Notices
General Trip Reports Reports that don't fit in to the other categories

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 14 Jun 19, 01:51 PM  
Link to this Post
#1
VeryexcitedH
slightly serious Dibber
 
Join Date: Mar 13
Day 4 – Friday 26th October 2018

Today was our final day. Boo. We were up early and finished packing up our suitcases before leaving them with bell services and settling the bill. There was a city charge which I paid with the Halifax Clarity card, I can’t remember what it was exactly but I do know that I didn’t think it was excessive for the time we had had and the location of the hotel.

No need for a voucher breakfast this morning as we were on our way to Ellen’s Stardust Dinner! We left the hotel 8:44 and were at the dinner by 8:54. There was quite a queue and when I went to the front to ask how long the wait would be I was told 30 minutes. We gave our name and patiently waited and not even 10 minutes later they were calling us in. We did feel rather guilty overtaking all the people ahead of us but it must have been because we were a bigger party than them.











Seated quickly we were given menus and ordered drinks. I knew what I wanted, tator tots! I love tator tots so ordered an omelette purely because it came with tater tots! The others all ordered pancakes stacks, and once ordered the food came out quite quickly.




No photos of my omelette unfortunately!

The waiter and waitresses that got up and sang were very good and we really enjoyed this meal. It was nowhere near as luxurious as the one the night before but the atmosphere and experience were great.

Breakfast finished we paid our bill (no idea of the cost of this!) and used the restroom before leaving at 9:25. A really quick turnaround!

Our final stop was Central Park so we walked across the city to get there. This took us 45 minutes and once at the park we redeemed the voucher from the hoho for 1 hour bike hire. Initially we had a bit of a problem here because they wanted a room key as deposit.
Unfortunately we had checked out so didn’t have a room key. I think we resolved it in the end by paying a little cash deposit and A leaving her ID (driving licence) with them. We hired 3 bikes and 1 tandem as A had a challenge from a friend at home to do certain things in her 40th year, and 1 of them was to ride a tandem! Plus of course E had a broken toe so they went together to ease the pressure on E’s broken toe.





We made our way around the outskirts of the park stopping a couple of times to take in the views and take some photos. We also set up some photos that I took at the bottom of the hill…me poised with the camera as the others came down one by one freewheeling - it was great!

Legs like jelly we returned our bikes just before the hour was up at 11:34 and headed out of the park by Trump towers. Despite having a huge breakfast B picked up a hot dog from a cart as she wanted to say that she had eaten a New York hotdog!





We slowly made our way back towards Times square, stopping at some hat stands and looking in tat shops on the way where we bought presents for the kids.

H wanted to buy an American Football top for her DS as he is sport mad so we tried a few different shops and I bought a jumper from another shop on the corner of Times Square I can’t remember the name of! A wanted to go and look at the Rockerfeller Centre and St Patricks’ Cathedral and H wanted to look for something else so they headed away with a plan to meet at the hotel at 2. B and I headed to Macy’s where she bought a Michael Kors bag. Not sure where E had been initially but she appeared and headed up to the Christmas store in Macy’s.



Once B’s bag had been brought up from the basement (wow, they actually ordered it from the basement!) we headed up to the Christmas Store, taking in the original wooden escalators towards the top of the store and passing a McDonald’s on the way. We came into the Christmas store and couldn’t find E…we’d lost her in Macy’! That place was massive so we decided to make our way back down as time was marching on, we took a selfie in the lift and we both looked exhausted!

We went down a different way than we’d gone up and we couldn’t find the entrance we’d gone in at and we had no E! Panic! We made our way right around the edge of the store until we eventually found the door we had come I at and sent E a What’s App message. She wasn’t far behind and we left Macy’s making our way to the hotel at 1:53pm, after a quick pit stop in American Eagle on Times Square for E and I.

Once at the hotel we told the doormen we were here to collect our bags as we had no room key to show and went to use the restroom while waited for A and H to come back. We had another hairy moment where H was messaging saying she wasn’t sure where she was or how to get back to the hotel. Eventually we figured it out and helped her make her way back.

All 5 back together we went to bell services to grab our bags and I then ordered an Uber XL.

Bags in hand we said goodbye to the fab hotel and made our way down in the lift for 1 final time. We waited on the street for our Uber to arrive and he was very swift. He packed our bags in his boot and by 2:47 we had left the Double Tree Suites by Hilton and were on our way out of the city to JFK. The journey took 1 hour 21 and we arrived at the airport at 4:08. It’s safe to say most of us fell asleep on the journey as we were so exhausted!

