SATURDAY
Illinois International Travel will arrange a round-trip flight
from your hometown city to New York’s Newark Airport. Upon
arrival you will be transferred to the Newark Airport Country
Inn and Suites that has an indoor swimming pool and fitness center.
Here you will be able to meet friends from many other parts of
the country including your tour escort who will review the day-by-day
Bethel Tour Vacation with you.
SUNDAY
This morning a complimentary buffet breakfast will be served in
the hotel dining room. Everyone will then depart the hotel on
our private motorcoach and drive through the Lincoln tunnel from
New Jersey to Manhattan. Here you will enjoy a sightseeing tour
of New York City, known as the Big Apple. Your tour escort will
point out such interesting sights as the Empire State Building,
Times Square, Rockefeller Center, 5th Avenue, Central Park, Chinatown,
the Garment District, Wall Street and much more. You will soon
see how so many people live in the different cultures that make
this city one of the most unique in the world. Even the skyscrapers
are amazing in their architecture. The afternoon is at leisure
in Manhattan or you can take an optional boat cruise around Manhattan
Island as you sail under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. While
cruising, you will have a view of all the Watchtower buildings
and other famous landmarks and towering skyscrapers. Balance of
the day is free in Manhattan to do as you please. At 5:00 p.m.,
our chartered bus will return everyone to the hotel or you can
remain in Manhattan and your tour escort will explain how easy
it is to return to the hotel by bus or train at your leisure.
Located across the street from your hotel is New Jersey’s
largest indoor outlet mall that has a variety of restaurants,
a food court and several movie theaters.
MONDAY
Today everyone will depart on our private motorcoach for a beautiful
drive through upstate New York to Wallkill to visit the new factory
and Bethel Home at Watchtower Farm. You will see the various printing
facilities and presses in the new factory that is all automated
and equivalent in space to 125 Kingdom Halls or larger than nine
football fields. You’ll be amazed at the new MAN presses
that are 18 feet high and how over 90,000 Watchtower and Awake
magazines are printed per hour. One roll of paper weighs 38,000
pounds, is 14 miles long and is gone through in 25 minutes. (See
WT 12/1/05, p. 8)
The bindery line has 33 machines that can produce 50,000 books
and Bibles a day or 120 per minute. The paperback book line assembles
and packages as many as 100,000 books a day. In the shipping department,
you will see how literature requests for over 12,000 congregations
are processed each month on special conveyors that are 1.5 miles
long. A congregation order of 350 magazines can be completed in
just 14 seconds. There is also a display of magazines in several
languages, as there are now over 300 different languages that
are always in stock. You’ll see how literature is printed
differently for those who are in prisons or for those that can
only read Braille. You will then have time to enjoy your included
box lunch in the picnic area. (If you know someone at Bethel,
you may contact them ahead of time to see if you can be invited
as their guest for lunch on this day at Wallkill or on Wednesday
at Brooklyn Bethel in the “30 Dining Room.”) Each
year thousands of friends from around the world travel to New
York and Wallkill to visit the New Factory and all of the amazing
printing facilities (See WT 12/1/05 p. 8). After
lunch, it is a one hour drive to Patterson where you will visit
the new Educational Center at Patterson Bethel. Here you will
see displays describing the work done in the Society’s offices,
including the service, art, legal and translation services departments.
Other offices oversee the activities of missionaries, relief efforts
in disaster areas and direct the teaching programs for congregations
throughout the world.
You’ll see the large dining room, kitchen, laundry and the
Gilead School Auditorium. You will be amazed at this beautiful
project, including the courtyard that was completed mostly by
volunteer workers. (See WT 11/15/99, p. 9) Following the tour,
you’ll return to the hotel. Balance of the evening is free.
TUESDAY
Enjoy your complimentary breakfast at leisure and then the entire
day and evening will be free to do as you please. Your tour escort
will have several suggestions on places to visit and how easy
it is to take transportation into Manhattan where there is a variety
of things to see and do during your free time. You can then return
at leisure to your hotel. You will have plenty of time to visit
the Empire State Building, Times Square, Macy’s Department
Store, Chinatown and other great shopping areas plus there is
a variety of restaurants and several world-renown museums. Be
sure to try some New York style cheesecake and pizza. In the evening
you may want to attend a Broadway Theatre to see a musical or
some other live performance. Don’t miss the indoor outlet
mall across the street from your hotel. Here you will find name
brand stores with merchandise at discounted prices.
