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Feeling crisp in the Big Apple-*COMPLETE*
Hi :wavey:
I've already done a food report from my trip in October 2018 but thought an NYC full report might be beneficial to somebody. We flew from Heathrow on 17th October and flew onto Orlando from NYC on 21st October. In NYC we stayed at the Distrikt hotel which is on W 40th Street. So I won't be putting many food photos in here but some days might be quite photo heavy! This will be... Day 0-Pre travel. Day 1-Travel & wander. Day 2-SOL, 9/11, Ghostbusters and Broadway. Day 3-ESB, Chelsea Market, High Line & cinema. Day 4-Central Park, Natural History & TOTR. Day 5-Onwards to Florida. |
Pre Travel day for NYC
Day 0-Tuesday 16th October 2018
We started off the day by heading into Brighton city centre where Arron got some new sunglasses. This proved to be quite the task in October :d: Found some in Burton that ended up being £3! We popped to Morrisons where we grabbed meal deals(can be seen in the food report!) and headed home. We did a final check in the flat before going out to catch our National Express. https://i.imgur.com/XC97GRV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/nQORZVJ.jpg It was lovely weather today which was good for our little walk, we just had to get over to Pool Valley coach station. https://i.imgur.com/VpBQFhe.jpg We arrived around 12:20 and our coach was already there, so we perched for a few minutes before checking in. This was super straightforward & the driver asked which terminal we wanted to stop at. I had only booked for the Central 1 & 2 so it was ace to know we could stop at Terminal 4. The drive was easy, we left Brighton at 12:40 andv had a pretty smooth driver all the way to Heathrow, we got to T4 at 2:45. The driver had written the terminal in chalk on our cases & it was really difficult to get off :( https://i.imgur.com/Uk8grVP.jpg We headed into the terminal and followed the signs to the hotels, it was quite a maze style walk to the Hilton & Premier Inn and took around 15 minutes through a tunnel! When we started to approach Premier Inn the lights were purple hued. https://i.imgur.com/sEqzvCa.jpg We checked in and paid £52.96 for the meal deal & booked dinner for 6:30 before heading up to Room 738. We used the lift this time as we had cases, but decided we would use the stairs where possible instead. The room was nice. https://i.imgur.com/cS93LDU.jpg https://i.imgur.com/G4stNQa.jpg We had a sky view and I always like Premier Inn's compared to similar hotels. Arron was feeling abit ropey from the bus ride so we chilled in the room for a while with a cup of tea. https://i.imgur.com/8PpyNTl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YMXtqJw.jpg I watched Tenable while Arron set up his Switch & played a couple of things. https://i.imgur.com/pkNLixH.jpg https://i.imgur.com/OuDttXW.jpg Around 5pm we decided to go to Terminal 3 to have a practice of our morning journey! This seemed like there were so many escalators, which we thought was weird considering we were still in the airport. It was quick to get across as the train was at 17:11, now you know this won't happen tomorrow :pgig: We got into T3 and found the Virgin desks, so we were all prepared for then morning. https://i.imgur.com/e8XOY9N.jpg https://i.imgur.com/8OpysPM.jpg https://i.imgur.com/3fhty75.jpg Also saw Darwin, which was a restaurant but also the name of a project i'd been in the midst of for months. Work follows me! https://i.imgur.com/ridV5l1.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Z4AjN3W.jpg Back on the train to T4 at 17:45, we were both quite sleepy and the train was dead quiet too :zzz: We walked back up to our room and saw this lovely sunset on our walk over. https://i.imgur.com/Crv2lBP.jpg https://i.imgur.com/teXKWkN.jpg We went downstairs for dinner at 6:30 which was very enjoyable and delicious. We were down there until 8pm having a nice time and eating lots of food! Arron plumped for a Costa before we walked back upstairs. https://i.imgur.com/ONlMJGM.jpg We got back upstairs and watched Home Alone until bed. https://i.imgur.com/vORW24g.jpg |
Day 1-Travel day & a bit of NYC
Day 1-Wednesday 17th October
