Notices
General Trip Reports Reports that don't fit in to the other categories

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 12 Apr 19, 04:44 PM  
Link to this Post
#1
Mariaherself
VIP Dibber
 
Join Date: Apr 14
Our Epic 7 Day NYC Trip - Travel Day

Travel Day -

We got taxi from our hotel at 6:45am and it only took a few minutes to get to Terminal 1 at Manchester Airport.

We dropped our bags to the desk and meandered to the security area.
We received fast track free as part of our lounge booking and the queue for both the normal and fast track was very short. It didn’t take long to realise that we were stood behind the most annoying family ever! All 4 members of the family had liquids in their hand luggage and when I say liquids I don’t mean that they forgot about a lipstick, I mean several 1ltr bottles of coke and water, large perfumes, makeup all un-bagged, (between the 4 of them it would have easily been around 10ltrs).
A teenage girl who was part of the family went into a full stroppy melt down with the agent because he told her to throw away her large perfume as it was too big. Tears and tantrums later we were placed ahead of the nightmare family.

We made our way to the metal detectors and the nightmare family reappeared and pushed ahead of us, then surprise surprise their bags went to a second check and as ours were behind them they thought we were together so we were checked too (nothing of any alarm in our bags) we then had to wait at least 30 minutes to get through.

Once through we headed to the 1903 lounge, which we had pre-booked. it’s a quite relaxing but very small and somewhat disappointing lounge, alcohol is free including champagne 🥂. As it’s a bit small in the lounge there weren’t many seats but we found a quiet corner to relax and use the WiFi in preparation for our flight. I had a glass or two of Champagne along with a breakfast of beans, hash browns, toast, sausage and bacon and eggs in abundance.








There were also porridge, yoghurts, pastries and fruit. Dan had a whiskey and coke and the same breakfast as me. The toilets are lovely and there’s a quirky shower in the loo too but its really impractical as its near the floor - think it may have been a makeshift bidet, it also had nice hand towels and hand moisturiser.




I’m not sure that this lounge is worth the entry price though and whilst the alcohol is included we prefer the V-Room. We left the lounge around 9:40am for boarding.

The queue to get on the plane was already quite long when we got there. We were seated in 11h and 11k, We’d originally booked 4h and 4K but that was premium economy so we were changed to this seat which worked out just fine.



We had two windows and the seats were comfortable and we had plentiful leg room. Once seated and settled we eagerly awaited departure and it wasn’t before long that the pilot announced there was a slight delay. I had been tracking this flights departure times recently and it’s leaves notoriously late, they gave the reason of loading baggage as the delay. 40 minutes later we had another announcement from the captain stating that there was still a problem with loading luggage and they were waiting more info, apparently someone’s luggage was on the plane but they hadn’t boarded so ‘‘twas a little Palaver.

Once we set off an hour late we waited to use the entertainment system which was £6 per person and no alcohol or any drinks or snacks are included in the flight (also you can’t just purchase the entertainment via credit card you have to wait for a flight attendant coming around with drinks) which is disappointing when this is as standard with long haul Virgin flights and with other carriers.
If you don’t pay for the premium entertainment packages you only get 6 tv programs and 6 movies, snacks are also expensive at (£4.50 for a coffee and bag of chocolate buttons).
The cabin crew didn’t come around with the codes for the entertainment system (IFE) until around 40 minutes into the flight and I watched an episode of The Terror, followed by Wreck it Ralph and then Bumblebee - both films were entertaining. In-between watching the films the food was brought around, Dan declined the meal as he doesn’t like eating on planes and plane food in general.
I had the beef dish which was braised beef, mini baked potato and a herb dumpling, it came with a bread roll, crackers, cheese, butter and a chocolate mint mousse - it was a little bland and I find the Virgin meals a little bit tastier even though these are created by James Martin.

[url=https://www.thedibb.co.uk/p/2fvBBPg]






The flight was very smooth and we didn’t hit barely any turbulence at all, we were given banana cake and water later on.




