Thunder Feel The Thunder - NYC and Orlando June/July 2018 - Day 1 Travel to New York

[yellowrose78]

Sunday 24th June 2018

We were up and organised early and in the hotel restaurant for our breakfast for 6am, this was really nice, there was plenty on the buffet, from pancakes, pastries, omelettes and a hot option. Tim and myself don't normally eat breakfast, so we didn't have much. I had a couple of pastries, but Jamie and Evie had bacon and sausages. The coffee would have been enough for me.

When I went to check out, the receptionist asked for payment for the room, I was a bit annoyed at this as it had been paid for by clubcard vouchers at the time of booking. I explained this to her and showed her the email confirmation on my phone. She asked me to send her a copy of this by email, which I did and it was all sorted. This was a wee bit of hassle I didn't need at this time of the morning, but 5 minutes later it was all sorted and we started walking to the airport. There is a complimentary shuttle bus from the hotel, but it had just left and we thought we'd be quicker walking than waiting on it coming back.

I had paid for the priority package through Thomas Cook expecting delays at check-in, however there wasn't very much of a queue. A man came and asked us questions about where we were going, how long we were going for etc and then we were taken straight away at the priority desk, then headed to security. There was a bit of a queue here, but we were through in no time with the priority line.

We went for a Starbucks and had the long wait for the flight. I passed the time checking in on Facebook as you do and messaging my family and friends.

We were flying into JFK airport and the flight was 1035am. I was starting to get really nervous as we have never been to New York before and was worrying about the immigration queues and hoping we would get a taxi ok. I had been given advice on here about the airtrain, however didn't want to try this and use the subway with all our suitcases, so thought a taxi would be a better option.

Finally it was time to board the plane.

The flight was pretty fine, we were in 2 rows of 2. It left 10 minutes late and we arrived a little early at just before 1pm. I shouldn't have worried about immigration, it was a breeze, we used the machines, however still had to go to an officer. Our luggage was waiting for us when we went through and we had a short wait in the taxi line. All in all, it was 50 minutes from us landing to sitting in the taxi which I thought was pretty good. I had read about illegal taxi drivers trying to get you to go with them from the airport, and did see a guy trying to do this as we walked through, but knew to go straight to the official taxi line.

The taxi line was really organised, and we got a larger taxi which fitted our 4 cases no problem. The journey took around an hour, we drove through the Bronx which was bizarre to see. I was a bit sceptical of the fruit sellers walking up to all the cars whilst they were sitting at lights.

We arrived in Manhattan and this is where we ran into a problem. We did not realise that the Pride Parade was happening as we arrived and there were roads blocked all over the place. The taxi driver told us he couldn't get us anywhere near our hotel and he was just going to have to let us out a few blocks away and said we'd find it ok. Well it wasn't ok, the directions he had given us was down a blocked street. This was a panic situation for us. We had no clue where we were going, the streets were lined with people partying and we had 2 kids and 4 suitcases to try and navigate.

We went to the first roadblock and asked the police for help who basically said good luck trying to get to Broadway. We walked to the next roadblock, people were drunk and being sick in the street, we were going against the crowd of people with no clue where we were as my map was in the suitcase. The next policeman we spoke to wasn't very helpful, but said go down this street if you want but you won't get out the other end, we took our chances. Luckily at the end of the street was a really helpful guy who pointed us in the right direction. The wheels on one of the suitcases buckled on one of the grates so we now had this to contend with now.

Our hotel was the Broadway Plaza (recommended by wileycoyote - thanks Amanda this hotel was fab).

I had spent loads of time on google images so had a rough idea what I was looking for once we got on to Broadway. We were so happy to see the hotel and went in to check in. We had prepaid this through hotels.com but knew we had to use a credit card for a security deposit. Initially our card was declined, so I started to worry and used another card which was fine. We had notified the card provider we were going abroad but they hadn't updated their system properly.

We started to feel better once we got into our room and saw the amazing view of the Empire State Building from the window.

We quickly unpacked and our plan was to go to see the Flatiron building which was near the hotel and go to Shake Shack in Madison Square park for something to eat (stolen ideas from wileycoyote's report).

As we got near the Flatiron, the parade was coming that way. Well the kids got a culture shock that's for sure. Topless women with stickers on their nipples walking the street and I'm sure you can imagine what else we were seeing. My son didn't know where to look If we weren't so tired and stressed, we would have taken in more of the atmosphere. I would love to have taken photos of the floats, they were amazing, I just wasn't feeling it.

We made our way across the street when the police stopped the parade for people to cross and headed to Madison Square Park. There was anti-gay protesters to the side, this was really unpleasant. The chanting and what was written on their signs was horrible. Unfortunately we couldn't shield the kids from this. Ah the questions!

Once we got in the queue for Shake Shack, which was massive, we waited for about 15 minutes and the queue just didn't seem to be moving, we decided to give it a miss. We were feeling pretty deflated by this point, we weren't having a good start to the trip.

We had planned to go to the Empire State Building as we had previously bought tickets for there and the Top of the Rock through Smart Destinations. We weren't that hungry so decided to grab a bite to eat later on. I had a New York app downloaded to my phone and worked out where to go. We found it easily enough, you can't really miss it

When we entered the building, it just hit us where we were and we started to get really excited. Evie was really looking forward to seeing where Buddy from Elf had been.

We headed up the escalator and through the airport style security, our tickets were scanned and we headed for the elevators.

When we got out and seen the views it was unbelievable!