Woke up at 5:40 after not sleeping particularly well. The bed seemed quite hard compared to my usual one! I had a shower and we were dressed and down for breakfast at 6:15 :zzz: The breakfast was great and it was quiet in the restaurant so we managed to eat plenty and were finished by 6:55. We walked back up to our room and finished packing up. We watched the Wheel of Fortune with Bradley Walsh and Jenny Powell. It was very old and funny to see! We left the room at 8:30 after our test run yesterday. Annoyingly we realised trains weren't running so often this morning so we were sat on this train until it left at 9:11 :mad: Luckily we had checked in online so we only needed to do bag drop. https://i.imgur.com/g9IHbpE.jpg https://i.imgur.com/oA1PVrV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/wl7IPNT.jpg Once we did get to the Virgin desk area it only took 15 minutes to get through the bag drop. The desk lady was very interested in whether we were doing 2 weeks in NYC, I explained it was only 4 days, she looked a bit confused to start with ha! https://i.imgur.com/nIywaGy.jpg We headed straight for security which was quite entertaining. The American guy in front of us had mislaid his passport and was shouting about it, the guards were rolling their eyes a lot. I went through the body scan and they took a swab of my shoes to check for explosives :pgig:. By 10am we were through to Terminal 3. Arron thought we should sit so we plumped for Strada and sat at the bar, our server was Fabio and Arron just got a beer. Our gate was announced while we were in there and I was getting restless so we left at ten to 11. We headed to WHSmith where I got a puzzle book, water and Glacier fruits and Arron got a Graze flapjack. I started going to Gate 31, luckily we looked on the board again and saw we should be at Gate 16 instead. Yikes! We boarded and were seated by around 11:15. https://i.imgur.com/p0UFeN6.jpg We were on Diamond Girl and took off at 12:10. https://i.imgur.com/RgHy7a0.jpg There was a good film selection and our lovely in front neighbours reclined IMMEDIATELY :erm:. I watched Love, Simon and Arron watched Jaws. https://i.imgur.com/AkeIvBZ.jpg We had all the standard food and I watched Frozen followed by travel Man in Miami. It was a pretty uneventful flight and we were off at 3:30. Security looked so chaotic as the queues were a mess and it was very loud! However, it was actually pretty easy to navigate and we managed to get our bags and join the cab queue before 4pm :omg: The queue was very straightforward and all the cabs accept credit card which was super good as I didn't want to use our cash for this. We were assigned a cab and began driving just after 4. https://i.imgur.com/16blVQK.jpg https://i.imgur.com/8MVIZpx.jpg The journey was mega interesting for someone who has never been to New York, seeing all the neighbourhoods and school buses. The driving was fast but seemed ok around here. And then we saw the Men in Black saucers :d: https://i.imgur.com/nAIL0JW.jpg As we came towards the city we could see the skyline coming into view and it was very exciting. https://i.imgur.com/cf6lP16.jpg At this point the traffic got horrific as got closer to our hotel. So we got to the Distrikt at 5:45! I think our driver was really fed up as we had been stuck in this area for most of the journey, but luckily the taxi was a fixed rate. I don't have any photos of the hotel haha! We checked in and were given 2 drinks tokens which we never got round to using. We got given room 504. https://i.imgur.com/dgFAHHN.jpg We put our bags in and then went back out after 6pm to just wander around. One of the hotels on our road had some cool Fall/Autumn decorations outside. https://i.imgur.com/j4mB79X.jpg https://i.imgur.com/efnIBwB.jpg https://i.imgur.com/uof2ln8.jpg We just walked around the block to get our bearings and see what we had nearby. I think we walked the wrong way as the area was a little rundown. But we saw 2 Bros pizza and decided that was our dinner choice. We went back to the hotel to eat it too. https://i.imgur.com/G8m1xkT.jpg https://i.imgur.com/cW52ovB.jpg Excitingly we perched in the room to tuck into our pizza and again went back out straight afterwards! We headed to W42nd street as we knew there were shops and things there. We just kind of took in the atmosphere for a while and ended up in Spirit Halloween store which was kitsch but cool to see. https://i.imgur.com/kWLBABO.jpg https://i.imgur.com/gJDMzGw.jpg https://i.imgur.com/JCNXho4.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ftVWONE.jpg We were hunting for Times Square which we had loads of trouble finding :d: Somehow we made it to Madison Square Garden! Which was interesting as there seemed to be a game on and it was busy around there. https://i.imgur.com/nsY1KG4.jpg https://i.imgur.com/nTbI4JZ.jpg After our random walk I managed to direct us correctly to Times Square around 8pm. We had a browse in the Disney store and elsewhere but were getting pretty tired by this point! https://i.imgur.com/gfJu2Yg.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YilXkPq.jpg We headed back to the hotel and went to bed at 9pm out of sheer tiredness. |
Looking forward to reading more 😀
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Following along.