We arrived at JFK at 4:08 and had soon unloaded all the bags and headed in to the terminal. Check in was really quick and simple, there was no queue and despite not having pre-booked seats we were allocated a 3 and a 2 together. We waved goodbye to our bags and then headed through to security. This was awful. The queue was quite long and when we got towards the front our security officer was a real grump and shouted at me for not standing back against the glass! Urgh.

Once we’d got through security we were feeling much more comfortable. We went through to the main part of the terminal and were in search of some food as it had been a long time since breakfast that morning! We found a table in the middle of the terminal and we took it in turns to wander off to find something that we fancied. There was a very wide variety of choice but there was only ever going to be 1 thing I was having….Shake Shack! I had enjoyed it so much in Grand Central Station I decided to go for it again, this time choosing a different burger. No idea on cost as I used left over dollars. Food devoured I know that I literally sat at the table we had secured and did not move…I was exhausted! The others took it in turns and had a wander round some of the shops. E bought some American munchies to share at her 40th the following Sunday as well as perfume. I am not sure what the other girls bought.

Once they had finished shopping I went and used the restroom and by this point it was time to head down to the gate. We made our way through the airport to the gate which was opposite Dylan’s candy store so we had a brief look in there as we hadn’t made it to the actual store in the city. After that we queued up and were eventually let on the plane. We had THE best seats ever….exit row seats right behind premium economy! 3 on the left and 2 over on the right. E, H and I took the seats on the left and A and B sat on the right. They told me later they’d been with a lovely chap and had a nice chat .
As the doors were closed and we prepared for boarding E got chatting to the air hostess (she always does like to chat to strangers….we started counting how many strangers she had chatted to on our trip but by day 2 when we’d got to about 75 we gave up!) Turns out E’s boys went to the same high school as the air hostess and they had a friend in common. As they were chatting another hostess came back from PE with a half open bottle of fizz and said she’d dished it out in PE and would we like a glass as she’d hate to waste it. Errr, yes please! Super kind. We chatted some more and once we had taken off at 6:52pm I think the 3 of us were out like lights. I vaguely remember food being put in front of me as I had my tray out but I didn’t touch it and I had no recollection of it being taken away. I think the flight home was similar for E and H too!

Saturday 27th October 2018

Our flight landed smoothly in Manchester at 7:00am and we were soon off the plane. We were through passport control (self-service machines as we had no kids so this was really quick! ) and baggage collection really quickly. Unfortunately, when we got outside to meet our taxi there wasn’t one there. We waited a while and then phoned the taxi office to be told there wasn’t one booked for us despite us filling in their envelope on the day we departed and A getting a text to confirm pick up a couple of days later. We weren’t happy as it was freezing outside! We left the taxi office to sort that and headed back in to Arrivals where we each picked up a coffee from Café Nero as it was much needed by this point. By the time we had collected our coffees and gone back outside our taxi driver was ringing us from the multi-story car park. Bags loaded we were leaving the airport at 7:59 and 21 minutes later we were all back at A’s house ready to continue our journeys. We popped suitcases into various cars, gave big hugs and kisses and said goodbye…until the following Sunday for E’s birthday party.

B and I left Warrington at 8:34 and set off to the M6 where DH was meeting us at Preston and I was home, exhausted by 9:48.
Thanks for reading the trip report if you’ve got this far. I have enjoyed writing it and reliving the memories and by doing so it made me realise exactly how much we had done and explains why we were so exhausted!

Distance covered (Friday):
VeryexcitedH is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 14 Jun 19, 09:34 PM  
Link to this Post
#2
Mel49
Imagineer
 
Mel49's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 16
Location: Scotland

Mel49's Reviews
DIBB Villa Reviews: 3
What a fantastic way for you to celebrate your 40th Birthday's with a group of life long friends and you sure packed a lot in to your trip. Enjoyed reading along and thanks for sharing. How will you top it for your 50th's ?
Mel49 is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 15 Jun 19, 06:59 AM  
Link to this Post
#3
VeryexcitedH
Thread Starter
slightly serious Dibber
 
Join Date: Mar 13
Mobile

Originally Posted by Mel49 View Post
What a fantastic way for you to celebrate your 40th Birthday's with a group of life long friends and you sure packed a lot in to your trip. Enjoyed reading along and thanks for sharing. How will you top it for your 50th's ?
Thanks for reading and commenting. I knew we'd done a lot but writing the report made me realise exactly how much we'd fit in to a relatively short time!

