September 2016 Tom and Lindee turning 30 in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC-Travel Day

[winkie88]

Hello and welcome to my first ever trip report! Be gentle with me, please ignore any spelling mistakes, bad punctuation and bad grammar. Also I may go off in a tangent...

Sooooo Lets start, I was in 2 minds whether or not to write a trip report for our trip, I became obsessed with the Dibb two years ago, when I was lucky enough to go to Walt Disney World. Since then I have loved reading peoples trip reports and all the pearls of wisdom this site has to offer. I poured through all the General trip reports to find good New York ones when we had booked up to go to New York, and I found them very useful and added to my excitement, so I thought I should return the favor. A little disclaimer though before I start, we didn't really eat much and there wasn't much shopping. We were up most mornings at 7am, out for 8ish, and would not be back at the hotel till 12am/1ish, so there was plenty walking and sites to be seen... Believe me, my feet are still suffering to this day.

I did do a pre- trip but have no idea how to link it so here's a wee bio of the cast of this mammoth trip:-


This is me, Lorna, I am 28 years. Live with my Mum, Dad, cat Wilma and dog Sammy in the wee town of Bathgate in bonnie Scotland. I love my Disney (the passion reignited when I went to WDW), also a big fan of Harry potter, and Marvel. I doubt I will ever grow up (I have just purchased myself a elf on the shelf). I work in one of our top supermarkets in the petrol station.

This is my brother Nicholas (he was dressed up as Freddy Mercury for his party a couple of days before we left for NYC) he turned the big 30 on the 4th of September. He lives in London, where he is trying to make it as a performer/ actor. Right now he is working front of house in one of London's many theaters. He has worked on a few cruise ships over the years as a singer and dancer, he seems to have been bitten by the travel bug. He is slowly working his way through the Harry potter book series (which I am very much encouraging). We have had our moments, the Chinese burns, the name calling, but through it all we have come out the other end and have respect and love for each other.

So why have I titled this report Tom and Lindee you ask? Well we were obsessed with Gimme Gimme Gimme when we were younger, we are Tom and Linda to be honest, if we ever moved in together it is exactly what it would be like to a T!


Soooooo let the travel day commence!

5th of September

I woke up excited and nervous for the day ahead! I was slightly nervous as I don't do well with stress lol hate all the weighing of suitcases etc, plus I wasn't 100% sure our cases and 4 adults would fit in my dad's car, we were getting the fond farewell from maw and paw. I was convinced we would need to find an alternative way to get to the airport. Anyway lo and behold our cases fitted in my dads car! We then did the usual make sure we have everything dance, and my brother played the part of the quiz master asking me do you have the passports, do you have all the print outs etc. We were soon in the car travelling to Edinburgh airport! After a non-eventful journey we arrived! We had plenty of time before check-in so we popped into the wetherspoons for some brekkie. I had a bacon roll and a coffee, my brother had eggs Benedict and a tea, mum had a cooked breakfast and tea and dad had a scone (he was suffering from man flu). We ate away glad to get some grub in my belly to set me up for the day. Time was ticking away and we were soon getting up and saying our goodbyes, giving them instructions to look after my babies Wilma and Sammy, we headed to check-in.

Goodbye Airport Selfie!

We checked in, got our boarding passes, we were travelling Edinburgh- London Gatwick- Jfk, and we were very grateful to the girl in check in when she was able to check our bags all the way to New York! Woohooo 2 big bags away, freedom! So we were giving our boarding passes for both the flights wooop woop. We went on our merry way through security, scanning our bags, I had a cabin bag on wheels & my handbag. We then just sat and waited in the lounge for our flight as we wanted to wait till we got to Gatwick to do some shopping in duty free. Our flights were all through British airways, our flight to London was very short and uneventful tbh, we were sitting next to a sales rep on her way to a meeting in London, who chatted away to us as we were giving a drink, just a coffee again (too early still for alcohol) and we were giving some lemon biscuits. We soon arrived in Gatwick. We arrived in Gatwick at 11:40 and our flight to JFK wasn't till 16:40, so we had plenty of time to have a bite to eat and wonder about the shops. Now we may have accidentally went the wrong way when we got of our flight, we should have went through connecting flights but instead found ourselves going through border control and back through security! Now as we went through security AGAIN both our hand luggage were stopped and searched turns out we both had our hand santisers in our bags, though Edinburgh was fine with this? We soon found our way to where we were meant to be, and after making a couple of checks to make sure our bags were still going to New York, we went looking around the shops. I bought myself a miniature Marc Jacobs Daisy set... £34 I believe it was...

I think i also bought myself a bottle of juice.

we went for a bite to eat, we chose to eat at Pret A Manger (little did I know at the beginning that this place would feature very prominently in our trip! ). I grabbed a cheese stake thing, getting in the mood for America! After our lunch we wondered about the shops, Nicholas bought a pair of Sunglasses. We popped into Starbucks to sit and chill waiting for our gate to be announced. While there we people watched, made lists of places we wanted to go and went over our itinerary. We started talking to a lovely old man who was chatting away to us about his travels to America, he was on his way to Chicago. Our gate soon came up, we said our goodbyes and left for another seat. wooooohooooo we were soon gonna be on a plane to New York Baby!


