9/11 Museum and Memorial, Central Park and Friends Experiences! / USA and Canada 2024

A rainy day in New York was a little emotional, starting with the 9/11 Museum and finishing with tears. 

Click here to watch the vlog or see below. 

With so much still to do, and only one day left, I headed to the 9/11 Museum bright and early at 8.30am. As the Big Bus Tour didn't start until 9am and wouldn't have arrived until gone 10am, I decided to get the Subway instead. I was one of the first people in the museum for the day and it was lovely and quiet walking around. It made such a difference because by the end of the visit, it was around 12pm I think and it was packed. 

I don't remember the 9/11, nor can I pretend to imagine what it would have been like to experience it. Watching the clips and seeing the damage is just surreal. It's crazy to imagine what happened and what the aftermath was, even though it happened in my lifetime. 

Afterwards, I headed outside to the 9/11 Memorial where it was quite special. The memorials are beautiful and it's a special place. I love the idea of the continual flow of water, the floor plan of the previously existing World Trade Centre buildings and that the names of so many individuals who lost their lives are documented forever more. 

Next door is the One Trade Centre building with the famous Top of the World Observatory. When I arrived, they explained there was zero visibility but I didn't realise there would be literally zero visibility. It was literally just cloud around the entire building and I was so disappointed. It was my own fault though because they were offering ticket date changes for everyone and informing them on arrival. I just didn't believe them...

I then got the Big Bus back to the first stop and switched to the downtown route. It was nice to see the less touristy side to New York and it also stopped next to Central Park. I wanted to experience the Friends world so badly so I was very excited, but at this point the already miserable weather got so much worse and chucked it down. I got absolutely drenched walking around and whilst I hid under a tree and then a bridge for 10 minutes, I decided to just embrace the weather as I was already soaked. 

With the weather and the cloud, there was no point in me doing the Edge and other observatories so instead I looked for another attraction I could do that was covered by my pass, and hopefully indoors so I could dry off a little. I decided on Rise NY because I love the 7D flyover experiences in cities, but this was even more. There was a little art exhibit to begin with, then a historical immersion experience on the subway, before a mini museum like area. I loved the on-theme Friends sofa area and the interactive areas. They also had clips and costumes from multiple Broadway shows. 

The 7D experience was perfect. It was so so good and even had a little storyline as we were meant to be television audience for the New Year's Times Square Ball Drop. It was quite a fun little experience and afterwards I headed to the real Times Square to say goodbye just one more time.