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Old 23 Aug 17, 04:04 PM  
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moosha
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Five Trips In Five Years...NYC May / June 2016 Day 8: One World, Tony's, School of Rock and Home

Day 8: Saturday 4th June 2016 (and Sunday 5th June)

Our last day in New York for another year . We had quite a busy day planned so there wasn't to be much time for pottering around today. As I mentioned in yesterday’s report, we had re-booked our visit to the One World Observatory for this morning at 9am.

The weather was much better today so we were hopeful that there wouldn't be any problems with visibility. Before we went to find out, there was the pressing issue of breakfast. I wanted a juice and Mat had done some googling and found a Juice Generation in the Financial District (101 Maiden Lane, between Pearl and Gold Streets). We set off nice and early (probably just before 8 am) and walked down to the juice bar. Being a Saturday morning, the Financial District was nice and quiet, just like the City of London is on weekend mornings. Lovely.

There were only two other customers at Juice Generation while we were there, but as anyone who makes fresh pressed juices knows, it’s quite time consuming and there was only one guy working behind the counter this morning. Mat was getting a bit stressed about running out of time, so we agreed he would take the girls to Pret A Manger and I would meet them there once my juice was ready. I think I went for a Daily Detox (apple, carrot, ginger, lemon, cucumber) as that’s quite similar to the juice I make myself every day for breakfast.

Walking to Pret by myself in my favourite city, enjoying the sunshine and my juice, was just one of those moments when all is right with the world. I could almost pretend I was a local (although I did have to concentrate to remember the route we had taken down to Juice Generation to be able to get back). When I got there, Mat and the girls were enjoying some muffins or pastries and we were doing fine for time now.

From Pret we walked down to One World and joined the line. I think it was about 15 minutes before opening (we were the first slot of the day) and there were already quite a few people waiting. At about 8.50 am, a guy came out to make an announcement. As I’ve said, it was sunny so we thought everything was fine weather-wise. We assumed he was just going to tell us the process for when the building opened, so we were surprised when he said, ‘Ladies and Gentleman, at the moment there is zero visibility’. This was not what we wanted to hear on our second attempt as we wouldn't have time to come back before we left the following morning, especially since we had those expensive theatre tickets booked for this afternoon.

I can’t remember whether he was offering people the chance to re-book or delay entry, but he definitely said they were still opening and we were welcome to go up and carry on with our bookings. I think he said it was expected to improve throughout the morning. That’s all we needed to hear as we pretty much had to just get on with it.

The guy reminded us of Sal from Impractical Jokers; he was pretty funny. He was announcing what visitors would and wouldn't be able to see because of the weather (Midtown, Brooklyn, Statue of Liberty) and some guy called out ‘Can we see Staten Island?’ He replied ‘Why would you want to see Staten Island?’ and everyone laughed.

***Spoiler alert: the next few paragraphs are quite detailed about the One World Observatory experience. If you’re planning to visit and don’t want to know what happens, skip ahead to end of spoiler.***

Just before 9 am, they let us in and we all filtered in slowly, heading down the escalators in a line for security. As expected, it was proper airport style security but it was all very efficient and it wasn't long before we were in an elevator heading up 100 floors. As I recall, we had our own private lift and this was actually one of the highlights of the experience. The elevators have floor to ceiling screens and as you go up, they play a virtual time lapse video of the history and development of the city over the past 500 years. I really enjoyed watching the video and it was over too quickly really. We saw a similar (slower) version of this idea at the Museum of New York a few years ago which gave a really good overview of the city’s very interesting history.



Once we were out of the lift, we were directed into a room that they call the ‘See Forever Theater’. Firstly, it’s not really a theater, just a fairly small room with no seats and one wall of screens. Everybody lines up to watch the film which lasts a minute or so. The One World Observatory website says about this experience: ‘Clear your mind and connect with the rhythms of the city’. I found this bit really disappointing. The film was just clips of street footage; people on bikes, taxis etc. Really predictable stuff, like you’ve seen hundreds of times on TV or adverts. I felt that One World were lazy here as they could have made an exciting, different film of something we don’t usually get to see. After all, I think we’d paid enough money to watch a minute or two of something more original.