We were going up to the next level, but the queue for the elevator was massive so we took the stairs. I think it was 6 flights but oh my god it felt much more, I am so unfit It was so worth it though, just unbelievable.

We spent a wee while up there, taking it all in, but we were shattered from all the travelling and the time difference. It must have only been about 5pm but this was about 10pm in our time so we walked back down the stairs to the main elevator and headed out the building, taking photos as we went.

We stopped at our nearest subway station on 28th street, to try and suss out what we were doing for the morning. We've never used a subway anywhere before so were a bit clueless. We used the machine and bought a metro card and topped it up with about $30 to start with.

We were getting hungry now so we thought we'd get a pizza from Broadway Pizza at the corner at the hotel, but when we got there it was closed for refurbishment. We seen a restaurant across the road called Smiths so we thought we would try there.

Well this meal was amazing! Tim and I both had burgers which were probably the best burgers of the holiday, and the kids both had mac and cheese from the starters menu but they were huge. Again, sorry for no photos here. The meal was around $100 including tip, I can't remember exactly how much, but worth every penny. If anyone is in this area (Broadway/29th) I highly recommend it. After dinner, we walked across the road and got settled down for the night.

A bit of a long day, with a lot of stress, and a broken suitcase! So glad we had brought one inside a case so we didn't have to find a new one in New York, we'd wait until we got to Walmart in Orlando.

Night time view from our room window

I think it was around 11pm when we finally got to sleep, knackered! Plenty rest was needed for our first full day in New York.

[Juliemack]

Wow, I felt stressed just reading about your efforts to get to the hotel. You did well to go out and about straight away.

We stayed there last September and had that same view, did you have the junior suite?

[Fuellady]

Oh dear, that wasn't a great arrival in New York. I know how stressed we were and our taxi driver literally dropped us around the corner from our hotel. Great view from your hotel room.

Glad you managed to salvage part of your evening by going to the Empire State Building, I remember those stairs to the top well, there were people sprinting past me and I thought I would die before I got to the top! . You're right, it is worth it though, amazing views.

[i love jack]

What a nightmare start, so stressful glad you eventually found the hotel though!
Amanda should be on commission
The smith looked lovely, we never got there sadly - next time

[scottishnellie]

Wow - what an eventful arrival!

No wonder you were all shattered. I've never been to New York so am looking forward to the next few days reports

So glad you decided to write this - its cracking!

[Palm trees]

What an amazing view from your hotel window. Your arrival sounds fairly fraught but it's great that you dusted yourselves off and went on to have a good time.

[Taffy1959]

What a stressful start to your holiday.
The views are amazing though it’s making me even more determined to get to New York

[Goldia]

Oh no a bit of a stressful arrival, I'm really glad you made up for the road closures and horrid protest moments by making it up the Empire State. You must have been shattered by the end of the day. Goodness me! I hope you slept well.

[yellowrose78]

Originally Posted by Juliemack

Wow, I felt stressed just reading about your efforts to get to the hotel. You did well to go out and about straight away.

We stayed there last September and had that same view, did you have the junior suite?

I'm glad we did too, we were pretty down when we arrived, but the trip just got better and we can smile about it now. It's a great hotel isn't it? No it wasn't the junior suite, but we were on level 9 the first on the left as you came out the lift

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Originally Posted by Fuellady

Oh dear, that wasn't a great arrival in New York. I know how stressed we were and our taxi driver literally dropped us around the corner from our hotel. Great view from your hotel room.

Glad you managed to salvage part of your evening by going to the Empire State Building, I remember those stairs to the top well, there were people sprinting past me and I thought I would die before I got to the top! . You're right, it is worth it though, amazing views.

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It was an eventful arrival, that's for sure. I don't know how anyone could sprint on those stairs omg, I thought I was going to collapse haha

Originally Posted by i love jack

What a nightmare start, so stressful glad you eventually found the hotel though!
Amanda should be on commission
The smith looked lovely, we never got there sadly - next time

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She really should be on commision Great recommendation though, it was in a perfect location for us (once we found it obviously ) The Smith really was lovely, deffo go next time

Originally Posted by scottishnellie

Wow - what an eventful arrival!

No wonder you were all shattered. I've never been to New York so am looking forward to the next few days reports

So glad you decided to write this - its cracking!

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You need to go Helen, it's amazing! Just don't plan to arrive when Pride is on, disaster zone! It takes ages to write up a day eh, maybe the Orlando ones won't take so long! Or maybe I'm just jetlagged, just got home yesterday

Originally Posted by Palm trees

What an amazing view from your hotel window. Your arrival sounds fairly fraught but it's great that you dusted yourselves off and went on to have a good time.

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The view was amazing! Just loved opening the blinds in the morning to that sight

Originally Posted by Taffy1959

What a stressful start to your holiday.
The views are amazing though it’s making me even more determined to get to New York

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I'm so glad we done it, I debated it many times, but it was absolutely brilliant

Originally Posted by Goldia

Oh no a bit of a stressful arrival, I'm really glad you made up for the road closures and horrid protest moments by making it up the Empire State. You must have been shattered by the end of the day. Goodness me! I hope you slept well.

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We were shattered, it had been a really long day, but glad we just got on with it and went back out, Empire State was amazing

[Smilesonfaces]

Looking forward to reading along. We too have followed Amanda’s recommendation of the Broadway Plaza ! We have booked a junior suite and hope we get as good a view as yours.
You did well with your stressful travel day.