Captain Ken’s Guide to Sightseeing Around NYC
Captain Kenneth Corcoran has spent decades seeing New York from its waterways. Today, you will most often find him at the helm of Circle Line’s 2.5-hour Best of NYC Cruise, the full-island trip that has become his signature route.
Best of NYC is also Ken’s personal favorite. It circles the entire island of Manhattan, including a trip past Inwood, the neighborhood where he grew up. After countless trips around the island, he has watched New York change from the water, seen visitors experience the Statue of Liberty for the first time and learned why seeing the city by boat can change the way you understand it.
Here is Captain Ken’s guide to experiencing New York from the water, along with some of the stories he has collected along the way.
Quick Answer
Captain Ken’s advice for sightseeing in New York is simple: seeing the city from the water gives you a perspective that is difficult to get from the streets.
Guests who take a Circle Line cruise at the beginning of their NYC trip often tell him it helps them get their bearings. Those who cruise midway through their visit say it helps them understand how the places they have been fit together. Guests who save the cruise for the end often tell him it brings everything they have seen together.
For the most complete view, Ken’s favorite is the Best of NYC Cruise. It travels all the way around Manhattan, passing the skyline and Statue of Liberty as well as Upper Manhattan, the Harlem River and parts of the city many visitors never see from the water on a shorter harbor trip.
And there is a good chance Captain Ken will be the one taking you there. Best of NYC is the cruise he captains almost exclusively and the route he knows best.
A Circle Line Story That Started With Family
Ken’s Circle Line story began long before he became a captain.
His uncle Maurice started working at Circle Line in 1956 and eventually brought two of his brothers into the company. When Ken was 19 and between jobs, his godmother encouraged another uncle who worked at Circle Line to help him get an interview.
Ken did not expect it to become a career. He describes Circle Line at the time as essentially his “Plan D,” a summer job while he waited to hear about a city position. Instead, he found himself working alongside family. Over the years, nine of his first cousins also worked at Circle Line.
What started as a temporary job became a career on New York’s waterways.
Best of NYC Is Captain Ken’s Signature Cruise
Of all Circle Line’s sightseeing routes, Best of NYC is the one most closely connected to Ken.
The 2.5-hour cruise circles Manhattan, taking guests along the Hudson, East and Harlem Rivers and around the northern end of the island. Ken captains the route nearly every day, and it remains his favorite.
Part of the reason is personal.
As Best of NYC reaches Upper Manhattan, it passes Inwood, where Ken grew up. For visitors, this section of the trip reveals a very different side of Manhattan from the skyscrapers of Midtown and Lower Manhattan. For Ken, it is a trip past his old neighborhood.
⭐ Captain Ken’s Tip #1: Take the Full Trip to Understand Manhattan
One of the advantages of circling the entire island is seeing how dramatically Manhattan changes from one end to the other.
The famous skyline is part of the experience, but Best of NYC continues beyond it. The trip connects Lower Manhattan, Midtown and Upper Manhattan with the waterways, bridges and surrounding boroughs that help define the island.
Ken has made that circle countless times and still notices changes. Buildings appear, waterfronts evolve and familiar parts of the skyline look different. His advice to New Yorkers who have not taken Circle Line recently is to come back and see their city again because New York does not stay the same.
Seeing New York Through Visitors’ Eyes
When Ken first joined Circle Line, he says he did not fully appreciate New York. Growing up here, it was easy to take the city for granted.
Watching visitors changed that.
He saw how people reacted when the Statue of Liberty came into view and how excited they became about the skyline. Seeing visitors fall in love with New York made him reconsider his own relationship with the city.
Decades later, that feeling has not disappeared. Ken says seeing the Statue of Liberty still never gets old.
⭐ Captain Ken’s Tip #2: Don’t Treat the Statue as the Only View
Lady Liberty may be one of the most anticipated moments of a New York sightseeing cruise, but one of the lessons of the full-island route is how much more there is to see from the water.
The skyline changes as the boat travels around Manhattan. Bridges replace skyscrapers, Upper Manhattan comes into view and the Hudson, East and Harlem Rivers each reveal a different side of the city.
Best of NYC is less about waiting for one landmark and more about watching New York continuously change around you.
The Bridges Tell Part of New York’s Story
One of Ken’s favorite facts to share about Best of NYC involves the bridges.
The full-island route encounters 20 bridges. The boat passes under 19, while one movable bridge opens to allow the vessel to pass through. It is a detail many guests do not expect when they first board.