At the end of the underwhelming film, the screens rise and there’s a ‘moment’ where you get your first glimpse of this unique view of the city. Except, we got a view of grey cloud . We could barely see anything. You could just about tell that there were buildings behind the vast expanse of grey, but there was definitely no ‘moment’. It was a very muted response from the assembled crowd, and a couple of people let out a little laugh at the lack of view. Obviously it’s not the company’s fault that the weather lets them down, but using this as part of the experience is slightly dodgy given how often this must happen.

We stepped out into the viewing areas, and from what I can recall, it was pretty quiet up there with it being so early. There is quite a lot of window / viewing as you walk around the floor and you can see out in several directions (towards Brooklyn, over Manhattan and apparently to New Jersey too but I don’t remember looking that way.) We couldn't really see anything because of the cloud. Here are the photos we took:













Looking up the West Side Highway (you can pretty much see Riverside Park; our route up and down the island this week) :











Bridges:







We could tell that the cloud was clearing as while we were up there, visibility was improving a little. We hung around for as long as we could hoping to get better photos but it wasn't happening quick enough really.

As well as the viewing, they also have a little 14 ft glass floored area called the ‘Sky Portal’ so you can look down 100 floors at the street below. The girls liked standing on this and looking down.













Memorial Fountains:





There were also a couple of presentation areas as you walked around where they have members of staff talking about the city and the World Trade Center. In fact as we were leaving, there was a guy discussing 9/11 and what happened in the towers that morning. We didn't want to listen to that as I find it too sad, so we made a quick exit.

There was also, of course, a pretty big shop up there. They had everything from pencils and keyrings to expensive ornaments and prints. We bought the girls a pencil and keyring each.

***End of spoiler***

Our opinion of our visit to One World Observatory is obviously massively affected by the fact that we could barely see any of the city. We might have felt much more impressed if we’d had clear views of the beautiful surroundings. Indeed, a friend of mine went a couple of months later, had perfect viewing conditions and thought it was great. I think our expectations were very high as we’d also had it recommended to us, and the website description of the different elements, we think, builds it up into more than it actually is. The See Forever Theater was very underwhelming. The elevator was impressive, but too brief.≈

To sum up, we definitely don’t think it was worth the money and we wouldn't go back (although I’m not sure any NYC viewing platform is really a repeatable experience. Once you’ve seen the view, you’ve seen it. Or not seen it in our case.) We absolutely prefer Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller Center though, and that’s always my recommendation to anyone visiting for the first time or who wants to do just one viewing platform.≈

Continued below...
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Old 23 Aug 17, 04:07 PM  
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...continued

Once we were back outside, we took a few photos;











Then we walked up to Grandaisy Bakery in TriBeCa (250 West Broadway) as we were in need of coffee and a snack. We’d been to Grandaisy a few years before and I didn't remember being particularly blown away by it, but it came up when I was researching good coffee in NYC so we decided to give it another go today.

I’m so glad we did. There’s definitely an Italian slant to the bakery, and it’s a really cute little place.



We took our coffees and treats over to the very small park across the street. The coffee was really good; up there with Zibetto and Fika as my favourite coffee of the week.





Mat, Seren and I shared an apple turnover (or maybe two, I don’t have a receipt or notes) and it was extremely good. It might not look much, but my word, it was certainly one of the best pastries I’ve eaten. You would probably have been able to tell that from the noises Seren and I were making while devouring it.



Freya must have had something chocolatey but again no notes, photos or receipt so let’s just assume she enjoyed whatever she had. Here is the outside of Grandaisy Bakery from where we were sitting in the park:



We then took the subway up to Midtown...





...and must have killed some time around there, possibly chilling out in Bryant Park as that’s always a go-to for us when we need shade and a sit down. We must have been further uptown at some point before lunch as we took a photo of Magnolia Bakery on Sixth Avenue at the Rockefeller Center. Not sure why as we definitely didn't go in there today. It's a mystery.



We had a lunch reservation at Tony’s Di Napoli which I think was around 12.30 pm so when it was time, we pottered along to our favourite lunch / dinner restaurant in New York.

It’s not unusual for us to visit Tony’s twice in one trip and this holiday was no different. As often happens, the second meal had only been booked while we were there (once we remember how much we love it). In fact on this trip, I think we had booked a second time in advance but had to cancel and re-book for a different day because of a change of plans. Anyway, we often find that the second visit, booked with a shorter lead time, often ends up with us being seated downstairs in the basement. Sitting downstairs is fine, it's still nice down there and the food is obviously just as good. We just much prefer the atmosphere and surroundings upstairs.