Great travel day. We are thinking of doing 4 nights NYC then 10 nights Florida next time. 😃 Kat |
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We did 4 nights NYC then 14 nights Orlando. It was quite the long trip. Ended up booking it through Travel Planners as it seemed easier! |
Just a warning that this is pretty photo heavy!
Day 2-Thursday 18th October We woke up at 4:45am which was a tad early but to be expected! We both had showers, the temperature was a bit spotty and not really hot enough but we managed! https://i.imgur.com/fwofBI5.jpg We were ready to head out at 6:40 and when we got outside we could tell it was much colder than we anticipated, probably around 5 degrees and windy. Brrr. We wandered around for a little while up towards Times Square. https://i.imgur.com/lHreES8.jpg https://i.imgur.com/QrgFzfk.jpg We saw them setting up for filming Good Morning America or something similar? https://i.imgur.com/Kh47rVh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/05DcEKB.jpg It was so cold that Arron was looking for anywhere we could eat inside, we found Applebees and they were advertising $1 unlimited tea :d: https://i.imgur.com/Y93VHHI.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pK56vXj.jpg We stayed in here for just over 30 minutes as I was very conscious of time this morning. Our Statue of Liberty Crown tickets were for 8:30 so was trying not to be too late. Applebees was good and we could tell other people had done the same as us, as it was much busier when we left. It sounds abit wimpy, but we went over to H & M to get some warmer clothes. Arron ended up with a hat and gloves & me with a scarf. These were a lifesaver if i'm honest, especially today. We had decided to get the subway to SoL as it looked to be a quite straightforward route. We went into Times Square/42nd Street station and I unsuccessfully attempted to pay by card, it needed a Zip code and I froze. We only needed 1 way tickets which were $3 each, if you pay with a larger note the most change it gives is $9 so we had to pay in $1 bills! I think I stressed us both out at this point but with tickets in hand we were through. https://i.imgur.com/aI5xm9W.jpg https://i.imgur.com/FJXqcPr.jpg We got the Subway all the way down to South Ferry/Battery Park on the Red #1 train I believe. https://i.imgur.com/oarDuCZ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/snRyZSB.jpg Once we got on the train itself we were fine but it wasn't the calmest start to the day :o: We walked up following others to Castle Clinton at the other end. https://i.imgur.com/C8bYT1m.jpg https://i.imgur.com/uLhy0BE.jpg https://i.imgur.com/TucrhTf.jpg https://i.imgur.com/vE28aHL.jpg I queued up for our wristbands and don't recall showing any ID, just the booking confirmation instead. But we now had these Crown access wristbands on so were all done with that part of it. Security was next and was airport style so nothing new to us. It was warm in there which was a nice respite from the chill outside. Everything went well and smoothly so we were queuing for the boat at 9:10. https://i.imgur.com/fAygBRx.jpg When we boarded naturally we stood downstairs as the wind was strong! Again it was warmer on the boat and there was a little cafe downstairs too. https://i.imgur.com/bXRnWkr.jpg https://i.imgur.com/9oKCn4c.jpg https://i.imgur.com/IZWkrTg.jpg I had been concerned about the boat trip being choppy but it was much smoother than expected. We got off on Liberty Island and it felt sooo cold and windy. So just be warned! First stop we went into the shop/cafe and popped to the toilet then Arron got a pressed penny for his sister, then we braved the weather to get over to the statue herself. On the way we grabbed our audioguides to listen to as we went. https://i.imgur.com/8SO4e6r.jpg https://i.imgur.com/9Dz6314.jpg https://i.imgur.com/7hAP2wj.jpg https://i.imgur.com/jlRyl3E.jpg It was so gusty that we made the