Ken also remembers another bridge that is no longer part of the skyline. The Putnam Bridge once connected Manhattan and the Bronx near the former Polo Grounds, just north of Macombs Dam Bridge. It was removed decades ago.
For someone who has spent years making the same trip around Manhattan, details like that turn the route into a record of how the city has changed.
⭐ Captain Ken’s Tip #3: Pay Attention Beyond the Skyline
It can be easy to board an NYC sightseeing cruise thinking primarily about skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty. Best of NYC rewards looking farther afield.
The bridges, waterways and northern sections of Manhattan help tell the story of why New York developed the way it did. By the time you have circled the island, Manhattan feels less like a collection of individual attractions and more like a place connected by water.
When Should You Take Best of NYC During Your NYC Trip?
Ken has heard enough guest feedback over the years to know there is no single correct answer.
Take it early in your trip, and the full-island view can help you get your bearings before you begin exploring on land.
Take it in the middle, and you may start recognizing places you have already visited while gaining a better understanding of where they sit in relation to the rest of Manhattan.
Take it near the end, and the cruise can bring together many of the neighborhoods, landmarks and parts of the skyline you have experienced during your visit.
Ken says guests who take it last have described it as putting a bow on their trip.
For a first-time visitor, taking Best of NYC relatively early has an obvious advantage: you get the full geography lesson before spending the rest of your trip navigating the city.
You Never Know What You Will See on the Hudson
Even after decades on the water, New York Harbor can surprise Ken.
During one trip on the Hudson, word reached the crew that a whale was traveling north as Ken’s vessel was heading south. He noticed bunker fish becoming unusually active and slowed the boat rather than risk getting too close.
Then the whale appeared.
It breached next to the vessel and spouted, soaking guests standing on the bow.
It was an unusual encounter, but it illustrates something important about sightseeing from the water: even when the route is familiar, no two trips are exactly the same.
⭐ Captain Ken’s Tip #4: Give Yourself Time to Enjoy the Ride
Ken describes the Circle Line experience as a combination of narration, relaxation and the comfort of enjoying New York from the waterfront.
That is worth remembering on Best of NYC.
You have 2.5 hours to circle Manhattan. You do not need to treat every minute as a race for the next photograph. Watch the skyline change, listen to the narration, notice the neighborhoods and bridges, and take time simply to enjoy being on the water.
That ability to see so much of New York while also relaxing is part of what separates sightseeing by boat from trying to cover the same amount of the city on foot.
Ken’s Advice for New Yorkers: See Your City Again
Ken’s advice is not limited to tourists.
He remembers when New Yorkers would recommend Circle Line to visiting family members without necessarily coming aboard themselves. Increasingly, he sees locals returning and discovering how much both the city and the Circle Line experience have changed.
Ken understands that reaction because he experiences it himself. Even after years of circling Manhattan, he still spots buildings and wonders when they appeared.
Seeing New York from the water can make a city you already know look unfamiliar again.
See New York From Captain Ken’s “Moving Office”
Ken calls the water his “moving office.” What makes the job rewarding, he says, is not only working outdoors but also the professionalism of the crew and meeting passengers who have traveled from around the world to experience New York.
Best of NYC brings much of Ken’s Circle Line story together in one trip. It passes the Statue of Liberty he never tires of seeing, travels beneath the bridges whose history he knows, circles a skyline he has watched change and eventually reaches Inwood, the neighborhood where he grew up.
And because Best of NYC is the cruise Ken captains almost every day, there is a good chance that when you make your own trip around Manhattan, Captain Ken will be in the wheelhouse guiding the way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Best of NYC Captain Ken’s favorite Circle Line cruise?
Best of NYC circles the entire island of Manhattan, and the route takes Ken past Inwood, the Upper Manhattan neighborhood where he grew up. It is also the Circle Line cruise he captains most often, making the full-island trip his signature route.
Does Best of NYC go all the way around Manhattan?
Yes. The 2.5-hour Best of NYC Cruise is Circle Line’s full-island sightseeing route. It circles Manhattan and gives guests a view of the city that extends well beyond the familiar Midtown and Lower Manhattan skyline.
How many bridges does Best of NYC encounter?
Best of NYC encounters 20 bridges during the full-island route. The vessel passes under 19 of them, while one movable bridge opens to allow the boat to pass through. It is one of Captain Ken’s favorite facts to share about the trip.
