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dinotars
Senior Member
Username: Dinotars
Post Number: 6555
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 173.169.151.24
| | Posted on Monday, April 12, 2010 - 12:57 am: | |
Very nice accomodations for a visit to NYC. |
Margie Weathers
Advanced Member
Username: Margie
Post Number: 399
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 64.85.186.5
| | Posted on Sunday, April 11, 2010 - 08:09 pm: | |
My husband was stationed at Ft Wadsworth in the 70's when it was an Army post. We lived in a huge (but not grand) old house, with about seven acres of open space. Great place for families, and just a ferry ride away from Manhattan. We loved it there. |
Karen Yan
Advanced Member
Username: Karenyan
Post Number: 323
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 76.180.24.113
| | Posted on Sunday, April 11, 2010 - 03:22 pm: | |
Melinda, what an excellent report!!! Thank you. I always wondered what that place was like. If there's vacancy, it sounds like a great place to comfortably stay and be able to bring few others. |
neal floyd
Advanced Member
Username: Nfloyd
Post Number: 207
Registered: 09-2007
Posted From: 67.233.135.84
| | Posted on Sunday, April 11, 2010 - 01:54 am: | |
Excellent review. It is so much nicer to read a review like this than some reviews that give very little good info. Thanks |
Melinda Cardarelli
Advanced Member
Username: Jmcard
Post Number: 387
Registered: 06-2007
Posted From: 72.49.218.166
| | Posted on Sunday, April 11, 2010 - 01:23 am: | |
My family and friends spent five nights here over spring break. To sum it up, this is a quirky place—a historic two-unit house on a Coast Guard base, inside a park, on an island, and a ferry ride away from most attractions. Now for the details:
Reservations: Made through Coast Guard MWR (718-354-4407) last May for this April--Easter weekend plus a few days. We rented both sides of the guesthouse, with my family of four taking the 3-bedroom unit ($99 per night). We had no trouble renting the other side, a 2-bedroom, for our friends, a non-military couple ($94). We paid in full at the time of reservation.
Getting there: We flew commercially into Newark airport, rented a car, and then drove to Fort Wadsworth in less than 30 minutes. Directions provided by MWR were easy to follow. Crossing the Gothels Bridge to Staten Island cost $8 and we paid another toll of 60 cents. There is a gate at the entrance to the Fort but no ID check because it is run by the National Park Service. We picked up our keys and a packet of information at the MWR office and were in our place by 2:00. Official check in time is 3:00.
The guesthouse: You get a lot of space for the money! Our kids each had a bedroom with two single beds, and the larger master bedroom has a TV and queen-sized bed. So you could sleep six in this unit if you could all share the one bathroom, which is also upstairs. Downstairs has the kitchen, dining room, and spacious living area. Outside the kitchen door is a shared area with a grill and picnic tables. The other half of the guesthouse sleeps four and is the same layout minus a bedroom.
This is an old building with some updated furnishings. The mattresses were newer and the living room furniture comfortable. Our dining room table only had three chairs but there were office-type stacking chairs for extra seating. Carpet was in bad shape but the kitchen and bathroom were serviceable and reasonably clean. There is no dishwasher or laundry room. However, the guesthouse shares a parking lot with the Navy Lodge, so I just walked over there to do laundry and also purchase sundry items. The hotel was sold out—standard rooms for $93.
Fort Wadsworth: Just at the base of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge lies the four-tiered Battery Weed and Fort Tompkins, built around the time of the Civil War to guard New York Harbor. We stopped by the visitor’s center to browse the exhibits and see a short film about the fort’s history. Hours are Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 5:00, and guided tours are given at 2:30. Or pick up a map and explore on your own. The views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the bridge, and the passing ships are incredible. Don’t miss this!
Coast Guard facilities: We were allowed to eat in the galley, which provides great food at bargain prices. Breakfast cost $2.30, and included cooked-to-order omelettes, waffles, potatoes, bacon, grits, yogurt, and a variety of breads and cereals. Lunch and dinner cost $4.25 but the hours are limited and if you’re there to see Manhattan then you’re probably not going to be around during those meals. The CG Exchange is fine for snacks and drinks, but the commissary is on Ft. Hamilton in Brooklyn, and it would cost $11 to cross back onto Staten Island.
We used the MWR office for purchasing tickets for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which cost $11 each. This saves $1 off the regular price, but the real advantage is that you get to skip the ticket lines at Battery Park. The tickets included access to the statue’s pedestal, which was sold out for spring break week. We also purchased our Metro passes to use on the subway and busses. The MWR office oversees the guesthouse, but they leave you alone unless you contact them, which we only did once for extra towels.
Around Ft. Wadsworth: New York and Staten Island have no shortage of pizza places. Two we tried are Angie’s (out the front gate) and Via Ponte (near the back gate) and both were good and inexpensive. One evening we visited the Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk and Beach, a short drive out the back gate on Father Cappadanno Boulevard. The beach isn’t great but the park facilities are well kept, and the 2.5-mile boardwalk provided a relaxing stroll along the water.
Transportation to NYC: The Staten Island ferry is free and takes 25 minutes. It runs every 30 minutes, and every 15 minutes during morning and afternoon rush hours. If you drive to the terminal, parking costs either $5.50 or $7.00, depending on the lot. Although it’s only about a 10-minute drive from Ft. Wadsworth, finding parking and walking to the terminal can easily double that time. So you need to plan for at least an hour of travel time to get anywhere in New York City. When you land in Manhattan, there is a subway station right outside that terminal—South Ferry Whitehall Street.
The S51 bus runs through Ft. Wadsworth to the ferry, and schedules are available at the MWR office. One of the stops is right in front of the Navy Lodge. The bus can be a hassle, though, if you plan to return to the island after 7:00 p.m., because the back gate of the park—right next to the guesthouse---is locked at that time. The bus can only drop you at the front gate, and then you must walk nearly one mile through the park to the guesthouse. We felt it was worth it to just pay for parking, especially when spending the day sightseeing and walking all over the city!
If you are a traveler who wants the action of New York City right outside your door, then the Ft. Wadsworth guesthouse is not for you. Our home is in the suburbs so we’re used to a commute, and we felt the ferry ride was worth it to have such spacious accommodations at a bargain price. And it’s always interesting to stay on a base, this one more so because it was part of a national park. We’d do it again!
The website for the property is: www.uscg.mil/mwr/lodging/FtWadsworth.asp |
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