joint decision to not do the outside audiotour. So we took a few photos and went inside. https://i.imgur.com/BlSSY1n.jpg https://i.imgur.com/fKiB7va.jpg There was more security at this point, we showed our Crown wristbands and were ushered through to the locker area. To go into the Crown you must put any bags in a locker. Cheeky to charge $2! https://i.imgur.com/Bn87VTX.jpg We went through security again and then went upto the pedestal. We plumped to walk up rather than get the lift. I had no idea the steps felt so long! Once we were up to the pedestal we ventured outside & found that the wind was very strong on one side but not so bad on the other. The views were lovely too. https://i.imgur.com/skeyQhk.jpg https://i.imgur.com/jmkm3nV.jpg From here we went to climb the Crown, and the staff cut off the wristbands there. We started to walk up with Arron ahead of me. The steps were very dark, spirally and narrow so we got partially up and I freaked myself out! I had to go back down :nonono: Arron did follow me down, and the staff advised that if we wanted to re-attempt we could. Top customer service. I sat down indoors at the pedestal and Arron decided to go back upto the Crown without me. https://i.imgur.com/4d4lEld.jpg https://i.imgur.com/cHNbL4i.jpg When Arron got back he said I definitely wouldn't have enjoyed the climb or the descent as it was wobbly. I felt bad because he had to go up on his own but am just glad he still did. We went from here into the museum to read some of the history. https://i.imgur.com/IQovdZa.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Tdkr74O.jpg https://i.imgur.com/zssh337.jpg The museum was really interesting and we then proceeded to take a few photos around the levels. https://i.imgur.com/P6Sviot.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pxmSDeN.jpg https://i.imgur.com/W1MMng6.jpg We enjoyed our time over on Liberty Island just a shame it was so cold! At least the sun was shining so we got some great views over there. At 11:45 we boarded the ferry to Ellis Island and got a hot chocolate and pretzel on the boat. The drink was molten lava levels of hot :d: We were on Ellis Island before midday and chose not to get an audio tour and just have a walk around instead. https://i.imgur.com/PptXhwW.jpg https://i.imgur.com/oc2w4Bq.jpg https://i.imgur.com/6kVvZCV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/3q86Rq6.jpg The 'immigrants journey' section was very informative and we then followed with the amazing immigration hall. My original plan had been to get over to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge next but we made the decision to cancel that due to the wind :( https://i.imgur.com/iBHzYcr.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YPLdAHD.jpg We got back to dry land as it were at 1pm. After a meander through Battery Park we stumbled across the East Coast memorial. https://i.imgur.com/kKMtKSQ.jpg It was a really peaceful suntrap of an area so we sat there while figuring out the route to the 9/11 memorial. From Battery Park we walked straight up what I think is the NY-9A. https://i.imgur.com/LKIPW3r.jpg https://i.imgur.com/KXclruf.jpg Continues below... |
Day 2-Continued
It was an easy walk which was straight up and took about 10 minutes. We saw all kinds of buildings including some nice looking apartments and it was very quiet around the area. Once we got upto the reflection pools we just walked around taking it all in. It was very moving and a beautiful memorial. https://i.imgur.com/xX0TJsZ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/n2LIphK.jpg We only stayed briefly and then realised the Oculus building(Westfield) was quite close by. Arron had said he needed more warm clothes. https://i.imgur.com/ORdJIca.jpg We located another H & M and Arron bought jeans and a hoodie. We left here and went looking for the Ghostbusters Firehouse. We went up W Broadway and Varick