The BIG New York Surprise - 15th August 2018 - LHR-EWR, Jersey City, Madison Square Park & ESB

[smithlane]

Travel day

Alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 5.30 this morning, but who cares as today we go on holiday! Whoop whoop

I was first up and straight into shower, leaving the two teenagers to have a bit more sleep. Jim followed shortly after, then Hope and Sam who were surprisingly sprightly this morning. Wish they were more like this on school days!

We were all packed and ready by 6.45am, nervously waiting for the taxi to come at 7. I get terrible anxiety on travel days and don’t settle down until we get airside at the airport!

My very carefully coordinated luggage

Thankfully the taxi was 10 minutes early and all our suitcases and golf clubs fit nice and easy into the boot. One last check over of the house, we said our goodbyes and were on our way.
We arrived at T5 by 7.10am, it’s at times like today that I love living so close to Heathrow. Other times when the wind changes and we get the planes practically landing in our back garden, not so much!

We were directed to the self service bag drop by a BA agent. It was a bit of a palaver getting everything weighed and printed off ourselves but we managed in the end. Jim had to take his golf clubs down to oversize baggage but after a few minutes we were ready to go through security.

You have to scan your boarding pass and as all of ours were on my phone I made the stupid mistake of through first, followed by Jim then Hope. When it came to Sam he got a bit confused as to what to do as I had to pass my phone back to him to scan . Luckily an agent came over to help him scan it correctly, in hindsight I should have gone through last after helping the kids!

We were straight through security with minimal queue. Take note MCO . Electronics larger than a phone had to be taken out and of course liquids be put separately in a clear bag. Thankfully no one got patted down this year!

Went downstairs to get breakfast and settled on Wetherspoons. You can’t go wrong with this place, cheap and cheerful.

Failed attempt at a selfie. "Muuuummm you're so embarrassing! "

We ordered through the App which is so much easier than queuing. A Large breakfast for Jim, small one for Sam and a breakfast sandwich for me. 2x Diet Pepsi, 1x lemonade, 1x Fosters and a coffee. £35 altogether.
What will become a recurring theme throughout the holiday is Hope’s dislike of breakfast and only wanting croissants so I went over to Pret to get her 2. She really is fussy moo but she was now happy!

Our food soon arrived and was really very nice.

After we had finished eating we finally revealed to the kids that our first 5 nights would be spent in New York not Naples, Florida!
They were so surprised, Hope thought we were kidding . She kept on saying “no, really?! We’re not, are we?! “ over and over
It was safe to say they were thrilled with their surprise. Phew

As Sam suffers with travel sickness and I occasionally do we took a Kwells tablet each.
I popped to Boots to get Hope a Ham sandwich meal deal, some water and Nurofen for Jim. I’m pretty sure it was the tablet I took but I felt ridiculously woozy. I must have looked like a mad drunk woman walking around! Luckily I was ok after 5-10 mins as otherwise they would have achieved the opposite effect of why I was taking them

We walked over to Duty Free now for some serious credit card bashing

On the way, Sam announced he spotted someone he follows on YouTube, Billy Wingrove a football freestyler. I of course had no idea who he was talking about. Jim asked if Sam could have his photo with him. He was a lovely guy and gladly obliged. Sam was chuffed to bits, his first celebrity sighting!

He was rather dishy, I should have asked for a photo with him myself

We split up now, Sam and I went to pick up the order I had placed on the Duty Free website from Concierge. This is a brilliant service!
I had ordered a Jo Malone Cologne in English Pear and Freesia, a Molton Brown body wash, a MAC lipgloss and lipstick and some Dermalogica Dynamic Skin Recovery. FYI, this is a brilliant moisturiser and with it being SPF 50 I didn’t need to worry about sun damage during the day.
I needed a few more bits from Chanel, so headed over there and got a foundation, a kohl eyeliner and a bronzer.

I think I was just about shopped out so went over to pay. £253 altogether The kind lady gave me a £10 off voucher as I had spent so much which was much appreciated

We popped to Starbucks to get a cake each then found a seat to wait for Jim and Hope.
They soon arrived and got themselves a cinnamon roll and caramel shortbread each. Jim had bought himself some Tom Ford aftershave but that was it. He couldn’t find the sunglasses he was after.

