One huge thing we learned during our trip to New York was that we got hustled. I wish I had trusted my gut that it was a tourist trap, but we went with it. I am going to share all about our experience with an NYC Statue of Liberty boat scam that is going on when you try to catch the free ferry. Hopefully, you’ll learn from our mistake and not have this happen to you.
We had grabbed the subway in the morning to a station near Bowling Green. While walking to the ferry terminal to catch the free ferry to Staten Island, we got stopped almost immediately by the guy in the photo above that say “runner” on the back. Now, do keep in mind that the Staten Island ferry is FREE. That is actually another hustle that many do to scam tourists. They try to make people think they have to pay for a ticket to ride the ferry. They “sell” them a ticket to go on, but it’s fake and not needed. Read on to find out more about the scam we found ourselves caught in.
DON’T GET CAUGHT BY THIS NYC SCAM
Basically, he started chatting us up asking where we were going and as we kept trying to walk away. He kept doing everything to pull us back in and get our attention. What worked was the fact that he said we could go on a boat tour and see the Statue of Liberty closer up and not from a jam-packed ferry. We asked the ticket price and were told $35 each and that there was bus ready to leave immediately for the dock. That the boat would be leaving soon.
DON’T LISTEN TO THE GUY, JUST KEEP WALKING AWAY
We didn’t ask that question or any others. For whatever reason, we decided to just go for it. We followed the runner to where the bus was waiting and paid for our tickets, which did not cost $35 each. They were $40 each. The runner stated that they also have to charge some sort of bus fee which isn’t included in the price of the boat tour. I am so thankful we had cash and did not give them any sort of credit card information!
Leaving to go to another boat dock should have been an instant clue. We were already right by a ferry terminal and boat dock area. Why did we have to go somewhere else by bus?
The bus ride ended up taking us away from where we had taken the subway to and over to New Jersey! You guys, we freaking went by bus all the way to New Jersey. We rode the bus through the Hollan Tunnel to New Jersey. This was when the red flags really started to happen for us. Maybe it was because we were overly tired by this point of our trip in New York that we didn’t clue in sooner, or maybe the runner did that good of a job of talking us into it.
A WHOLE LOT OF WAITING
By the time we got to the boat and boarded, we realized that another busload had already been brought there and waiting for an hour. The boat definitely wasn’t full when we boarded, we immediately realized that we were going to be waiting an hour or so ourselves. This was another instant red flag.
We were right. We didn’t depart the boat dock until 11 am. If we had gone on the free ferry, we would have been there and back again! At this point we were freezing cold as there were no blankets, we were sitting and waiting on the outside of the boat because it wasn’t any warmer inside. Neither of us had dressed to just be sitting in the cold, we had expected to be walking around, moving, and staying warm from that. We were also hungry because we hadn’t had breakfast yet. We thought we would find a little cafe on the way to the ferry terminal.
The boat we were on had not been well maintained. There were areas blocked off with caution tape. The washrooms could have used tending to. There was food and by food, I mean snack food that was overpriced and likely purchased in bulk from Costco. We did grab some snacks, but not until the end of the boat tour when we were starving because it was well after lunch time and we hadn’t had breakfast that morning. We also didn’t eat the snacks until we were on the bus departing after the tour.
SOME GOOD DID COME FROM THIS RIDICULOUS EXPERIENCE
The only truly good thing about this ridiculous experience, and crazy boat tour scam, was that we would see the Statue of Liberty much closer than if we had gone on the ferry. Our boat went past the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the Lower Manhattan Skyline. The only thing the runner didn’t lie about was that we would see these much closer than if we went on the ferry.
We saw the ferry go by and it was so full of people that there was no way anyone on there would be able to move to even get a decent photo of anything they passed by. While our boat tour definitely was not ideal, it was not to capacity when we were on the boat. Everyone did go to the outside boat deck when we got near the Statue of Liberty, but you could move around within reason. My husband was able to get some beautiful photos on his actual camera (the three immediately below, the rest of the photos in this post are from my cell phone).
Being near those landmarks was the one and only highlight of the whole scam. Would we ever recommend listing to the runners that are preying on tourists? Definitely not! Run far, far away! Would we recommend booking some sort of boat tour? Definitely! Do your research and find a credible boat tour that goes to the same sights. After going we learned about some tours that do sunset cruises, that would have been beautiful to experience. That is now on our New York bucket list if we ever have the opportunity to go again.
WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOU GET BACK TO THE DOCK?
Thankfully, my husband and I both had the same thought after witnessing only one bus dropping people off. We knew we needed to get to the deck where we loaded from and wait at the door as we were docking. We did not want to be last off of the boat for fear of being stuck at the boat dock for another hour or more, waiting for a bus.
As soon as we realized the boat was heading back, we went back downstairs to the loading dock and waiting by the door. Soon after that whole level was full of people who had the exact same idea we did. No one wanted to spend any longer than they had to on that boat. We were within the first 5 people off the boat and went straight to the bus that was waiting to load.
We passed a large group of people all waiting for their turn out on the boat for their own cruise. Little did they know what the experience was really going to be. Had they been tricked like all of us? Most definitely. Hopefully, they saw some goodness in it like we did and got that much-wanted photo opportunity.
The bus also did not take us back to where we had been picked up from. Instead, we ended up getting off near the Oculus. There was a Target nearby that we popped into so we could warm up and find a scarf and gloves for me to wear. Thankfully, because we were in this area we were able to see the World Trade Center Memorial and get some fantastic food for lunch. More on that to come in another post.
HAD TO EXPERIENCE ALL OF NEW YORK
I guess we can truly say we experienced all of New York if that includes falling for a scam. It wasn’t ideal at all. The waiting sucked. The lies about price were not okay. We did get to see some key landmarks and get photos. I will take the positive from the negative. Save your money and invest it in a legit boat cruise, or just take the free ferry, please!
If you see a guy wearing a similar shirt in the photo above that says “runner” on it, do just that: RUN AWAY!
I also still have riding the free Staten Island ferry to do on my New York bucket list. I’ve seen it in all the cheesy movies, hopefully some day I’ll get to go. Even if it is packed to capacity like we saw from our boat. Then I can say I’ve taken the ferry and learned my own lesson.
Oh no, what a shame but at least you got some wonderful pictures of the Statue of Liberty. Thanks for the heads up!
Oh no!! At least you made the best of it. Thank you for sharing and letting people know what to look out for.