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Old 3 Oct 18, 12:37 PM  
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smithlane
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The BIG New York Surprise - 19th August 2018 - Shopping, Grand Central & TOTR

Day 4

We had a fairly relaxing start to the day. For breakfast we walked around the corner to Subway. It was empty in here, the High Street was deserted too but I suppose it is Sunday morning. Jim and I had the bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sub, Hope just Ham and cheese and Sam chicken and bacon.
Standard Subway food, it certainly filled a hole.

Once back to the apartment I checked in online for our Delta flight tomorrow. Unfortunately we weren’t sat next to each other but were on the same 2 rows so not too bad. It’s only a 3 hour flight so I’m sure we’ll manage just fine.
I had to pay $25 for each of our suitcases and $35 for Jim’s golf clubs, ouch!

We got all packed up and checked we hadn’t forgotten anything then ordered an Uber XL at just after 12 to take us to the hotel in Long Island City.
I remembered to take loads of photos of the state of the apartment to email Airbnb on our return.

Dodgy wiring, it was also filthy!








Sam's bedside table had the drawer front smashed to pieces then posted inside it


Stains up the wall...


Ripped sheets


The grimmest bathroom ever, and I've stayed in Butlins before








Anywho, onwards and upwards as they say. My complaint is being looked into apparently!
The journey took over an hour because of heavy traffic through the city. They had closed a section of Madison Avenue due to a parade therefore a load of the side streets were blocked off too. We ended up having to go 10 blocks South to then go back up North again.



Really wanted to eat in here but didn't get around to






Once through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel it didn’t take long to get to the hotel though.
First impressions of the outside weren’t that great but we received a really warm welcome and the room was actually quite nice!

We were getting hungry again now so decided to put all our suitcases up in the room then go for lunch here at the hotel in Michael’s Cafe.
It was about 1.30 by now and we were the only ones sitting down to eat. The place was deserted, the server was hoovering

We ordered a Turkey burger & fries for Jim, cheeseburger & fries for Hope, chicken wrap for Sam and mozzarella sticks and buffalo wings for me off of the appetiser menu. It was all lovely and fresh
$72 including 20% tip.



We now ordered another Uber to take us back into the city. Our first stop was Dylan’s Candy Bar on 3rd Avenue which was just over the other side of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge so only took about 15 minutes.

Lord, this place is huge and so colourful! We took a while to make our way around and to choose what we wanted.











We could have spent a fortune in here. Sam got some bubble gum, I got a S’mores flavoured chocolate bar and the Jelly Belly game ‘Beanboozled’. Hope and Jim didn’t want anything. $17 altogether.

We now walked across the road into Bloomingdales. I was pondering on buying a ‘Little Brown Bag’ but at $27 it was a lot of money for a bag I probably wouldn’t use!







Now for the shop I was most looking forward to visiting - Tiffany’s!





I had set an amount aside for me to treat myself to something special in New York. We went up to the Sterling Silver floor aka the reasonably priced floor . After perusing the counters multiple times I finally decided on the first one I saw, typical! This little beauty was $136 including tax.



Jim and Sam were losing the will to live by now so once paid we left to go and find a drink.
We went past Trump Tower. No protesters today!



The closest Starbucks was located in a Uniqlo on the 2nd floor. The staff in here were quite possibly the slowest on the planet. I was tempted to get behind the counter and serve myself.
It took 20 minutes to pick up a Strawberry Açai, Vanilla Cream, a croissant and pain au chocolate

We now made our way down 5th Avenue to Grand Central Terminal.
On our way we saw this homeless guy with a foray of birds, cats, guinea pigs and 2 dogs! This was officially the strangest thing I’d seen on this holiday so far









Grand Central is a stunning building.







We tried out the Whispering Walls. They really do work!





Hope's feet were really hurting her so I said we’ll just get a yellow cab up to the Rockefeller Centre. Our tickets for TOTR were for 6.45 and it was only 5.30 so we had plenty of time.



Unfortunately because of the road closures the closest he could get us was 45th St so we had to walk the last 3 blocks. Wasn’t really worth it for $6.80 it cost
As we had time we went down to the outdoor cafe to have a drink. 3x soft drinks and a Corona - $29.50.









Cheer up kids!




It was nice to just sit and chill for a while and people watch. I can safely say I’ve never seen so much bad plastic surgery in my life as I have in New York. The place was filled with botched face lifts, the local plastic surgeons must be thrilled

Our time to go up soon rolled around so we headed on up to the entrance.
We had the usual airport security to go through but were soon heading up in the lift to the 67th floor.

From inside we could see they were getting set up next door at Radio City Music Hall for the VMA's that were happening the next evening. Hope was gutted that we wouldn't be here as she wanted to go celeb spotting!





