Cost: $25/adult $15/child
Official URL: nywatertaxi.com
Age Range: All Ages
Event Date: Daily through October 13. (CHECK TOUR SCHEDULE FOR CHANGES)
Times: Monday/Wednesday: 5:30-9PM, Tuesday/Thursday-Sunday 12:30-9PM
Rating:

If you want to go on a tour with young children, this is the tour to choose. Short, sweet, and on a big yellow boat, it’s pretty much guaranteed to keep their interest no matter how young they are. They (and you) will get to see the beautiful park that stretches along the southern tip of Manhattan, Liberty State Park, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, Governor’s Island, and the Brooklyn shoreline, as well as four man-made waterfalls. But you’ll have to hurry, the waterfalls are only here until October 13. The tour itself is fun, informative, and delivered in a very “New York” style that even New Yorkers themselves will enjoy.

THE TOUR

The Waterfalls Tour covers roughly the same ground as the Water Taxi “Statue of Liberty Express” tour.

The tour starts out at the South Street Seaport Pier 17, wraps around the southern edge of Manhattan past Battery Park, crosses the harbor and follows the New Jersey side along past Liberty State Park, out to the Statue of Liberty. Here the boat idles for a nice long time which gives you plenty of time for snapshot opportunities. After this, the boat passes Governor’s Island, and comes back up along the Brooklyn shoreline. The boat passes under the Brooklyn Bridge close enough to the falls for you to feel the spray, which is sure to garner squeals of delight from your children. (To best experience this, come early and get seats on the right side of the top deck of the boat.)

ABOUT THE WATERFALLS

The Waterfalls are commissioned by the Public Art Fund and created by Olafur Eliasson, a Danish artist known for large scale works of art. They range in height from 90 to 120 feet tall and are built using construction materials common in NYC such as scaffolding. There are four waterfalls located at various points on the East River in southern Manhattan.

THE TOUR GUIDE

NY Water Taxi can easily win the prize for tours with “local flavor”.  They utilize live tour guides rather than recordings, and their tour guides are NYC natives. Our young tour guide was an enthusiastic host that began the tour by asking the crowd of about 40 people where they were from, and responded with any tidbit of reply wherever possible. This enthusiasm continued throughout the tour often making us think he was trying out for jobs as game show host in his off hours.

His over-exuberance was certainly tempered by his historical knowledge. There was barely a moment that was left un-narrated. Most of it was filled in with historical and other fact(oid)s relating to the history of lower Manhattan, the original Dutch colonies that founded it, the changing over of control from one historical governor to the next, battles fought for it and various people that called it home.

As we turned north toward Brooklyn our guide’s enthusiasm took a big step up even higher. It seems he is a native Brooklynite and a firm believer that the best pizza, seafood and people all come from that specific borough. Never mind that his rattling off of Brooklyn celebrities was mostly a listing of people now mostly retired (Streisand, Hamlisch, etc.).

SAFETY

The crew of NY Water Taxi is very safety-conscious. Strollers are allowed on the taxi but need to be folded and stashed on the lower level of the water taxi. At the start of the tour the guide will go through safety rules. Life vests are stashed under the seats, and the water taxis themselves are all very well maintained. As I boarded and un-boarded the water taxi carrying my 21 month old son in my arms, very friendly crew members reminded me to watch my step and were ready to help me if it seemed I needed assistance.

The only slight safety concern that I would note is that while waiting to board the line is down a small flight of steps on a walkway that has a safety rail. The safety rail juts out over the edge of the walkway slightly, and the bottom of the safety rail is about a half foot above the walkway. This creates a gap that you should be aware of while waiting in line with children. This is by no means the fault of NY Water Taxi, and is something that should be addressed by the Seaport.

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

A number of precautionary measures have been taken to make sure that the waterfalls are environmentally safe. The pumps that move water up into the falls are low velocity pumps that make use of mesh-covered intake filter pools to protect fish and other aquatic wildlife. The hours of the waterfall operation were also recently reduced to minimize the impact on local foliage. The electricity that powers the falls is 100% offset by “Green Power” which is electricity generated from renewable resources, and the lights that back light the falls at night are LEDs which draw less power than other types of lighting sources.

The NY Water Taxi uses boats that have low-emission engines, low-wake hulls and hospital-grade mufflers.

BOTTOM LINE

This tour is wonderful for the kids if you go during the day, or great for a parents-night out on the adults only evening tours.

Tip: Even though you have a great view from all over the boat, the right side of the boat tends to get the closest to the falls and to the shoreline. Arrive a half hour or more in advance of your tour time in order to score the best seats.