C&L 5 nights in New York Feb 2016 - Pre-trippie *updated*

[LN89]

Hi

Welcome to my pre- trippie to our trip to New York in February 2016.

I'm Laura and my DH is Chris. We are both 26 and live south of London. Here is a photo of us from our wonderful honeymoon trip in May 2015.



I booked this trip to NY as a surprise for Chris. I've always been a bit of a saver as I prefer to save my money for holidays than go shopping! I started saving in summer 2014, initially I was thinking of getting us some Crystal Palace season tickets as a wedding/ birthday present but then a friend of mine mentioned about cheap flights to NY with Norwegian so I looked it up based on Feb 2015 and couldn't believe how cheap it was. I decided maybe we could go to NY for a similar price as the season tickets! I had worked out a budget based on 2015 prices so it was just a waiting game to see what it would be for 2016 and whether I could save enough, especially as we had the wedding in May but I had done quite well up to that point so I was fairly confident I should be able to do it unless there was something urgent that came up! I had decided on February, partly due to price but also we often have a little break in February as we always find winter a bit depressing after Xmas.

I have never been to NY and have always wanted to go. Chris has been before when he was about 16 with his family and has mentioned that he would love to go back quite a few times.

I did some research into hotels and decided on three hotels I would ideally like that were a good location, good reviews and a good price. The flights for Norwegian are released in batches so I wasn't sure when they would be released but I decided if I had enough for the flights when they were released I would book it as I would have plenty of time to save for the hotel etc. We both agreed we would only get small wedding presents for each other so I had until Chris' birthday in July.

February prices for hotel were released on booking.com and I therefore booked a couple of different dates throughout February for Hotel Broadway at Times Square with free cancellation and no deposit required.

The flights came out towards the end of March 2015 and they went up to around 20 February, I had initially thought about going end of February as weather would be getting better. They didn't have flights everyday and it seemed to be cheapest flying Wednesday - Monday which suited me as I wanted to go away for 5 nights. They had some really cheap flights for 10-15 Feb which meant we could go over Valentine's Day. I had saved enough so decided I could do it I debated on dates for a while and wasn't sure whether to wait for the flights were released until end of February. We also don't usually do much for Valentine's Day but then my sister reminded me it would be our first one as a married couple so, whilst it is slushy, it would be amazing. So I decided to go for it . I also couldn't decide what name to book it under, I had booked Disney in my maiden name and my passport would have been valid until 2019 so initially I thought I would just book it in my maiden name. Then I saw a notice when I went to book the flights about no name changes and I started to worry that if I lost my passport but had legally changed my name whether I could get another in my maiden name - I'm a bit of a worrier if you can't tell! So I decided to just change my passport straight away, although I lost 3 years, it would stop me from worrying! Inevitable I then started worrying whether there would be any reason I would be rejected for the new passport under my new name haha (it didn't and it came back within a week of applying)! So once I finally decided what name I would book it under I booked it .

The flights cost £730 with Norwegian for the both of us, I booked one suitcase as thought it would be a squeeze with just hand luggage, especially being winter and wanting to take lots of warm clothes. I didn't book seats or food which would've added £200 on. I have had a look at different dates and it looks like less than third of the seats are booked so we should be fine at getting seats together if we check in as soon as we can.

The flight leaves Gatwick at 5pm on 10 Feb and lands at JFK at 8.30pm. The return flight leaves JFK at 10.30pm on 15 Feb landing at Gatwick at 10am. These flights suit us very well, especially flying from Gatwick as we live 20 minutes away. Although we will probably get a train to the station, which takes about an hour as we have to go away from Gatwick to get back onto another train which is on the line down to Gatwick, but as the flights times are sociable and as it only cost us less than £5 each to get there we might as well get the train unless there is some major problem on trains that day.

I managed to book the hotel Broadway at Times Square for £412 for 5 nights with a continental breakfast which I was really pleased with. We need to pay 14.75% tax plus $3.50 city tax per night each so I calculate this comes to about £480. I read mixed reviews about whether you should stay near Times Square but as it is our first time (well mine and Chris' as an adult) I thought we would want to be right near Times Square. Here is a couple of photos from the hotel (borrowed from google).





I think we will just get a cab from the airport, I've read these are fixed price and sounds like it'll be about $70 with tip.