Being lunchtime and being sat downstairs, it was pretty quiet down there so the atmosphere was definitely lacking. But we still had a lovely meal and a nice chat about the holiday now it was coming to an end.





Mat and I both had a nice glass of wine ($13 each) and we all enjoyed the delicious bread as we always do. We are creatures of habit and stuck to our usual pasta order: primavera with gluten free pasta for Mat and I (served family style, the portion serves 2-3 people. It was $32). As always, they were happy to do a half portion for the girls (linguine with marinara sauce, $11). Desserts were ordered today which is unusual for us but I think Mat had a craving for their New York cheesecake ($8 and delicious). Seren had an exotic tartufo ($9) which was mango, passion fruit and raspberry sorbetto covered in white chocolate. I think I helped her eat it and I’m pretty sure it was very good. Total check including 18 percent tip was $112.35 which isn't bad for lots of food, two glasses of wine and two desserts. Highly recommended and good value; we’ve never been disappointed and we’ve eaten there at least nine times. But remember to book a table as soon as possible, especially if it’s for the weekend. It’s very popular.



From Tony’s we walked up to the Winter Garden Theater on 50th Street / Broadway. It wasn't the most comfortable walk as the streets of Midtown were unsurprisingly busy on a sunny Saturday afternoon. It didn't take too long before we were handing over our (very expensive) tickets for the School of Rock matinee.

We really did have good seats (I should think so for $400 :angry. We tend to usually book rubbish seats when we go to the theatre to keep the cost down so aren't used to having such a good view. I like the way New York theatres give you the playbill when you sit down so you don't have to buy a programme to find out who everyone is in the cast. I wish they did that in London (and our local Milton Keynes Theatre to be fair).



The theatre was beautiful. Unfortunately our photo doesn't do the pretty ceiling justice, especially with the stage lights casting shadows on the ornate decor.





This is the girls doing rock horns (allegedly) :



School of Rock had only opened about six months beforehand so it was great to watch something that was new and hadn't yet opened in London. We tend to try and do that if we go to a show in New York (the last one we’d been to was Aladdin, again before it opened in London).

I was a bit concerned before the show started when an announcement was made that the lead role (Dewey Finn) was to be played by the understudy this afternoon, which is often the downside of matinee performances. I believe the understudy’s name (or alternate as they call it there) was Jonathan Wagner. In the end, I was so pleased that we got the understudy. He was brilliant; absolutely hilarious and enough like Jack Black’s portrayal of the character in the film to be hysterically funny but not so much like him that it felt like a poor copy of the Jack Black character. I watched a brief video when we came home of the actual lead actor (Alex Brightman) performing in the role and I didn't like him anywhere as much as the guy we saw. So it all worked out for the best I think.

The show was excellent, and I cried as I always do at musicals. This was our third Broadway show and the first time we all stayed awake throughout. Definitely something to be said for choosing a matinee over an evening performance, and also for going eight days into the holiday when the jet lag has gone.

New York (possible all US, I don’t know) theatre audiences are definitely different to London / UK ones. They’re much louder in my experience, whooping and ‘yeah’ing at the jokes. It got a bit political a couple of times and the audience responded loudly as you would probably expect from a New York audience a few months before the election.



When it was over, we decided to walk up to Whole Foods on Columbus Circle to get some tea and take it to Central Park. Seren and I both got salad from the salad bar. Seren got a small box, I got a large box. Mine was an eye watering $23.73 (it’s done on weight and I can’t resist all those delicious salads). Seren’s was $11.69. Mat got a tuna melt panini ($8) and Freya had a slice of pizza ($4.76). We also shared a strawberry juice from the chiller ($2.99). $55 for a picnic tea in the park .



There was a bit of a negative vibe going on at this point because we were so close to the end of the holiday, and all that was left was to go back to the hotel and pack . Probably because of that, I only took one photo in Central Park this afternoon:



We took the subway back to TriBeCa, got showered, and the girls had a fairly early night while we got all packed up. After eight days and having lived in such a small space for the trip, things weren't as organised as I would have liked so it was quite a task. We had ordered a car from the hotel for our trip back to JFK the following morning and it was booked for 5 or 5.30 am so we were conscious that we needed to get an early night too.

