Nat & Stevie in NYC - On Hurricane Sandy Watch & BAG Tour 28/10/12

[NatOwls]

At this point I must apologise for the delay in continuing this report - and then also apologise for the quality of the rest of this TR as when we moved house a few months ago, my little book of TRs notes was misplaced :-( - therefore I am trying to complete this via memory and dates on pictures that we took - However the timer on my camera is very temperamental and was also still set on UK time (didn't know how to change it) - this will no doubt cause even more headaches! .. Please be patient ..

So..where were we .. Oh yeah NYC !

We woke up very early again - possibly about 6:00am, so once we were washed & dressed we had a little wander around in search for breakfast !
After a very short walk, we found ourselves in Times Square with very little open - still only around 7:00am. McDonald's was the ideal choice!

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We had a Big Apple Greeter tour of Manhattan booked today at 9:00am - and even with the potential of a hurricane in the pipeline, the greeter still wanted to proceed!

We therefore had a little wander around whilst waiting for 9:00am to arrive. This city is fabulous, however very early in the morning when its quieter, with few people about, it is even more impressive!

We had a little chat with a NYPD Officer in Times Square who was very friendly and not worried at all about the Hurricane - "No need to panic" was the instruction he gave us... Ok then Sir!

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Soon enough, it was time to meet our Greeter at our hotel & to discuss the day ahead. Our greeter was called John & was very kind & knowledgeable! He did mention the potential hurricane and even though he was not worried he did say he planned to end the tour at approx 2pm - so we could get back to our hotel without any problems (just in case)

We started our tour by taking the Subway (our first experience) over to Brooklyn Heights.

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It was here where I presented our greeter with some gifts from back home - which he was very grateful for. He told us that he should not accept them due to company policy, however once we informed him they were only a few small items from Yorkshire, he accepted them.

Along this tour we walked through various neighbourhoods & impressive houses. Many of whom were getting ready for Halloween by decorating the outside of their homes with cobwebs and pumpkins.


We headed towards the famous Brooklyn Bridge whilst being educated on the history of the city by John.

Our first glimpse (from ground level) of Lady Liberty - We had plans to see her up close that evening during our Sunset cruise - so this picture would be good enough for now

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I cant recall what is being built here, however it is something sports related & looked great

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I then went into full blown tourist mode as we got closer to the bridge:


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We were informed that romours of a film start who had bought the top floor of the building below and converted it into an apartment for a cool $10 million ... that would be Jim Carey ... apparently ...

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John very kindly took a picture of us on the bridge. The weather was a little dull, however still comfortable to walk around in.

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We then headed towards the Financial District where we were shown more landmarks and informed about the history of trading and threats which had be made to this area.
We then bumped into this little fella ..

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The day had flown by so far, we had covered so many parts of Manhattan - parts we would have never seen without our BAG, to which we are very grateful for! During our guided tours also, John shown us where our Pier was - for our evening cruise. We spoke to the lady in the ticket booth however and she said that due to the potential thread of Hurricane Sandy, no boats will be leaving the dock. This meant our sunset tour was cancelled, which we were gutted about, but at least it gives us another reason to come back to this wonderful city!

John informed us of his memories of 9/11 and how it had impacted the city. He therefore left us at the 9/11 Memorial with clear instructions on which subway train to catch 'home'. He also told us not to leave it too late before setting of ..'Just in case'

We thanked John for spending his day off work (as a banker) to take us around his city that he clearly has a lot of pride for and passion about. We said our goodbyes and then went into the 9/11 Memorial.

We didn't stay here too long as it is a very emotive place. The grand scale of the area is huge and the fountains are elegantly done. I took a few pictures, however not many..

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With Johns' wise words of advice still ringing in our ears, we decided to head back towards Times Square to our hotel, so having located the correct Station, we headed back on the Subway ..

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TR Continued on the next page!

[NatOwls]

We got back to our hotel in the early afternoon and needed a well earned rest, no idea how many miles we covered during our BAG tour, but it was A LOT !
As we were resting our feet, we switched on the news the to find that good old Hurricane Sandy had changed course as was heading towards lower Manhattan sooner than expected!

Our natural reaction was to panic and gather our thoughts! We then noticed our telephone was flashing indicating a message. It was from our travel agent, basically checking that we were ok. Daniel (our TA) left us his mobile number and told us to text / phone him at any time if we had any problems due to HS! He then instructed us to try to change our flights to earlier ones / get extra nights booked in our hotel.
Plan A = After various attempts to phone American Airlines, I finally got through only to be told that all flights to Las Vegas were fully booked with hundreds of people in Stand-by lines!
Shortly afterwards there was a Breaking News announcement on Fox News that all NY Airports would be closing within the next hour due to the threat of HS!
Plan B = The next option was to check with the reception to see if our room could be reserved for another few nights - after all, no flights would be coming into NYC now due to the airport closure's. I explained the situation and told her that we were due to leave for Vegas the following day, therefore if the airports should re-open, we would only need it for a further night - however we were asking for 3 nights (as per Daniels recommendations - just in case) After a few frustrating minutes of the Deputy Manager typing away on her keyboard, she finally confirmed that our room was available and asked us if we would be happy to pay $380 per night. I informed us that our TA had done a search for us on the internet and informed us they were advertising for $300 p/n - which she was not happy with, however finally agreed to this price.
So..at this point, we were hoping that HS would once again change its course we we'd still get to fly out the Vegas the following day at 5pm - however we had a roof over our heads if not!

All that worrying had made us hungry, so we headed back into Times Square to find food

Alot of shops were being boarded up and Subway grates were being covered with plastic sheets and then also boarded up so stop the subway from flooding

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There were a lot of News Reporters around the TS area and obviously live news being broadcast in the Studios all reporting on the possible arrival of HS!

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At this point, HS was due to hit Lower Manhattan / New Jersey at approx 2am the following morning.

We contacted our Family & Friends back home to keep them updated & then headed out back towards TS - expecting it to be less busy then previous nights - but it was quite busy & then became packed after about 8pm !

He managed to get on the Big Screen whilst playing the Dunk Tank game..

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By about 9pm we were once again shattered. It had been a long day and all the worrying about HS ad our travel plans had taken their toll. We headed back to our Hotel were we watched some more news, The Big Bang Theory (which was new to us - however we're now hooked & have purchased the box set), followed by more news .. and then Bed!

[Alyson]

Oh my, the hurricane is coming, very scary

My son and girlfriend were stranded in 2011 because of Irene, 5 days they were stuck for

Glad you got your tour before sandy hit

[KarenG]

A fantastic day until the evening. Scary indeed - having been in Orlando in a hurricane it's not a great experience. Looking forward to reading more