As we approached NYC we were told it was blustery and we could feel that when landing, also similar to San Francisco the runways here are parallel so we landed at the same time as another aircraft as per this picture.




Once we landed 1 hour and 20 minutes late we rushed to Customs/border control, luckily we had a current ESTA and didn’t have to wait like the poor souls on our right who had a very long wait and we were sorted within 15 minutes, that said we but had to wait much longer for our luggage.
We were concerned that our transfer had left but he was luckily still waiting (we used Dial 7 who are a reputable company but beware of late arrival fees - we had to pay an additional $30).
The drive to our hotel (The Park Central on W57th Street) took around 1 hour 15 minutes due to traffic and it was unusually very warm weather - which we were pleasantly surprised about. Once at the hotel we went to check in and the Check in Clerk was super miserable - he basically said these 4 sentences “Whats your surname”. “ I need ID and a Credit Card”. and bizarrely “ Do you have any questions or concerns”, and finally “ your room is on the 15th floor” miserable sod.

We headed straight to our room which was larger than the usual size you get in NYC rooms and was inwards facing towards the courtyard so was quieter than the outside which was good. We rested for a short while and then headed out to the subway on 57th street to visit Time Square.


We picked up some metro cards and then headed downtown 2 stops - Lazy I know but we were knackered. We did the touristy pics on the red steps and overlooking the screens and then went looking in shops and loved the Disney store.








We were starting to get hungry and went over to the Hard Rock Cafe, I had a made a reservation for 7:30pm but asked if we could check in early - it was 6:40pm - they were fine with this and it wasn’t too busy.
I ordered a Texan burger and Dan ordered a Legendary Burger we both had beer cheese fries, the meal was a little underwhelming but perfectly edible and we were very hungry and tired so it certainly did the trick.





Afterwards we then headed to Walgreens for some toiletries and then got the subway back from 42nd Street to our hotel. The plan was to stay awake as late as possible but by 9pm we were both flat out and snoring away.
Mariaherself is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 20 Apr 19, 10:31 PM  
Link to this Post
#2
disney owl
Imagineer
 
disney owl's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 02

disney owl's Reviews
Hotel Reviews: 1
Restaurant Reviews: 5
good travel day
__________________
Sue
June 1996 & 1998 - DLP Camp Davy Crockett
August 2000, Oct 2002, Sept 2008 & Sept 2016- DLP Offsite
June 2001, August 2003,2007 &Sept 2010 - WDW Offsite
June 2005 - DLP Davy Crockett Ranch
disney owl is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:59 AM.


Powered by vBulletin - Copyright © 2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
DIBB Savings
AttractionTickets.com

Get £10 off each Disney Ticket with the code ATDIBB10

Get up to £50 off per room at Disney or Universal with the code DIBBHOTELS


theDIBB Blog
Disney announced that a new nighttime show, “Disney Dreams That Soar,” will run nightly at... Read More »
Walt Disney World Resort guests can get ready to have a “glowing’’ good time when... Read More »
Aquatica Orlando announce the grand opening of its newest attraction, Tassie’s Underwater Twist, on 15... Read More »


theDIBB Menu


Exchange Rates
US Dollar Rates
ASDA  $1.2347
CaxtonFX  $1.2275
Covent Garden FX  $1.2463
FAIRFX  $1.2350
John Lewis  $1.2380
M&S  $1.2178
Sainsburys  $1.2337
TESCO  $1.2343
Travelex  $1.2353
Updated: 09:30 28/03/2024
Euro Rates
ASDA  €1.1426
CaxtonFX  €1.1388
Covent Garden FX  €1.1492
FAIRFX  €1.1432
John Lewis  €1.1457
M&S  €1.1263
Sainsburys  €1.1419
TESCO  €1.1425
Travelex  €1.1435
Updated: 09:30 28/03/2024

DIBB Premium Membership
Did you know you can help support theDIBB with Premium Membership?

Check out this link for more information and benefits, such as...

"No adverts on theDIBB Forums"

Upgrade Now



X