Jean and Barbara are going back to NEW YORK - pre-trippie

[Gill H]

Ooh, lucky you.

For our special meal we did Thalia on 8th Ave (near Wicked). Google and have a look at the menu - it was very luxurious and the standard was amazing. Peter is a chef and he was impressed.

Slightly more informal is John's Pizza (near Phantom) but the pizzas are delicious.

[jeanwales]

It is the informal type we go more for Gill, although Thalia sounded good when I checked online

[jeanwales]

Oh No!

Just had an email from the Hilton Garden Inn to say they have now gone 100% non smoking!
And we have prepaid our booking with a good deal.
Just sent them an email back asking if we can transfer to another in their chain that does smoking rooms! Fingers crossed!

[Guest]

The Beast looks great, i went on something like that in Sydney Harbour, it was good fun!

Hope you sort out your hotel without any hassle.

[jeanwales]

Just an update - having problems trying to sort this one out. Most of the chain have now gone non smoking so they are finding it hard to find us an alternative! We paid up front to get a good deal and they are trying to say that we cannot have a refund as the smoking thing was only a request, not guaranteed! I am persisting and demanding a refund as it would not be a pleasure to go there now. They are getting back to me on Tuesday.
I have an alternative now booked but not prepaid so I can still cancel - The hotel at Times Square who assure me they will still have smoking rooms in May - so fingers still crossed!

[purple myra]

Oh no Jean... hope they get something sorted out for you...either that, get Barbara a big box of patches
Good luck xx

[elliemay]

Really looking forward to your trip reports for New York, loved your last trip

[jeanwales]

Whew! Finally won my battle with the hotel! After various phone calls where they at first said, as it was prepaid, no way could I cancel, this changed to - ok we will cancel the smoking room but not the non smoking room! I then contacted the revenue manager for Hilton and he was fab. he admitted to being a heavy smoker himself and bent over backwards to help and has just emailed me to say that my credit card is being refunded in full for both bookings.

I now have a hold on 2 hotels that are both smoking at the moment so will be interesting to see where we end up.

[Bartswife]

Hi Jean, just read through your 1st NYC trip report. We are just talking about going February 2011, I have just looked up Millenium Broadway Hotel as the Times Square area seems to be an ideal location. How do you get around. I've been looking at the hop on/hop off buses and just wondered how they compared to the subway multi day passes. Was wondering about the New York Explorer pass as well, just wondering if it was all too much and would be better off buying tickets for attractions separately. Sorry to intrude on your planning! Just asking an expert. Hope you get your hotel sorted soon.

[jeanwales]

Hi Wendy

Lots of people swear by the subway passes but to be honest we preferred the hop on hop off bus as we got to see so much more of the city. You dont see much while you are on the subway!
As for the explorer it depends how many of the sights you are visiting. We only did the main few so it wasn't worth our wqhile but we did buy tickets for Empire State Building etc online to save a bit of time queuing.

thinks looking good with our refund. We have been told it should be paid back in full this week to my credit card. Fingers crossed!

Millenium Broadway Hotel is a good choice too.
Feel free to ask anything. I could talk about New York all day long

The 2 I have booked are 'The Hotel at Times Square' which is our first choice and the 'Best Western President'