New York & Orlando

[DMC]

We have been back a week or so now, but due to work pressures I have not been able to post a trip report until now.

Anyway this time we tried a dual centre holiday going to New York for 4 days and then down to Orlando for 11 days.

First time in New York - flew Virgin ( as always ) from Heathrow approach to JFK was some what bumpy - due to the tail end of Ivan.

Weather was wet and windy for most of Saturday which was not great.

Stayed at the Pennsylvania Hotel - which was very close to everything - but it is just about the worst Hotel I have ever had the misfortune to stay in - thankfully we were out most of the time -but never again !!!!

Spent the afternoon getting our bearings and buying Metro Tickets etc and shopping in Maceys.

Sunday up early lovely sunny morning - down to Ground Zero for 7.30 am - very moving and great becuase there was no one around - we had the place to ourselves.

Walked over to the Brookyln Bridge and then down to catch the Staton Island Ferry - great views of Manhatten and Statue of Liberty and its all free :)

Back over to Central Park down 5th Avenue and across to Bloomingdales and Grand Central Station and more shopping in Macey's.

Then it was down to Canal Street for a few 'faux' items of designer hand bags for the wife and her friends - anyway 15 bags later we are back at the hotel - changed and over to the Rainbow Rooms for drinks.

A great view of Manhatten at night - then dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe - had to walk everywhere as the place was gridlocked due to Bush and Kerry being in town. :(

Monday weather great agian and we were up and out to catch the bus to Woodberry Common Outlet Centre - after a slow start the wife found her motivation and spent £'s for England - back on the bus with more bags than everone else put together !!!

Then Dinner at the Olive Garden in Times Square.

Tuesday another great day weather wise, so up early and waiting in line when they opened at the Empire State Building - purchased tickets on line before hand so no waiting in line. :D

Great views across the whole of Manhatten and beyond - then it was over to JFK for the trip down to Orlando.

Well over the baggae allowance but it only cost me $32.00 - so not much of a problem in the end.

We flew Song ( which are part of Delta ) great airline very young and funky style - back of seat entertainment which was good - would fly with them again no problem.

Landed in Orlando to have a slight issue with our usual Hotel ( the Rosen Plaza ) as they didn't have the room we requested available for us - but as they know us so well they gave us a free Dinner and Breakfast for our trouble.

The next few days were spent relaxing by the Pool, reading, sunbathing and then shopping in the afternoon - the temps were still in the 90's :)

On Saturday the 25th which happend to be my 40th birthday :( we had to be back indoors by 9.00 pm as Hurricane Jeanne was about to hit.

Not a good idea to be on the top floor of a 14 storey hotel in such high winds - but at least we had a good view - had to stay in the Hotel until 9.00 pm Sunday night - so went a lttle stir crazy.

Monday most things were back to normal everywhere was open so the rest of the week was spent much like the first few days relaxing, shopping and meeting up with old friends.

Flew home on Saturday the 2nd - flight was ok no real issues with Virgin.

Although for the first time ever, for the return trip we had to have more than one case each - we had 3 large cases the weights ( with no pre-weighing ) came in at 32kg / 31kg and 30.5kg [:O] a little to close to call !!

Now I just have to find room in the house for all the new stuff !!!

Anyway we are back over agian at Christmas and agian in May 2005 - counting the days already :D

[LiesaAnna]

wow, sounds like you had a great time,
how moving going to Ground Zero, somewhere that i would like to go to pay my respects


glad you had a great time:)

[steph_goodrum]

"Stayed at the Pennsylvania Hotel - which was very close to everything - but it is just about the worst Hotel I have ever had the misfortune to stay in - thankfully we were out most of the time -but never again !!!!"

DMC
We arrived on 1st Sept and left on 6th (should have been 4th). It really irritated me to have to pay them another $330 for the extra 2 nights we had to stay due to hurricane closing MCO.
With Bush in town and Labor day we figured we could be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire if we went looking for another hotel.
Was your room as shabby as ours?
Fortunately beds and bathroom were clean otherwise we would have been out.

Location was great and the foyer etc but we obviously got the rooms that were awaiting renovation.

[linsan]

Similiar views on NY hotels entrance foyer looks really good and rooms really rubbish. We moved rooms from a small tip (wardrobe door couldn't open fully as it hit the end of the bed!) to a larger tip! New York was brilliant and so were the people as we were there the January after 9/11.
Glad to see with the excess baggage you got thru customs ok unlike Ms McLoughlin[msnwink][msnwink]

[fiona]

We had a 4 day trip between Christmas and New Year last year after 2½ weeks in Orlando. We stayed at the Bryant Park Hotel which is described as a boutique hotel. However, although perhaps not brilliant for those with young families, with teenagers we found it ideal. Large room with very comfortable beds, marble bathroom, cashmere blankets and you had only to ask for more pillows for them to arrive. We were a 5 minute walk from Times Square, yet because we were opposite a park it seemed a little quiet oasis all of it's own. Just inside the garment area, it was full of haberdashery shops and fashion boutiques, as well as a college, and very near NY library. Had a wonderful meal at the Bryant Park Brasserie on our last day - best meal of the whole holiday.