It was busy but nowhere near as much as the Empire State was the other evening.
I took what felt like a thousand photos, the kids and Jim were thrilled . There are 3 different decks you can view the city from. Spectacular views, especially of the Empire State. I would definitely recommend the Rockefeller over the Empire State for the views and crowd levels.

We stayed up there for about an hour, long enough to see the night sky fall. No sunset tonight though which was a shame.
Warning. Photo overload!



































I couldn’t leave without getting a magnet and postcard first though



We were getting quite hungry now so once on solid ground we went in search of food in the direction of Times Square. Big mistake, it was complete bedlam everywhere! The queue for Bubba Gumps was out the door and there was a 45 min wait for Hard Rock Cafe.











Before hanger set in with any of us I suggested Juniors which was just around the corner and thankfully we got seated straight away.
Hope wasn’t hungry so just had a drink.
I went with the fried chicken and mash, Jim ribs, shrimp and fries and Sam a BLT sandwich with a soda each.
It was very nice but the chicken was quite hard to eat with all the bones in the way. They should do it boneless!
Jim and Sam really enjoyed theirs.









We couldn’t leave before trying some of the cheesecake this place is famous for. We shared a slice of the Original. Now this was fantastic!
Altogether including 20% tip it was $122 . Can you imagine what it would be if Hope had eaten too? By far the most expensive meal of the holiday.

It was now gone 10pm and we were exhausted so ordered an Uber straight away to take us back to the hotel.

I went up to the rooftop bar to take some photos of the stunning view of the city. I was the only one up here, the bar lady had her feet up watching the TV





To save any potential arguments from the stroppy teenagers, I ended up sharing with Hope and Jim with Sam. Worked out ok actually.
We watched Cocktail in bed with some snacks before lights out at 11.30
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Edited at 07:51 PM.
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Old 3 Oct 18, 01:00 PM  
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Smilesonfaces
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That apartment really does look awful. I am not surprised you wanted to move to a hotel. Glad you didn’t allow it to spoil your trip.
I dread to think how much time and money my daughter will want to spend in Dylan’s candy store !

More fabulous photos especially from the rooftop !
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Old 3 Oct 18, 08:14 PM  
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what a terrible apartment, hope you get your money back
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Old 3 Oct 18, 09:39 PM  
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CrispyA
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Glad you were able to find somewhere else for your last night - that apartment really doesn’t look great. Juniors cheesecake is pretty good though!
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Old 4 Oct 18, 08:08 AM  
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smithlane
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Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces View Post
That apartment really does look awful. I am not surprised you wanted to move to a hotel. Glad you didn’t allow it to spoil your trip.
I dread to think how much time and money my daughter will want to spend in Dylan’s candy store !

More fabulous photos especially from the rooftop !
It really was, in hindsight we probably should have moved earlier but at least we got one night away from it.
Be prepared for your daughter to be in there for ages too. It took us so long to decide what we wanted, there’s so much choice!
It was lovely seeing the city from the other side of the island
Thank you as ever for reading 😃
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Old 4 Oct 18, 08:10 AM  
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Originally Posted by disney owl View Post
what a terrible apartment, hope you get your money back
It really was awful, how anyone has the audacity to rent it out is beyond me!
Not got anything back at the moment, it’s still being looked into. Hopefully we’ll hear something soon.
Thank you for reading 😃
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Old 4 Oct 18, 08:13 AM  
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Originally Posted by CrispyA View Post
Glad you were able to find somewhere else for your last night - that apartment really doesn’t look great. Juniors cheesecake is pretty good though!
It was so bad, we were very thankful of the clean hotel!
What I would give to have a slice of that cheesecake now, especially given I’m on a diet and permanently starving 😂
Thank you for reading 😃
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Old 4 Oct 18, 08:47 PM  
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Oh the apartment really does look horrible, I can't believe they can get away with charging money for people to stay there. I hope you end up with some compensation.

Your necklace is beautiful! We didn't go inside Tiffany's, looking back I'm sad as I wish I'd saved up some spending money like you did to treat yourself!

Top of the rock is lovely, even without a sunset the views of the skyline at night are fab, what a lovely way to spend your last evening. I bet you were starving when you got back down.

Juniors! We ate there, yep expensive! But bloomin lovely cheesecake! Dave still says it's the best cheesecake he's ever eaten.

The new hotel is nicer at least, even if you did end up sharing with Hope, it's often what we end up doing to try to avoid the inevitable fighting from the kids.
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Old 5 Oct 18, 02:10 PM  
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Great photos!

I think Juniors might be on the list for January!
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Old 5 Oct 18, 08:47 PM  
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Glad you moved to somewhere nicer for at least the one night!
I'm definitely excited for Top of the Rock now and Grand Central is so beautiful.

Juniors was expensive. Might knock it off my list of possible!
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