Your Statue of Liberty Crown visit, step by step

Each visitor needs a government-issued photo ID that matches the name on their ticket (minors without ID are the exception), so check the names on your booking today. The person who paid brings the card used to book; if it has been replaced, call Statue City Cruises at 877-523-9849 before your visit.

Leave suitcases and large bags at the hotel: they aren't allowed on the ferries, and the departure points have no lockers. Knives, pepper spray and markers are banned too (full list). Bring quarters for the lockers on the island.

You leave from the departure point you booked. In New York, the ticket office is inside Castle Clinton, the round stone fort in Battery Park. By subway: the 1 to South Ferry, the 4 or 5 to Bowling Green, or the R or W to Whitehall Street. There is no designated parking.

In New Jersey, the ticket office is in the historic CRRNJ railroad terminal at Liberty State Park. Parking is $7 per car, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station is about a mile's walk.

Statue City Cruises asks you to arrive at least 30 minutes before your ticket time; at Battery Park, you can't arrive earlier than that.

With a 10:00 AM ticket, be at Will Call around 9:30 and join the security line at 10:00. You reach Liberty Island after screening and the ferry ride, so later than 10:00. There is no need to come for the first ferry.

Crown tickets are never emailed. Go to the Will Call window at the departure point you booked, with the whole group: the person who paid shows the card, and each adult shows their photo ID.

Everyone gets a wristband, and without one you can't enter the Crown. Street sellers around Battery Park don't sell genuine tickets, so walk straight to Castle Clinton (see buying safely).

At your ticket time, go to the priority entrance for the airport-style screening, not the general line: that is where a Crown ticket saves time. In New York, the screening building is behind Castle Clinton, on the waterfront. In summer, on weekends and over the winter holidays, screening and boarding can still take an hour or more. Then you board the next ferry.

Ferries from Battery Park stop at Liberty Island first, then Ellis Island. Ferries from Liberty State Park stop at Ellis Island first, then Liberty Island: to climb first, stay on board at Ellis Island.

Only water in a plastic bottle, a phone, a camera and medicine can go up to the Crown. Bags, keys, pens, umbrellas and food go in the lockers beside the screening building, at the base of the statue. They take a 25-cent deposit in quarters; change machines take $1 and $5 bills.

A ranger then checks your tickets before a second airport-style screening. Once inside, use the lobby restrooms: they are the only ones in the statue.

At the top of the pedestal, you hand your wristband to a ranger and climb 162 narrow, steep steps, most of them on a spiral staircase. There is no elevator above the pedestal. Anyone who feels uncomfortable can stop at the top of the pedestal; your ticket includes its observation deck.

The statue is not air-conditioned and can be up to 20°F warmer inside, so drink water before you start. Time in the Crown is limited to 10 minutes (more in the climb guide). Collect your things from the locker on the way out.

Most visitors spend 1 to 2 hours at Ellis Island, and ferries leave about every 20 minutes. With a ticket time of 2 PM or later, there isn't enough time for Ellis Island.

You can return to either departure point, but if you get off at the other one, you can't take a ferry back to the one you left from. Return times vary by season: check the ferry schedule.

Last entry is the latest time you can enter the Crown: 4:00 PM until October 12, then 3:30 PM (1:30 PM on Christmas Eve). With a late-afternoon ticket, go up to the Crown before anything else on the island. There are no Crown visits on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day.