So after booking in March I was so excited but had to keep it as a surprise until July. This was not too difficult to start with as with the wedding and Orlando I kind of just forgot about it, although I had told my mum, who has a habit of almost letting it slip so I was a bit nervous she would give it away (I think she was more relieved than I was when Chris finally knew )! While we were in Orlando Chris mentioned a couple of times that he wondered when we would next go back to America. It was very difficult when we got back with the come down after the wedding and it was quite unusual for us not to have a holiday booked or at least planned, fortunately I only had about 7 weeks until his birthday. When his birthday finally came around I couldn't believe I had kept it secret for 4 months! I got a scrap book,I put a calendar on the first page, then a picture of gatwick and so on until it finally showed a picture of the statute of Liberty and Times Square (here are some photos) .



[url=https://flic.kr/p/VQfXCX]






Chris was so shocked but really pleased. He couldn't believe I had managed to sneakily save enough for the trip .

We haven't drafted much of a plan yet but we want to do all the usual tourist things. I had heard that you can go up the statute of Liberty again so we have already booked tickets for that on Valentine's Day. We thought everywhere would be busy on Valentine's Day so we thought, as there was only a limited number of tickets, it might limit how busy it'll be but we will see.

One things that's a must do is a visit to Buffalo Wild Wings! We visited in LA and again in Orlando and I love them, I've heard Thursday's are boneless nights so definitely want to visit there on the Thursday night. I also want to go to Shake Shack, I used to work in Covent Garden and visited the one there and it was great.

I got my esta the other day, Chris' was still valid as he had got it in April 2014. This means he will have been to 5 states on it which is pretty good going, we went to LA in 2014 and did at trip to the Grand Canyon and Vegas and went to Orlando in 2015 for our honeymoon. As I changed my passport, I applied for a new one.

Sorry for rambling on! Thank you for reading .

Laura

[Guest]

Sounds great, we're going just after you on the 18th Feb.

I'll have to keep an eye on your plans and see if we could match it as we've still not decided on an action plan.

I know we are going to Madison Square Garden for the NBA!

Can't wait.

[LN89]

Plans

Christmas has been very busy and now it in only 44 days until we are off to New York so thought I would do an update. I bought Chris tickets for us to see Aladdin on Broadway while we are out there I also got a number of Disney related presents.



Also, earlier in December we celebrated 1000 days until we go back to WDW.

I have now got my ESTA as well. I kept forgetting to do it after my new passport arrived so finally got round to it a couple of weeks ago. I had recently been reading a couple of stories on the Dibb and how long visas take etc which really worried me. I had always assumed it would come back fine, especially as I have to have quite a high security clearance for work but will definitely be applying for the ESTA's much further in advance next time. Anyway it straight away came back as approved so that is all sorted.

I cannot think of anything else we need to sort before we go. I have completed all the API information and we are just planning on getting the train to Gatwick. As we are going mid-week I am assuming trains are running fine but will be checking this nearer the time and we can always drive and park our car at Gatwick if there is a problem with the trains.

We have been putting together a rough plan for our trip:

Wednesday 10th February

We fly at 5.10pm from Gatwick Airport landing at JFK at 8.30pm. We are planning to get a taxi to our hotel which is near Times Square. I have heard some horror stories about the queues at immigration so I am not expecting to get to the hotel until quite late. We have not booked food on our Norwegian flight so we are planning on having a Frankie and Benny's at Gatwick and then buy some snacks for the plane. If we are hungry we will grab a snack when we get to the hotel.

Thursday 11th February


We plan on having a wander round today to get our bearings. The hotel is less than 200 metres from Times Square so hopefully we will get to see quite a bit. We would like to visit Empire State Building, Grand Central Station and Central Park.

We are seeing Aladdin at 7pm this evening As mentioned above I booked these for Chris for Christmas. I saw the show is coming to London in the summer so I was planning on getting tickets but then I saw it was on Broadway I looked into it. I thought they were going to be extremely expensive which some were but I managed to get some reasonable tickets for the second row of the balcony. We can't wait!

We are desperate to visit Buffalo Wild Wings as we loved it in both LA and Orlando and they have boneless nights on Thursday. As we are seeing Aladdin we will be going for an early dinner. I want one of the twisted margarita again!

