☆ First Time To New York ☆ - Pre Trip Report

[TinkerBabe]

Well we are very excited about our forthcoming trip to New York so I thought I would share some of that excitement by starting a pre-trip report!

We usually (in fact, always!) holiday with friends, but this trip has a special purpose to it that made us want to go alone, more of which I will explain shortly!

This is us...

Tamsen (me), Pete (DH), Kerensa (DD 14) and Joe (DS 12).











Although we had planned to visit New York for some time, we only actually booked the trip a few weeks ago. There was a good sale on Hotels.com and the Virgin flight prices were good, so we thought it would be rude not to!

We are flying Heathrow to Newark on Friday 10th Feb, and spending 7 nights at the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Terminal, before taking a day flight (to try and avoid the jetlag!) on Friday 17th February.

As its our first visit, we have no idea how much or little we will fit in one day, so our itinerary is more of a flexible to-do list, mainly we will go with the flow and just enjoy ourselves. So far, it looks like this;

Friday 10th PM -Arrive!

Saturday 11th - Spend the day in Lower Manhattan with Stanley, our Big Apple Greeter! We hope that we can include the Brooklyn Bridge, Wall ST and Statue of Liberty. We have reservations at the 9/11 Memorial at 4.30pm.

Sunday 12th - Grand Central Terminal, NY Public Library, ESB

Monday 13th - Circle Line Cruise, Ripleys Museum

Tuesday 14th - Top of The Rock, Central Park, Metropolitan Museum

Wednesday 15th - Natural History Museum, Hayden Planetarium

Thursday 16th - Catch Up Day, 9/11 Memorial at 5.30pm

Interspersed there will be plenty of shopping as my teenagers have saved their Christmas and birthday money, and its burning a hole in their pocket! If possible, we may include seeing a show, visiting USS Intrepid and a few other bits and bobs, along with plenty of lovely meals out! We are looking forward to sampling some of our Florida favourites, such as Bubba Gumps and Outback Steakhouse, as well as some NY specialties!

I mentioned a special reason for this visit...sadly a very close friend of mine, Geoff Campbell, died in the north tower on 9/11, and it has long been my intention to visit when the memorial was complete. We are going twice, once at the start of the week and again at the end.

Well thank you for taking the time to read my little mini pre trip report, I will take lots of photos and hopefully share them with you upon our return!

[KarenG]

How wonderful! Seven nights in NYC

You will have a wonderful time

We did the day flight back from Toronto and it was great, no jet lag whatsoever


I am sorry about your friend. We found the Twin Towers area a deeply moving experience.

[TinkerBabe]

Thanks Karen, the jetlag absolutely wiped us out for 5 days on our last journey home from Florida, so even though it means getting up early to be at the airport for an 8am flight home, I thought it was worth it!

[tonymc]

We also flew back on a daytime flight last August - brilliant - no jet lag, and we could drive back up to the North West straight after landing without any problems. It was our first visit to NY and we had a great time - I'm sure you will too.

If you aren't too bothered about which show you see, you can buy discounted tickets at the TKTS Booths. The one in Times Square gets very busy, and only sells tickets for that evenings shows. There is another at South Street Seaport which is less busy and sells tickets to evening performances on the day of the performance and matinee tickets for the following day.

I would suggest that if you are planning to use the subway that you read this guide from Trip Advisor - we found it really useful. Another tip for the subway is that the machines will only let you buy two tickets on any card at the same time, so it may be worth having two pre-paid cards with you. Also, if using cash, the machines only give around $6 max change so have some smaller denomination bills to hand.

I also added some daily tips in our trip report (see link) which you may fiond useful. Hope you have a brilliant time.

[TinkerBabe]

Thanks for the tips Tony, we would like to see a show, hopefully Blue Man Group, so we will definitely head to the quieter TKTS booth

[tonymc]

Originally Posted by TinkerBabe

Thanks for the tips Tony, we would like to see a show, hopefully Blue Man Group, so we will definitely head to the quieter TKTS booth

See more...

May be worth noting that you may not necessarily be able to get Blue Man Group tickets from TKTS - if you definitely want to see them, you may have to book in advance rather than take a chance on seats being available with TKTS.

[Guest]

Take a look at broadwaybox.com on the main page on the list on the left hands side are all the discounted shows, some of which arent much different to what you get at the TKTS booth, I would also say, we went over to the TKTS booth at Jaystreet metrotech in brooklyn, jumped on the subway and it took about 10 mins but there was absolutely no queue at all, bought tickets and then back on the subway.

Just to say, Blue Man group is on there discounted
broadwaybox/shows/blu...c_tickets.aspx
and if you can fit it in tickets up to Feb 12th for one week are buy one get one free as a special "off broadway" special

Also, dont know if you're interested but there is an audio tour that you can pick up at the Grand Central Terminal grandcentralterminal/info/audiotour.cfm and certainly dont miss the whispering place its quite strange how it works

[Guest]

BroadwayBox Special: Tickets just $72/81, Reg. $85/95, Save 15% !
Expires: Mar 28, 2012

Off-Broadway Week Offer: Get 2-for-1 tickets for Performances Jan 30 - Feb 12 !
Expires: Feb 12, 2012

See more...

^^^ current offers on broadwaybox.com for blue man group

[MichelleB]

Have a great time! Bet you're getting excited now! How's the packing going? Hope the weather is OK for you.

[enjibenji]

Have a lovely time, just being curious but how long is the flight from london to new york?