We had decided to try a day flight on the return journey for three reasons. 1. The traffic is always a nightmare on the return journey and we’ve had some pretty hair-raising taxi rides on the trip back with the drivers doing their best to make sure we weren't late. It’s also very stressful knowing that you set off in plenty of time but the journey has taken twice as long (or more) than it should and then it becomes a massive rush on arrival at the airport. 2) Mat is not good on the day we travel home. We usually pick a fairly late flight (9 pm ish) so we can enjoy most of the day, but he’s constantly clock watching and getting antsy about the return journey so it ends up being quite a stressful day anyway. 3. We wanted to try out Premium on a flight that wasn't a night flight. We’ve always flown Economy on the way out to NY and Florida (day flight) and Premium on the night flights home to make it more comfortable to sleep, but we wanted to try enjoying the relative ‘luxury’ of Premium when we weren't trying to sleep.

The benefit of setting off at 5 am (or just after; the car was 15 minutes late as I recall) is of course that it's a lovely quiet ride along the Van Wyck Expressway through Queens back to JFK. We’ve had return journeys where it’s taken us 45 minutes to get off the Island and into the tunnel to Queens, but this morning’s trip was done and dusted in just over 30 minutes as I recall.≈

All I can say about the return journey is that, while we did enjoy Premium on the way back (or World Traveller Plus as BA call it), we wouldn't do a day flight on the journey home again. It just felt like a waste of a day. When we got home it was about 7 pm and we weren't at all tired. This was of course partly due to the time difference, but also all we’d done was sit on our backsides all day. We felt like it was about lunchtime and were nowhere ready for bed. So I think it took us longer to get over the jet lag than it usually would because normally we’ve had a rubbish couple of hours sleep on the plane journey overnight so then we sleep well the following night when we’re back in our own beds. We definitely wouldn't choose to do a day flight on the way home again but I guess it might suit other Dibbers better.

School work on the plane home :



Looks like I did have a little nap:



So that's it for our fifth family trip to New York (and our longest). As always, we loved our time in our favourite city in the world and when we got home, we knew it wouldn't be too long before we were back again. In fact, as I write this, we’re two months away from our sixth family trip. Six trips in six years then. We’ve never been as late as October before so it will definitely be different to the majority of our trips which have been in the summer time with hot weather. Although, you never know what the weather is going to be like there so it could still be warm. We’re doing four nights this time as we didn't want to be away for all of half term. Seren is starting high school next month and we don't want her ending up going back to school after half term anymore tired than she already will be from getting used to the pace of grammar school and the long bus ride there and back every day.

At the moment we don’t have our accommodation sorted despite the fact that we’ve had our flights booked since Christmas. We’re waiting for our friend at the Bryant Park Hotel to confirm rates on a suite for us so fingers crossed we'll be back at our favourite hotel. If not, I have Ink 48 in Hell’s Kitchen booked as a back-up. Plans include a trip to American Girl (of course), Central Park, the High Line and meals at Tony’s, Bubby’s and The Odeon. I’m sure there will be a trip report, and this time I might even make notes to help myself write it up.≈

Thanks to everyone who has read along, and especially those who have left comments. As other trip reporting Dibbers have said before, receiving comments really helps with motivation when finishing the report seems like a struggle. Thank you for sticking with me despite the slow pace and until next time, you can find me persevering with my 2017 Florida trip report .≈
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Old 23 Aug 17, 04:47 PM  
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What a shame about the observatory we've just been and we didn't get the sky theatre which I was really disappointed about.
We also managed $20 on a salad from whole Foods! Really tasty though
Great report
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Old 25 Aug 17, 08:19 AM  
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School of Rock sounds like it was good fun, well you managed to stay awake for the whole show.

I've really enjoyed reading your NYC report. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.
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Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 28 Aug 17, 08:22 PM  
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Sorry the view wasn't what you hoped for hopefully the rest of the day made up for it as Tony's and the show sound fab. We went to Tony's on your recommendation on our last visit and loved it!

I didn't know they even offered Day flights back from NY-the dibb really is a wealth of info!

That's great about your next trip. NY in fall will be beautiful xx
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Old 8 Sep 19, 08:14 PM  
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Thoroughly enjoyed your trip report. Thanks for giving me new things to try when next in new york.
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