We were soon boarding our flight gahhhhh, it was on time as well woohoooo. Sadly we were not sitting beside each other, I was sitting on an aisle seat and Nick was sitting opposite me at the other side of the aisle. I got my cabin bag in the overhead locker, popped my seat belt on, took the free earphones out and got the blanket and pillow out and got myself comfy for a long journey ahead. I was surprised at how quickly the crew came down the aisles to hand out drinks, now was the time for some prosecco! I looked through what there was to watch, quite a vast selection, I decided on Julie & Julia, love this film I asked for the art of French cooking for my birthday one year, just gets you in the mood. Dinner soon came down the aisles...


I finished my film then, tried to zone out and get some sleep, as we were landing at 19:30 (2:30am in the UK) and knew that Nick was wanting to get to the hotel and head straight out for a wander when we finally arrived in New York Baby! So I gathered up the blanket, cocooned myself in it, and had a nosey at what other people were watching! Does anybody else do this lol? You peek glances and hope nobody notices you being nosey. Turns out there was a Tom Hiddleston fan on the flight, lol she watched the film with him in it, playing a country singer by the looks of it, and they then watched the Night Manager, she was obviously a fan! I popped on some of the tunes to help you snooze, and I put my jumper over my face... as you know I think it's embarrassing sleeping next to a stranger with my mouth hanging open lol. I fell asleep for a couple of hours & when I woke we only had an hour till we landed wooohooooo.

Here's a window picture...

We soon landed at 19:40, and omg the humidity just hits you doesn't it. We waited ages at border control... ages and ages, of course Americans were able to skip the queue... lucky jammy dodgers. We finally got to the end, getting my picture taken and finger prints taken. Then that was us wooohooooo. We headed to the ground transportation desk as we had booked a go airlink bus to take us from JFK to our hotel. Again though there was a lot of hanging around waiting for our turn to get on a airlink. It was now that I had the fright of my life, I got our hotel confirmation and I then realized I didn't have my card on me that I had booked it with omg I started to panic! I was quiet for the whole journey when our number finally got called out for the bus. I just wanted to get to the hotel as I was just making myself sick with worry, that's what i get for hiding my credit cards so I couldn't use them anymore... We soon began to see all the sites lit up as it was 9ish by this point. Finally we got to our hotel. Hotel Marrakech On Broadway:-

(image 'borrowed' from Google)
I knew there was no lifts & that there was a load of stairs we would have to climb up to get to the reception, but lucky for me gentlemen are still out there ladies as a very kind man saw me struggling and carried my very heavy check in case up the stairs for me up yours bro. We checked in and my prayers were answered, I didn't need my credit card I had used to pay for the room wooohooooo, We just needed to put a card to our room in case there was any damages. We were only one floor up thankfully so wasn't so bad getting our luggage to our room. Now on the Thursday before we left I had ordered a gift basket from perfectNYC, it said it would be delivered on the Monday we arrived, but I think because it was labor day weekend they thought they would deliver it early! Luckily as soon as I received an email from the company to say they had delivered it, I got in touch with the hotel, now there had been a couple of emails sent previously inquiring about a couple of things, and they always replied very swiftly, I was very impressed. So yes I emailed the hotel to tell them I had ordered a basket which had arrived early and I asked if there was anything that needed to be put in a fridge could they store it somewhere for me. They replied to say they had received it and there was nothing that seemed to need refrigerated. So when we got to the room there it was!


So here we were in our room for the next 8 nights, & I have to say it was really a surprise at how good and my god how comfy the beds were I was a bit worried & kept looking at the reviews on Tripadvisor, but I really didn't need to be. It was a big room, 2 very comfy beds, had a TV, very clean, extremely friendly staff. I was very happy with it. It was now 10ish I think, my brother was not wanting to lay his head down just yet. We freshened up and went and hailed our first yellow cab to Times square! The cabbie was extremely friendly, he said he had relatives in Edinburgh so we chatted about Edinburgh (I'll be honest... I prefer Glasgow ) We soon arrived at our destination, the cab was $16, quite reasonable I think. OMG WE WERE IN TIMES SQUARE!

I could not stop taking pictures! I couldn't believe we were actually here! A few weeks ago I was watching something about the birth of Broadway and George M Cohan, and here he was!

We popped into Hershey world for a browse, and of course to grab the free chocolate kiss

We then popped into the Disney store!

Oh my goodness this place was huge! The sales assistants (cast members) were so friendly and helpful. I saw lots I wanted to buy, but we needed to reign it in as we were in New York for 7 days, plus we had Philly and Washington to go... This was only the beginning...
We went up the stairs, this was such a gorgeous site, they had tangled lanterns hanging up over your heads!

I adored the wall art as well

We decided to pop into a Starbucks after the Disney store, we grabbed some stuff to go, hailed a cab and got back to the hotel. My goodness it was sooo good to get into them beds! I did my best starfish impression (sleep with a cat and a dog who hog up all the room on my bed normally) and I was out like a light. Believe it was around 12ish/1ish.

Well that's the first day, the travel day completed! Thanks for staying with me, stay tuned for day 1!
x

[DizzyDisneyMum]

Sounds like a long travel day, I love the fact that you were able to stay awake to see some sights, I would have had to go straight to my bed
Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.

[Beaker's Fluff]

Loving your report. Well done for heading straight out after such a long travel day.
Can't wait to read along.
Thanks for sharing.

[Smilesonfaces]

Thanks for sharing your holiday in your report. Can just sense your excitement from your writing. Looking forward to the next instalment !