Street. https://i.imgur.com/ODiucUa.jpg https://i.imgur.com/cz19RlH.jpg https://i.imgur.com/AIyzlZS.jpg It was another quiet walk with quite a lot of residential buildings and the weather was better as we were inland. When we arrived, the firehouse wasn't open but Arron was happy to just get a few photos outside. https://i.imgur.com/PygDu8J.jpg https://i.imgur.com/o1lyfch.jpg https://i.imgur.com/QpDS9Ge.jpg The street was much less busy and central than I had always imagined which was weird. We walked from here upto Canal street where we crossed to Hudson Street as it eventually becomes 9th Avenue. https://i.imgur.com/P50mEij.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pFZPAU8.jpg This walk was super different as we walked through TriBeca and into Greenwich Village which all felt more residential and less built up than the rest of NYC. https://i.imgur.com/9WGDQxM.jpg https://i.imgur.com/QX9KmXH.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ARFasW1.jpg The Halloween decorations were col, and I ended up in Sweet Corner to get a cookie. This was quite a 'local' feeling bakery as there were regulars in there. One lady was warning 'Clementine darling it's busy!' and another telling 'Ava not to forget her cheesebread'. It was a nice upmarket area though so I don't blame them! They were completely cashless too which seemed quite modern. After about 15 minutes we came across Chelsea Market by accident so we popped in for a look. https://i.imgur.com/8FoR6wu.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Uq9Q6gV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/n50z3tm.jpg Chelsea market was very busy and had awesome Halloween decorations again. https://i.imgur.com/zpwZU24.jpg We walked through but pencilled it in for our next day as we were on our way back to the hotel. https://i.imgur.com/37JGFRj.jpg We walked upto Distrikt and got into the hotel at 4:30 so our deour had taken us a while but we had really enjoyed the walk and having a look around. We stayed in the room for about 40 minutes before heading to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. We ate in here and left again at 6:55. From there we walked upto the M & M store. https://i.imgur.com/xBr9ksU.jpg https://i.imgur.com/NFph8ux.jpg We got $14 of sweets for our evening of theatre. Arron actually ate most of them :cry: We walked to W52nd street to see King Kong at the Broadway Theatre. https://i.imgur.com/WBOLLo0.jpg https://i.imgur.com/bBNjglI.jpg https://i.imgur.com/KAsdZoP.jpg The theatre was fabulous with huge chandeliers and the ladies toilets had a lounge area :pgig: We were sat in the rear mezzanine and had a pretty good view considering we were in the cheap seats :d::d: https://i.imgur.com/CK5Y7JA.jpg https://i.imgur.com/vL64EMJ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/atPpizj.jpg The show was crazy but good, the Kong animatronic/puppet was running and jumping, there was UV paint and strobe lights too. The show finished at 10:30 and we walked back to the hotel. Headed to bed at 11pm :zzz: Step count:32126 steps 14.45 miles. |
Day 3-Friday 19th October
This morning I woke up at the more respectable time of 6:30. Jumped in the shower and dried my hair. I usually leave it to dry naturally but due to the chilly weather I opted for the hairdryer! :d: We left the room at 7:30 and went in hunt of breakfast which took us a bit of uhhmming and ahhing. We decided on Starbucks and ate in. https://i.imgur.com/mGWKVqT.jpg From here went over to Old Navy where Arron ended up with a Bartman t shirt. We followed Google maps toward the Empire State Building and in the Garment District we came across these sweet art installations. Arron photograghed all of them :pgig:. I only put up a few on here though... https://i.imgur.com/yc6UPGV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/7BEWVJ6.jpg https://i.imgur.com/fc3MUUH.jpg https://i.imgur.com/kUMUijO.jpg https://i.imgur.com/W4AJd3b.jpg https://i.imgur.com/iGMTQTl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/P8mdPhz.jpg It was a really bright and sunny morning which was ideal for what we had planned! https://i.imgur.com/ys6rwKO.jpg https://i.imgur.com/JMtoBlB.jpg https://i.imgur.com/2QwTgb6.jpg https://i.imgur.com/qlIdt4f.jpg https://i.imgur.com/9CwW7pB.