Our gate C62 was soon announced so we made our way over there.
I didn’t quite realise how huge T5 was! We had to go down a long escalator and onto the transit train that takes you to B & C gates. Didn’t take long but by the time we got there the plane was boarding already.

We were row 23 A, B, C & D. I was sat across the aisle.
We were due to take off at 10.40, 10 mins early which was handy but then some stupid family didn’t turn up so we had to wait until their luggage taken off, we were now going to be very late

Sleeping Beauty's and we hadn't even taxied yet!

It was 11.45 before we eventually took off which was annoying but the captain announced it would be a flight time of 7 hours 10 minutes so we shouldn’t land too much later than planned.
I had a serial recliner in front of me who as soon as he sat down reclined! He then proceeded to watch something obviously very funny as he then spent nearly the whole flight jiggling the seat back and forth laughing hysterically
This was a non refurbed plane but it had everything I needed including a USB charging point which is very handy

There weren’t many movies I fancied but I started with The Post with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. Well this was a brilliant film, I highly recommend!
Drinks were served about an hour into the flight, a Coke Zero for me.
Customs forms were also handed out shortly after. I had heard they were discontinuing these but obviously not for all flights.
Lunch was served at about 1.30pm, it was a choice of Thai red chicken curry or cheese and tomato pasta.
I went with the pasta, it was surprisingly nice! The choc orange pudding was scrummy, I had Hope and Sam’s too

The idiot in front didn’t put his seat up as dinner was served so had to ask him to put it back up.

My next film was Chappaquiddick. This was a very interesting film about when Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off of a bridge resulting in the death of campaign strategist Mary Jo Kopechne.
We got Mini Magnums handed out at about 3.45pm, these went down a treat!
I then put on Father Figures with Owen Wilson & Ed Helms. Bit of a ridiculous film but watchable and funny in parts.
Afternoon tea consisted of chicken caesar sandwich and mini Toblerone at about 5.40pm

We touched down at 6.55pm so not too much later than scheduled. We hurried off the plane but the Immigration hall was rammed!

Jim spotted Colin Montgomery in queue, he was very happy and a little star struck!

It took over an hour in the queue but we eventually got seen by an immigration officer and let into the country. Unsurprisingly our suitcases were waiting for us.
We had declared food on the customs form so they had to be scanned and searched but it didn’t take too much longer.

We got to the taxi rank and ordered a large car for us and all the luggage. We finally set off at 3.40, nearly 2 hours after landing! It was hot hot hot outside but I was very happy to have arrived
Our cab driver was geriatric, he didn’t know where he was going so I had to set the Sat Nav on my phone to guide him . Luckily I have Three’s Feel at Home!
It was a bit of a hair raising ride but got to the apartment in one piece in about half an hour. Total was $51.

First impressions were not great at all. Jim kept saying the area was rough and we were in the middle of the ghetto, he's so dramatic at times
We needed 2 codes to get in but were soon inside.

The apartment was a lot more run down than the photos looked but I wasn’t too bothered, it was only a base for 5 nights. Jim however really wasn’t happy! I'll add photos on our last day. Spoiler alert, this happens a day earlier than expected!

After a while Hope and I walked to the shops on the main high street for some drinks. It was quite a run down area but I did feel safe.
We found a pharmacy that had a small food section at the back. Got some Diet Coke, Dr Pepper and orange Fanta.
We walked back, did I mention it was it was hot?

After getting changed out of our travelling clothes we ordered an Uber to take us to Madison Square Park for a Shake Shack. It was very exciting driving into the city and going under the Lincoln Tunnel! It took about 30 minutes to get there, traffic was stop start the whole way there.

Wow we were finally here!

This is such a lovely park. We really liked the dogs only section, Boris would be in his element in there

We walked round to Shake Shack and there was quite a queue, but that was as suspected.

Such a pretty park

I couldn't get over how tall some of the buildings are. Don't they say you can spot a tourist a mile off because they are constantly looking up

Didn’t take too long, I ordered 2 x BBQ bacon cheeseburgers, 2 x hotdogs, 4 x fries and 4 x soft drinks. This was $49 altogether. It was a bit hectic by the pick up with everyone huddled around all getting in the way!
We got our order and found a bench to sit and eat on.

