Everything & Anything New York City

Savvy_Sue

bleepandbooster wrote: »

PS "Top Tip" Some Underwear can be worn 4 times (Inside out/back to front and back to front and inside out) Plus then if it is old and worn out you can dump it and that leaves you even more room in the case !!! And less washing when you get home !

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I can't wear any of MY underwear back to front, and I really really don't fancy wearing it inside out after it's been worn right side out first ...

madcow2006

Hello all. We are looking to book a room (2 bed suite) at Embassy Suites NYC for 7 nights at the end of July/begining of August this year. Does anyone know of any way of getting any money off / good rate / discount code for this place? Any help much appreciated.

Cheers Madcow

Philippa36

Have you tried Hotwire? We got a great rate for the Affinia through them.

claire80

Hi , Ive read and read and read the threads on here about hotels , but i have a question , My husband would rather have a better hotel thats a bit further out and cab /train / subway it each day then stop in say times square in something not as good for our money , does anyone have any suggestions of anything suitable - i dont want to be toooo far away as i dont want to waste all my sightseeing time on travellng . We are going in october for 4 nghts and have a budget around £600/£700 for accomodation.

Lady_S

We stopped in the Affinia Dumont and it was lovely. That is a little bit out of the hussle and bussle which I appreciated.

Alternatively, there is the Belleclaire which gets good reviews on Tripadvisor, and this has a queen room for £690 for 4 nights ( I have guessed 8th - 12th October as you haven't specified dates. ( this was through ebookers). It is up on the upper west side and surrounded more by residential than hotels.

greenface

stay about a mile from Times Sq and you are out of the "hussle and bussle"
stay around the park or flatiron districts ,Chelsea (thats if you want to be close to TS but stay Upper West Side -SoHo-lower East or little Italy and its still only 15 minutes or so to anywhere Manhattan Etc. The Touristy area of New York that we all want to see is IMO split into three blocked areas about 2 miles square each South (Brooklyn Bridge- Wall St- C21-Ground Zero- SOL ferry & battery Park South Seaport) Middle Flatiron -ESB -Macys -MSG - Grand Central Sta- times sq north central park ,museams,ToTR most of the "big shops"
run along 5th &Park/ave or around just google a map of NYC and zoom in then work out whats close to what and plan that way.

Phillipa36 finally got back full report on desk by morning

Philippa36

Lol,
We had a fantastic time, 7 nights in the Manhattan Affinia - opposite Madison Square Gardens, easy central location opposite a main subway station and walking distance to most places.

We did all the usual tourist stuff, Top of the Rock, which was completely overwhelming. Tiffanys - for my birthday present and the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park for my birthday dinner - good food, great service, a little pricey but worth it. Staten Island Ferry, totally free and a great trip, especially on a lovely sunny day. Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs, spent most of the day in there and still didn't see everything. Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge - what a view, amazing seeing the city all lit up. Bronx Botanical Gardens was lovely for a wander in the sunshine and to see a completely different side to the city. Lots of shopping - O/H managed to get a suit for $48 from Daffys!

We tried out various restaurants including, Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem, great food, fun atmosphere, very busy. Shake Shack, very very busy, good food but a little pricey. Penelope's for brunch, wonderful comfort food but you need to go early, theres a long queue if you arrive after 10.30 at the weekend. Tick Tock diner - perfect for pancakes/waffles/etc. Jackson Hole burgers - to die for, great choice but a lot of food!

Then we got to the airport, found that all the flights were cancelled and ended up in Queens, in a very odd hotel called the Pan American - not recommended. We stayed 1 night and then went back to Manhattan. We booked in to the Union Square Inn, a very small room compared with the lovely suite we'd had at the Affinia. A lovely view of a brick wall and the smallest bed I've ever slept in, in a US hotel. We got a reasonable deal online ($175 inc taxes) but some people were being charged $200+ per night. Very rude staff but the area was good, not very touristy and walking distance to some reasonable restaurants and bars.

KLM, our airline, refused to give out vouchers or pay for hotel rooms. The only thing they gave us was a sheet of paper saying the flights were cancelled, for us to give our insurance. We didn't bother contacting our insurance as we knew it would be a minimal amount and we would claim when we got home.

We'd rescheduled our flights on the Friday morning, booking with Air France on the 21st April, we watched the news and as the flights started up again on the 20th, were relieved that we would be able to travel home as planned. We got to the airport to discover that Air France would not check us on to the flight as we were not original Air France passengers. The woman at the desk was unbelievably rude, we were stressed, tired and did not want to have to make our way back in to the city to find and pay for another hotel for another week. We were told that we 'might' be able to reschedule on the 29th! We headed off to the Delta customer service desk and found a woman who was able to get us on to the last 2 seats on a flight heading for Heathrow. She rushed us through the airport, getting us to the front of every queue and we made it to the gate just as they were boarding the final passengers. We arrived in Heathrow to find that our connecting flight to Manchester was cancelled but they put us on a National Express coach instead, giving us £5 each in food vouchers for any of the stores in the airport, so loaded up with M&S sandwiches we got on the coach for the 3 and 1/2 hour journey home. We finally got into Manchester and rang Purpleparking to arrange for them to bring the car, they met us with a bill for an extra £30 and we were finally almost home! Our luggage, however, was 24 hours behind us, having been routed through to Manchester and was delivered to the door the next day - the kids were thrilled to finally get their gifts!

It was definitely an interesting trip! I love NYC but I was happy to get home and rest my aching feet, look through all the photos we took and maybe start planning our next holiday.

jeanwales

Great little report - I thought the airport car parks were waving the charges for stranded passengers. I am sure I read that somewhere.

welshiebeth

Fab trip report Philippa, thanks for sharing! So sorry to hear of all the stress in coming home...that sucks!

Can I be dead cheeky and ask what the price range was like in Tiffany's? Would SO love to go in there, but would feel a bit weird if I couldnt afford anything and had to walk out empty handed like the typical valleys girl I am (i am conjuring up images of Gavin & Stacey's 'Nessa' strutting into Tiffany's now lol!)

Love reading these trip reports

Philippa36

Apparently not jeanwales - we've kept all the receipts and will hopefully get a few quid back from the insurance and the airlines.

Thanks welshiebeth, you can get a sterling silver necklace from about $100 which at the current exchange rate is £75, the charm bracelets start from $225. I wouldn't worry about going in just to look, its definitely a tourist attraction! The 1st floor is a stunning collection of expensive jewelry, then you go up in the lift for engagement and wedding rings, then the sterling silver collection, then the housewares - if I remember correctly!