As for our 50th... We were talking about Vegas or Dubai. But we've got 10 years to plan so I'm sure we'll come up with something equally fab!
VeryexcitedH is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 15 Jun 19, 04:34 PM  
Link to this Post
#4
tracy99
Imagineer
 
Join Date: Jul 09
Location: Llandudno
Really enjoyed reading your full trip report.
It brought back lovely memories of,my trip with the girls to NY.
Theres something special about a trip away,with good friends & what better reason than your 40th’s.
Looks like you all had a fantastic time.
Thanks for taking the time to write it.
Tracy x
__________________
tracy99 is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 16 Jun 19, 08:19 AM  
Link to this Post
#5
VeryexcitedH
Thread Starter
slightly serious Dibber
 
Join Date: Mar 13
Mobile

Originally Posted by tracy99 View Post
Really enjoyed reading your full trip report.
It brought back lovely memories of,my trip with the girls to NY.
Theres something special about a trip away,with good friends & what better reason than your 40th’s.
Looks like you all had a fantastic time.
Thanks for taking the time to write it.
Tracy x
Thanks for reading and commenting! It certainly was a special trip.
VeryexcitedH is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 16 Jun 19, 08:46 PM  
Link to this Post
#6
disney owl
Imagineer
 
disney owl's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 02

disney owl's Reviews
Hotel Reviews: 1
Restaurant Reviews: 5
Have really enjoyed reading your reports, many thanks for posting
__________________
Sue
June 1996 & 1998 - DLP Camp Davy Crockett
August 2000, Oct 2002, Sept 2008 & Sept 2016- DLP Offsite
June 2001, August 2003,2007 &Sept 2010 - WDW Offsite
June 2005 - DLP Davy Crockett Ranch
disney owl is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 16 Jun 19, 09:25 PM  
Link to this Post
#7
VeryexcitedH
Thread Starter
slightly serious Dibber
 
Join Date: Mar 13
Mobile

Originally Posted by disney owl View Post
Have really enjoyed reading your reports, many thanks for posting
You're welcome! Thanks for reading and commenting, glad you enjoyed it.
VeryexcitedH is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 16 Jun 19, 10:01 PM  
Link to this Post
#8
Nellie75
Having Dinner with Goofy
 
Nellie75's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 13
Location: Somewhere in the NW
Mobile

A great trip report! Some super tips for my upcoming trip! 😉
Nellie75 is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Jun 19, 01:23 AM  
Link to this Post
#9
VeryexcitedH
Thread Starter
slightly serious Dibber
 
Join Date: Mar 13
Mobile

Originally Posted by Nellie75 View Post
A great trip report! Some super tips for my upcoming trip! 😉
I'm glad you enjoyed reading it, thanks for commenting! Hope you are well armed with tips for your upcoming trip! 😉
VeryexcitedH is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 19 Jun 19, 09:04 AM  
Link to this Post
#10
lettie
Imagineer
 
Join Date: Apr 05
Great trip report! I almost felt I was there myself. So lovely for a bunch of friends to celebrate their birthdays together.
__________________
lettie is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:44 PM.


Powered by vBulletin - Copyright © 2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
DIBB Savings
AttractionTickets.com

Get £10 off each Disney Ticket with the code ATDIBB10

Get up to £50 off per room at Disney or Universal with the code DIBBHOTELS


theDIBB Blog
One of the the five worlds found in Epic Universe, How to Train Your Dragon... Read More »
Disney announced that a new nighttime show, “Disney Dreams That Soar,” will run nightly at... Read More »
Walt Disney World Resort guests can get ready to have a “glowing’’ good time when... Read More »


theDIBB Menu


Exchange Rates
US Dollar Rates
ASDA  $1.2366
CaxtonFX  $1.2323
Covent Garden FX  $1.2521
FAIRFX  $1.2365
John Lewis  $1.2398
M&S  $1.2191
Sainsburys  $1.2357
TESCO  $1.2364
Travelex  $1.2361
Updated: 13:30 29/03/2024
Euro Rates
ASDA  €1.1445
CaxtonFX  €1.1411
Covent Garden FX  €1.1510
FAIRFX  €1.1468
John Lewis  €1.1477
M&S  €1.1289
Sainsburys  €1.1440
TESCO  €1.1445
Travelex  €1.1469
Updated: 13:30 29/03/2024

DIBB Premium Membership
Did you know you can help support theDIBB with Premium Membership?

Check out this link for more information and benefits, such as...

"No adverts on theDIBB Forums"

Upgrade Now



X