There was some kind of music festival going on right next to us which was not our cup of tea as it was so loud! God I’m getting old and grumpy . Once we had eaten we made a hasty retreat. The burgers were of course amazing and definitely filled a hole.
We now walked up 5th Ave towards the Empire State Building, not before stopping to take a photo of the iconic Flatiron Building

We wish this was Hope's bank

Once we got there we decided to go up tonight instead of Saturday as we were still feeling fine... You know where this is going don’t you...

My god the queues. Every corner you turned there was another blinking queue but we had committed ourselves to go up so on we went.

We made it up to floor 80. Beautiful views from all around.

Queued again for the 86th Level, it took ages.
Up here it was complete bedlam! There was no crowd control and you couldn’t get anywhere near the front to take photos as people were just hogging the space and not bloody moving
It felt very dangerous as you couldn’t move to get round, not very well organised at all. They should limit numbers and have a one way system in place for busy periods.
I took as many photos as I could then we made our way down before a complete meltdown from any of us occurred, tiredness had well and truly set in.

However we couldn’t pass the gift shop and not go in, I of course didn’t leave empty handed
1x postcard, magnet and Christmas decoration later I was done. $22 altogether

We were now practically on our knees so we made our way to the ground.

We looked up an Uber but it was $42 which was a lot especially as we had got one into the city so we decided to try the Path train back to Hoboken.
Got my Maps out on my phone to find the closest station which was 33rd St, very close to where we were.

We followed the directions but couldn’t for the life of us find the entrance to the station! We got there in the end but tiredness was definitely taking over, Sam was like an extra out of the Walking Dead!

It was then a bit of a palaver getting tickets. We couldn’t pay by card as you had to enter a zip code and the smallest note we had was a $20 that they wouldn’t accept. Got some change in a news kiosk then tried again. Eventually managed to buy 4x single journeys. $2.75 each.
This train went straight to Hoboken and was only 5 stops so very quick.

There was a taxi rank outside the station so jumped in the first one and got back to the apartment in about 10 minutes, this was $10. So altogether it was half the cost of an Uber. We will be using the PATH much more now, it really is very easy and convenient even with our tired heads on.

We got our clothes out ready for the morning and our first full day in NYC.
Unsurprisingly we were out like a light as soon as our heads hit the pillow

[yellowrose78]

Great first day! New York is such an amazing place! Tiredness hit us in the Empire State Building too on our arrival day, but those views are so worth it. Good day for celeb spotting too. I've enjoyed day one, looking forward to more of your report

[ribena]

Loved your travel day. I don't know how you managed to do so much! Looking forward to the rest.

[Smilesonfaces]

Not sure how you managed to do so much on your travel day. Good job you had the sat nav app on your phone with the dopey cab driver ! You did well to keep New York a secret until the airport.
Will look forward to day 1 - I am keeping notes from NY trip reports to cribb ideas !

[DisneyKim416]

Loved reading this, can't wait for the rest

[Minnie18]

Thanks for sharing your great trip report looks like you had a fab travel day.

[Eeyore rocks]

Great travel day...plus, you fitted so much in... making notes for my upcoming trip.

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Great first day! New York is such an amazing place! Tiredness hit us in the Empire State Building too on our arrival day, but those views are so worth it. Good day for celeb spotting too. I've enjoyed day one, looking forward to more of your report

See more...

Thank you so much for reading. Oh I’m glad we weren’t the only nutters who attempted the Empire State on arrival day 😬

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by ribena

Loved your travel day. I don't know how you managed to do so much! Looking forward to the rest.

See more...

Thank you so much. I’m not entirely sure how we managed it either! I think it was pure adrenaline keeping us going 😃

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces

Not sure how you managed to do so much on your travel day. Good job you had the sat nav app on your phone with the dopey cab driver ! You did well to keep New York a secret until the airport.
Will look forward to day 1 - I am keeping notes from NY trip reports to cribb ideas !

See more...

I know I’m so pleased I did too! I’m not sure how any yellow cab driver doesn’t know their way to at least the main towns in NJ & NY 😳
Thank you so much, Day 1 posted soon 😃