WEDNESDAY
This morning your private coach will depart from the Country Inn
to visit the beautiful Jersey City Assembly Hall. It was originally
known as the Stanley Theater back in 1928. After being closed
for several years, it was then purchased and renovated by Jehovah’s
Witnesses to be used as an Assembly Hall. In just nine months,
5,500 volunteer workers finished a complete renovation. You will
be amazed how all the chandeliers, stained glass, brass and copper
were restored. Even the lobby has beautiful murals of Bible scenes
painted by the Watchtower staff.
Next, you will visit the Brooklyn Bethel Office known as the “30
Building” where the work of over a hundred Branch Offices
is coordinated by the administration departments. This is where
the Governing Body is located, plus writers, researchers, proof
readers and secretaries that handle all materials related to the
preaching activity worldwide. You will see interesting displays
of all the various committees. The Public Relations Department
has a display of the awards and even an Emmy for their outstanding
public services by the way of our tapes and DVD’s. Under
the direction of the writing committee, material is prepared here
that will be published worldwide. Considerable research is done
before being put into written form, which means it must be thoroughly
checked and proof read for spelling and accuracy, after which
it is reviewed by the writing committee. It is then sent to branches
around the world so that it can be translated into different languages
for all nationalities to understand.
Following this tour, you can enjoy your included box lunch at
noon as there are benches on the promenade next to Bethel that
have a beautiful view overlooking Manhattan and the Statue of
Liberty. After lunch, you will proceed to 117 Adams Street where
there is a display in the lobby of the worldwide work. The highlight
will be seeing how the newly fully automatic laundry system takes
up two floors to cover the needs of 3,000 Bethelites. You will
also tour the Sands Residence Building to see the lobby, kitchen,
dining room and a Bethelite apartment. At the end of the tour,
you will take an elevator to the rooftop of the Sands Building
for a fantastic view of New York City. You will then return from
your Bethel Tour Vacation to the hotel and the balance of the
day will be free to do some more exploring or shopping on your
own.
THURSDAY
This morning breakfast is again included. Depending on your return
flight schedule, you have your choice of either returning home
or departing Newark Airport and flying with our group on one of
our tour dates listed below to Reagan Airport in Washington D.C.
Upon arrival in Washington, you will enjoy a sightseeing tour
to view the United States Capitol Building, Lincoln and Jefferson
Memorials, Washington Monument, Smithsonian, and the White House.
Later, check-in at the beautiful Hilton Alexandria Mark Center
Hotel. Balance of the day is at leisure.
FRIDAY
This morning our tour escort will take everyone on the Metro Subway
(tickets are $2.00) to visit the Holocaust Museum where we have
included special tickets so you can spend as much time as you
please. The museum is dedicated to presenting the story of how
more than 30,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses and others were persecuted
by the Nazis. It has many artifacts, documents, historical photographs,
videotaped eye witness accounts and interviews with over 70 of
Jehovah’s Witnesses who were victims of Nazi rule. You will
be able to see the actual coats with the purple triangle badges
that identified only Jehovah’s Witnesses in the concentration
camps. (For additional information on the Holocaust Museum see
Awake,3/8/05, p. 16 and 11/8/93, p 16) Balance of the day free
to do as you please or to tour the famous Smithsonian Museum.
SATURDAY
Entire day free to visit the United States Capitol Building, White
House, Bureau of Engraving and Printing of money, Washington Monument,
Library of Congress, National Archives, Smithsonian, Air and Space
Museum, and many other points of interest. All attractions are
free of charge.
SUNDAY
This morning, everyone will take the hotel shuttle bus to Reagan
Airport for their return flight home with many Bethel Tour Vacation
memories.
2008
TOUR DATES TO NEW YORK
- June 7-12 or 15
- September 13-18 or 21
- October 4-9 or 12
- October 18-23
- On these dates you can return home after the 5-day New York
tour or take the optional 3-day tour to Washington, D.C.
• This date includes the New York and Canadian Bethel Homes
plus Niagara Falls
OPTIONAL
TOUR: The dates with a (-) indicate you can take our
regular tour to New York or you can then continue on to Washington,
D.C. for an additional three nights at our special group rate.
This must be indicated by checking the Bethel plus Washington,
D.C. box for the optional extension on the reservation form. You
will stay at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center Hotel.
NOTE: You can travel to New York on any of the
above dates from any departure city listed above. Please indicate
the city and departure date you prefer on the reservation form.
If your city is not listed, please note your preference and we
will inform you of the total cost from your hometown.

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