We did Empire State Building at 11 - got through it about 5 hours later - so don't go at that time! Queues were dreadful [msnsad]. We came out and threw ourselves into Maceys which we could have done without as totally shopped out after the malls in Florida[msnwink]! But Song had not only lost a suitcase on the way down (delivered next day so no probs) but lost one for 2½ days while in NY - which had all Chris's and my winter clothes in. OK so there is me, with my winter coat thank goodness, but hiking round NY in December in open toed sandals and jeans. The shops and galleries etc were boiling hot, but when we got down to the Hudson it was bitingly cold.

We did the tourist bus bit which meant we got to see quite a bit of NY. Spent a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and were lucky enough to see the Goya exhibition while it was on. Loved all the art deco buildings such as Empire State, felt very at home there. Had very mixed feelings about Ground Zero, almost as if we were walking on souls. It is amazing to look at the photographs of those buildings towering above the landscape and then look around you and see what is there. Took the Staten Island ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance, sadly too cold and ran out of time to see Ellis Island, so that is next on the list. Saw a show on Broadway, ate in Chinatown and all in all thought it was a great city.

I will try and post some pics, but if I can't will send them to John who by now is well used to my non-abilities with the computer!



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[steph_goodrum]

Last time we went we stayed at the Comfort Inn at Manhattan which was very good value for money and the room was much larger and better decorated than this one, but that was fully booked when we tried to book. Had we known the RNC was on we would probably have realised why.
We still had a great time though, went to see Mamma Mia on Broadway , storyline was pathetic but music good. Did the Circle Line cruise again, as we had an extra 2 days we did the bus tours and hopped off at Battery Park, went to Pier 17.
It was really strange at Ground Zero as we went past on the bus but none of the 3 of us felt we wanted to go and see it, in some strange way I think that because we had been before to the Twin Towers (we went up on our daughters 13th birthday just over 5 years before), to get too close to the void that was now there would have somehow made it even worse than it seemed at the time, and we felt it was almost instead of paying our respects we would be viewing as another tourist attraction and somehow not right. It was difficult to decide but we all came to the same decision without even discussing it really but when we did we found we all felt the same.
We didnt go to the Intrepid, Air, sea , space museum this time but took pictures of Concorde on her platform beside the Aircraft carrier.
Still only got half way round Central Park, only when we got to Orlando and they were talking about weather on tv did we find out there is a castle called Belvedere in the middle of Central Park which is a weather station, we havent seen it on our 2 trips there.
Like Fiona we were near the Garment district time both visits so many hours were spent browsing in shops and boutiques looking for a dress for Freshers ball when we returned home. Found an absolute bargain in Macys in the end, by Jones of New York, a versatile black number which was originally $169 marked down to $59, thrifty daughter had found a 15% off spend coupon in book. Dress actually rang up as $30 with 15% off so came to $25 ish (it was also tax free week).
Its definitely worth a stopover if you get the chance though but is one of those places you'll get more out of if you do a bit of research before you go as you'll find you miss things in a short trip if you dont know what you are looking for.

[Spuddybaby]

I was in New york 6 months after 9/11 and Ground zero was a terrible place. i felt really horrible using my video camera to capture it. All around people were crying, and it was pretty harrowing.
One of the buildings to the south of the block, had a massive black shroud over it (it was a massive skys[bad language filtered out]er) and the Us flag hanging down the side.
Worst of all it was still smoking, i have it on camera, and this was six months after the fact.
However as bad a place this was, i was moved to tears in Grand Central station. In the middle of the concourse were massive boards, on which people had pinned messages. Me and my fiance cvould only read them for a few minutes before having to leave. I think the most poingnant one was written by a young girl of 4 years old. It simply had a picture of her dad, next to the words "My daddy - missing since September 11. last seen on floor X of trade Centre 1". Having watched it on TV live from my office, i never understood what happened until that moment.
I have been back to New york twice since that visit and both times have gone back to ground zero. I have to say that now it is a more comfortable place to be. It is more of a monument now, as the whole area has a fence around it with ppictures and the names of the firemen and emergenc service people who died.

I would post some pictures from this year, but i dont know how to do it. all of my pictures are too big file wise

[Spuddybaby]

OOPS, I didnt actually swear there, i just used the normal word for "extremely tall building"!!
or skyscr*per.....