A Fairytale in New York Christmas 2016 - Pre-Trip Report

[Melbatb]

Just a quick pre-trip report before we leave for 10 days in NYC. Some of you may remember me from my previous two live trip reports this year - Quebec and Kuala Lumpur!

This time we are off for 10 nights in the Big Apple. It is the kids' first visit, DH's second (but the first time was 25 years ago!) and my fourth.

So who are we:
Me - Mel - a training manager working in the South of France who is rather obsessed with travelling.
J - my DH of over 20 years. He works hard to pay for our holidays!
O - DS aged 15. A lovely lad with a very understated sense of humour.
F - DD aged 12. A sensitive soul but very caring. She is T1 diabetic - not that she lets that get in the way.

Our adventure starts early tomorrow. The taxi is due at 5.15am for the 20 minute drive to our local airport.

We have a BA flight to LHR - hoping that they will tag our luggage through to NYC as we change airlines for the second flight.

We then have 7 hours at LHR thanks to both airlines changing their flights. Lunch is planned at Yo Sushi.

We are then on the Virgin flight to Newark - flying on the Dreamliner. Looking forward to trying out this airplane!

We are due to land at 7pm. After considering all the options we have decided on a cab to the hotel. This is Home2 Suites in Long Island City.

We chose this as we will have two queens and a sofa bed. With a fidgety 15 yo three beds was a necessity!

The hotel also has breakfast included. It is close to the subway and we can be in Times Square in 15 minutes. Hopefully it will be ok - it gets rave reviews!

We have bought the City Pass - 6 attractions. We have used these in Tampa, Toronto and Seattle to good effect. I managed to get 12% off too so at 90 euros it seems a bargain.

With them we will do:
ESB
TOTR
Intrepid
MOMA
Natural History Museum
A cruise

As well as visiting SOL (Crown access) we have booked a NHL game - NY Islanders v Buffalo Sabres.

We hope to spend time wandering and F has a long list of shops to visit

So the bags are packed, hair has been cut and the boys are out at the cinema! I can't wait!