat tickets
and also Pedestal tickets on previous days - but that you can only collect Crown Access tickets on the
day of the trip. I believe this is to avoid them being resold illegally.
Take your tickets and join the queue near the quay, to go through security before getting on the
boat. This is a fairly complex process and very similar to getting on an aircraft! You'll probably have
to wait in a queue for about 20 minutes more, and then all of your bags and anything else you are
carrying goes into X-ray machines, exactly as it would if you were in an airport. My advice is not to
take anything with you that you think they might have even the slightest objection to!
Maximising your experience
Once you've been through security, you will be able to get on the
boat, and this will take you to Liberty Island first. The upper deck
fills up fast, so if you happen to get through security at a point
where they are just about to start filling up a new boat, it is
worth getting on board as speedily as you can, then going to the
top deck and heading towards the front.
I cannot guarantee that it would be the same for every trip, but
on the one that we did, the best views of the Statue as you
approach were from the right hand side of the boat, if you're
facing forward.
When you arrive at Liberty Island, you can choose to wander
around and take photos first, or go straight into the Statue and
then take photographs and see everything else afterwards. The order in which you do this should
really depend on how much time you have before they close access to the Pedestal and Crown, and
also what you think the weather and the light might do – as you want to get the best photos that
you possibly can!
Access to the Statue itself is to a doorway on the right hand side as you enter the souvenir/entrance
tent. One thing to be very careful of, we showed our Crown Access tickets to the security officer in
the doorway, and he glanced at them and waved us through without checking the type of tickets we
had - just assuming they were the more common Pedestal ones. As we'd had the issue with not
being able to pick them up early, as you can with the other tickets, I wanted to be sure he
understood that we had Crown Access tickets, in case there was a different procedure.
It was fortunate that I did, as when I pointed this out, he gave us a wristband - similar to the kind
that you get in theme parks. Without this, we would not have been able to go to the Crown, and by
the time anyone had realised, we would have been standing in
another queue for about 20 minutes, and it would have been far
too late to go back to get the wristbands.
Anyway, once you have successfully acquired your wristbands,
you will then join the queue in a holding area - another tent - with
all of the people who are also going to the Pedestal. This is slightly
annoying as I was hoping that, as we had paid extra for Crown
Access, we would get some type of preferential treatment and a
separate queue, but this was not the case.
However, because access to both the Crown and Pedestal is
limited, there are only ever certain number of people who will
be visiting, so the queues never get that bad.
The Pedestal visit
Once you are through the main queuing area – for us it was
about another 20 minutes – you come into the main entrance
foyer at the bottom of the Statue. As you walk through an
open courtyard between the queuing zone and the doors into
this area, remember to look up, as you will see straight up the
back of the Statue, a view that cannot be seen anywhere else.
Once you reach the entrance hall at the bottom of the Statue,
there is a full sized replica of the torch, and this is also worth
taking pictures of. At this point you have a choice of walking
up 200 steps to the Pedestal or taking the lift. Again, when we
visited, the lift queue was very short, and it was definitely
worth doing this – but that may not always be the case.
Bearing in mind when making your decision that it's a further
154 steps from the pedestal to the Crown!
It is definitely worth stopping at Pedestal level and going out to walk around the top. The views are
excellent, especially back towards the lower Manhattan skyline, with the new Freedom Tower. This
is also a great spot to get some nice holiday snaps with the skyline in the background. Lastly, as
before, don't forget to look up and take a photograph
from each corner of the pedestal – again, this is a totally
unique view of the Statue that you cannot see anywhere
else.
Onwards to the Crown
Once you've had a good look around at this level, it's time
to brave the climb to the top! When you go back inside,
remember to look up through the glass ceiling of the foyer
area, which gives you a view straight up the inside of the
Statue, including a view of the spiral staircase.
It is worth mentioning that this staircase to the Crown is very narrow, very tight and very small. My
partner is 6'4" and quite broad and he made it, but only just - and he had to keep his head bent the
whole way. All 154 steps! You may also want to think twice about doing this if you're claustrophobic,
as it really does feel as if it is getting smaller and smaller, and narrower and narrower, as you get
nearer the top.
Something you may not be aware of is that the top of the Statue, in effect inside the head, is
probably much, much smaller than you might imagine. Looking at the arched windows I had
imagined them to be three or four feet high, and that you could simply stand and look out of them
with the bottom of the windows at around waist height. How wrong I was! In reality the windows
are probably about a foot high at the most – possibly even 10" – and you have to almost kneel down
to look out of them.
The staff on duty are very good at allowing people to stay as long as they want, in order to take as
many pictures as they can, but the reality is that there is a stream of people coming up behind you so there is a limit to the amount of time you can stand there before you start to get in the way, and
it becomes unfair for others. In reality you cannot fit more than about six people in front of the
windows at any one time. I think we were in there for about 10 minutes, and that was probably
pushing it!
Photo opportunities
The shots you want to try and get here include of course a view of the skyline through the windows
– bearing in mind they are quite grubby – although the staff did let me hold my camera out of one of
the open windows as long as I had a strap round my neck. Then of course you need to take shots of
any travelling companions with the row of windows in the background to show where you were –
although at this point it's quite difficult to get an exposure that gives you any kind of view out of the
window at the same time, as it is quite dark in the head of
the statue.
The other shot not to miss – again if the windows are
open, and the staff let you – is to hold your camera out of
the window and pointed straight down or up. I got some
excellent shots of the ground beneath us this way, as well
as close-ups of the book with the date of independence
on it, and the arm leading up towards the torch.
I would only recommend doing this with a camera when
you have a wrist or neck strap – and not with a smart phone, as it would be far too easy to drop it!
Plus the staff do frown upon this quite heavily and will stop you if they see you trying to do it, as it's
a potential health hazard for people below as well! Lastly, make sure you get a shot of the spikes of
the crown, which are literally just above you.
Coming back down
Once you've has a good look at at the view, appreciated
the historic spot on which you're standing, and taken a
huge amount of satisfaction finally achieving this travel
'must do' – then comes the descent. An equally tricky
and precarious process. Remembering of course to look
at the inside of the face on the way down.
This again is a really good photo opportunity of the eyes,
nose and mouth in relief – almost like a negative –
bearing in mind that there is quite a bit of scaffolding
and internal framework in the way!
Once you reach ground level again, don't forget to take another photo of the Statue - however many
you've already taken. This will be the first time that you can look at the Crown, take a deep breath
and say - 'I did that'.
© Gill Taylor