50 Not Out & Bowling a maiden over - the Round-the-World Tour. RCL to NYC; NYC & Hong Kong

[Hal]

50 Not Out & Bowling a maiden over - the Round-the-World Tour.

• Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas maiden voyage, Trans-Atlantic to New York;
• 3 days in New York;
• Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, and 3 days there

2014 is a big year for DW (the maiden I still delight in bowling over) and I as it marks our 25th wedding anniversary, and my 50th birthday (the half century not out!). We considered booking the Royal Suite on a Disney Magic mediterranean cruise, but ultimately I thought it would be more fun for everyone if we spent the budget on a longer Disney cruise in the Med with 2 ocean view staterooms (Cat 9b) AND a second, inexpensive, cruise for DW and I (without the kids). So we booked the 12-night Greece and Turkey Disney cruise for 26th July (and a wonderful time was had by all); and I booked a Cat-K virtual balcony inside stateroom on Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas 8-night maiden voyage, from Southampton to New York for 2nd November.

The Disney cruise didn't drop in price at all (I use cruisefish to monitor) but the Quantum of the Seas did experience a large price drop in various categories. I could have saved money by getting a refund or seeking compensating On Board Credit, but because DW was wary of an inside stateroom (as she gets claustrophobic) I instead decided to upgrade to the highest category of non-suite accommodation, which was a Cat D-1 Superior Balcony, in the hope that in the unlikely event we were upgraded by Royal Caribbean it would be to a junior suite or better.

We are due to arrive in New York on Monday 10th November. The original plan was to spend the week in New York and fly home to London the following Saturday. A member of the BA Exec Club, I booked two tickets in BA First Class using my BA Avios points. Hotels in New York were showing as expensive for the week. Whilst looking at various options I checked out whether there was any reward availability on Cathay Pacific (a BA One World partner) flights to Hong Kong – and there was. A cunning plan started to form. The end result was that I cancelled our BA First flights from JFK to LHR, and replaced them with Cathay Pacific Business Class flights from JFK to HKG, and a few days later from HKG to LHR. It cost more Avios, but less cash (taxes, fuel charge etc) than a simple flight from JFK to LHR. As I mentioned above, DW gets claustrophobic so I purposefully booked Business Class rather than First Class as the First Class cabin on CX is very small – only 2 rows of seats, 3 persons to a row. Besides the CX Business Class seat is the same seat used by BA in First Class.

Hotels in Hong Kong were less expensive than those in New York, and because of the travel, date lines etc we would need them for less nights. Rather than needing 5 hotel nights in New York (Mon-Fri inclusive), we now only needed 2 nights in New York (Mon and Tues) as our flight to HKG is leaving at 00:50 on the Thursday. 15 hours (!) and one international date line later we shall be landing in Hong Kong in the early hours of Friday morning – so no hotel required for the Wednesday or Thursday night. We get 3 full days in New York (Mon, Tues & Wed). As we now only needed 2 hotel nights in New York I was able to use IHG points to book the Intercontinental Hotel Times Square.

I booked a hotel for Friday and Saturday Night in Hong Kong. Our flight home to London is at 01:10 on the Monday morning, so no hotel required for Sunday night. We get 3 full days in Hong Kong (Fri, Sat & Sun). I say I booked “a hotel” - actually I booked “the hotel”, the Peninsula. It's amazing what you can do when you are not travelling with 3 kids I also booked the hotel's car service to and from HKG airport.

So, the plan as it now stands is:-
2nd Nov – Car to Southampton and board Quantum of the Seas.
2nd-10th Nov - watching out for icebergs on a maiden transatlantic voyage
10th Nov – arrive Liberty Cruise Terminal, Bayonne, NJ for NYC. Check in to the Intercontinental Hotel Times Square for 2 nights.
12th November – late evening head to JFK for our flight to HKG.
14th November – arrive in HKG. Check in to hotel, grab some Dim Sum breakfast, then off to Disneyland Hong Kong

Around the world in 2-weeks – another tick on the Bucket List!

[KarenG]

Oh my word, what a fantastic adventure!

[Hal]

Thanks. I hope the political situation in Hong Kong resolves itself by then.

On a happier note, this is one of the things I have booked for our second day in New York:

.

[Hal]

Less than a month until we arrive in New York, so some restaurant reservations have opened up. Accordingly I have booked the following:-

- BLT Steak;

- Jean Georges (2 Michelin Stars) for lunch; and,

- Gordon Ramsay for Dinner.

The latter two are favourites of ours from a previous visit. BLT Steak was chosen because of the wonderful DiBB trippy by Hannikins ("A Foodeating, Sightseeing, Subway Hopping Trip - NY&DC") where she (and Adam) dined there and she regarded it as her favourite meal.

[Guest]

you should still be able to get to the Peak and Lan Tau to see the Buddha easily via MTR while in Hong Kong. It might be a bit harder to get on the Star ferry or visit the markets at Mong Kok as the protests are around those streets.

[Hal]

Originally Posted by LenZe

you should still be able to get to the Peak and Lan Tau to see the Buddha easily via MTR while in Hong Kong. It might be a bit harder to get on the Star ferry or visit the markets at Mong Kok as the protests are around those streets.

See more...

Thanks.

[Hal]

Gordon Ramsay at the London NYC has now closed for good, since October 11th, and despite being offered free welcome drinks and free desserts if we switched our booking to Maze, I have instead switched us to Gotham Bar & Grill. This was recommended by friends and has just been awarded by Zagat in their 2015 awards:-

BEST AMERICAN RESTAURANT IN NYC, #1
BEST RESTAURANT IN GREENWICH VILLAGE, #1
BEST BAR DINING IN NYC, #1
BEST PLACE TO TAKE YOUR PARENTS, #1
BEST RESTAURANTS IN NYC, #4

[jocat]

This sounds like a great trip. Looking forward to reading more.

[*source*]

Looks amazing... Hope you have a SUPER trip - sounds totally fantastic and look forward to reading your review of Quantum.
Not long to go now til you depart

[Hal]