Friday 12th February

We are planning to go and visit One World Trade Centre, the 9/11 Memorial and walk over Brooklyn Bridge. I read recommendations about walking over Brooklyn Bridge and stopping for pizza in one of the restaurants which I think we will do.

I have read that the museums are free on a Friday night so we might either go to the Metropolitan Museum of art or the Guggenheim Museum. I definitely want to get some photos on the Met steps - was a massive Gossip Girl fan!

Saturday 13th February

We have no particular plans today, if we did not go up the Empire State Building on Thursday we will do this. We also want to go ice skating in central park. We expect it will be very busy ice skating but we want to do it anyway

We would like to go up for a drink at the Sixty Five Bar at the Rockefeller so we might do it this evening. We were not planning to go up the Rockefeller because we will do both the One World Trade Centre and Empire State Building and I read a couple of recommendations about going to the bar for a drink instead. The drinks are expensive but we think it will be lovely to do.


Sunday 14th February

As it is Valentines Day today we assumed it would be very busy everywhere so we have booked to the Statute of Liberty, including the Crown at midday. I have heard it can be busy getting through the security to get on the ferry so we will head down there early to make sure we get through the security in plenty of time.

I am not sure how long the Statute of Liberty cruise and visit to the crown will take so we haven't planned anything else in the afternoon.

We have booked a table at the Hard Rock Café for 7pm that night. We wanted to get somewhere booked for dinner as it was Valentines Day but we didn't want to go somewhere too expensive so Hard Rock seemed a good choice. I had the twisted mac n cheese in Orlando which was amazing so definitely fancy this again. I have heard Times Square looks amazing on Valentines Day so want to wander around either before or after dinner.

Monday 15th February

We fly home at 10.30pm so we have almost the whole day. We haven't got any particular plans but we will do anything we haven’t had chance to do.

We want to try Shake Shack one day and also I would like to get some New York cheesecake.

I would appreciate any recommendations of things to do that we have missed or recommended places to eat!

Thanks for reading

Laura

[Guest]

Fab thread!
I've done exactly the same - we go on 14th Feb for 5 nights. Booked it as a surprise for hubby's birthday but he doesn't know yet as his birthday is beginning of feb! Eek! We are staying at The Strand. I can't wait. But with all the Christmas stuff etc I've not actually booked anything yet. I've been twice before but hubby never has so I'm not wanting to plan to much so he can say what he'd like to see / do.
I'm starting to think about packing though - it's gonna be freezing!

[LN89]

Originally Posted by mancdisney

Fab thread!
I've done exactly the same - we go on 14th Feb for 5 nights. Booked it as a surprise for hubby's birthday but he doesn't know yet as his birthday is beginning of feb! Eek! We are staying at The Strand. I can't wait. But with all the Christmas stuff etc I've not actually booked anything yet. I've been twice before but hubby never has so I'm not wanting to plan to much so he can say what he'd like to see / do.
I'm starting to think about packing though - it's gonna be freezing!

See more...

Ah thank you for reading

That's amazing, I can't believe he doesn't know yet! I bet you can't wait to tell him!

I don't think we will pre book anything else, it is only the statute of Liberty crown tickets I've heard sell out.

Yes I think I'm going to pack plenty of warm clothes, including thermals hehe .

I hope you have an amazing time.

Laura

[Guest]

You too! Exciting isn't it.
I've bought some scrabble letters that obv spell out New York And put them in a little pouch. So giving them for his present ... Followed by a guide book with dollars inside. And a poster I've printed myself with the hotel details and dates of travel etc. can't wait!

[EJSakaAnna]

Sounds like an exciting trip What a lovely surprise too. We've got Aladdin tickets booked for our trip in March, can't wait to see it. Have a great trip

[sam7]

We are going to New York for the exact dates you are, but different airline and hotel. I am so excited, just trying to put together some sort of itinerary. This will be the first 'no children' trip we have ever made (ours are 23 and 26 so about time, lol).

[Guest]

I still don't have a real itinerary - I'm not telling my hubby til beginning of Feb so waiting until then to see what he wants to do. Very excited though and I've been secretly buying things like thermal layers and hiding them away!

[gerryc]

Sounds good, we went n August for the first time for our 25 th Wedding Anniversary, we done the Gossip Girl tour as DD is a big fan.