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lB5oZov.jpg We walked right upto ESB and straight in to use our Explorer passes, I had read that it gets busy in here but it must've been a quiet day as we showed our passes and were straight in around 9am. We had a look around the downstairs area the model and different photos etc. https://i.imgur.com/jfflofV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/20n3OEz.jpg https://i.imgur.com/x1jgtb6.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Sk0Hh1O.jpg From here you head right to the lifts which take you upto the 80th Floor to begin with. https://i.imgur.com/Vtwazxz.jpg https://i.imgur.com/48tX1tn.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Nr5MBnc.jpg https://i.imgur.com/OE9Hh6f.jpg Once we arrived on Floor 80 they explained that you can go up again to floor 86 for views outside. It was lovely and warm on this floor as it was quite a suntrap so we stayed down here soaking in the view for a little while and looked in the shop too. https://i.imgur.com/0tNXff1.jpg https://i.imgur.com/DIS8qBz.jpg https://i.imgur.com/xAOegov.jpg On the 86th Floor it was 100% very windy as demonstrated below. Even though it was windy the cold was nowhere near as bad as Liberty island! The sky was cloudless and visibility was great so we took lots of photos and loved that we could see far and wide. https://i.imgur.com/8ardTrz.jpg https://i.imgur.com/3b4zf1w.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Cvfk7Uu.jpg Back down at ground level we left just before 10am. https://i.imgur.com/msOzeIw.jpg We walked over to Macys and realised they were about to open so we queued in the foyer and were let in along with a crowd of others. There was a welcome show :d::pgig::D all the staff were clapping and singing on either side of the entrance aisle. It was so bizarre. https://i.imgur.com/PjFgNrR.jpg https://i.imgur.com/9TDnZcj.jpg We just kind of wandered around having a look at what was on all the different floors. We found the wooden escalators which I think are so quirky/kitsch! https://i.imgur.com/8HK9LQ9.jpg We were trying to fine the toilets which was going very badly...as instead we found ourselves in the Christmas area. https://i.imgur.com/BjCx1pq.jpg https://i.imgur.com/9ixZU6I.jpg https://i.imgur.com/R8YUMxy.jpg Honestly this area was so cool, themed sections and different coloured decor put together. So nice. The only other thing we wanted to tick off in here was the Big piano. Helpfully we stumbled across the toilets here too. The piano was fun just to see! https://i.imgur.com/R1pWBod.jpg https://i.imgur.com/qNPVlyz.jpg https://i.imgur.com/J6xGgsN.jpg We left Macys and had a little look around some shops including Uniqlo and Zumiez, we found some cool stuff in both but neither of us needed to grab anything. We also found the Amazon book shop and spent a little while in there. Just found the idea strange for an online retailer to have a physical store?!?!?! :confused2 At this point we walked up 34th & Madison to the Morgan library, they had a Frankenstein exhibition on which didn't mention prices online. It was $20 each and we weren't sure of the size of the exhibit area so decided to carry on with our day instead. https://i.imgur.com/DeZYJR2.jpg https://i.imgur.com/BjoBm30.jpg https://i.imgur.com/QRhcB6N.jpg We walked from here directly to Grand Central as it was quite a short walk. Such a beautiful building. https://i.imgur.com/jI0nCgc.jpg https://i.imgur.com/rm46Kds.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ZNAVdWv.jpg |
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