Our NYC Trip Report! :)

Let me begin by saying that our first trip to NYC started out not so great because I was very sick with a cold that my Dad gave me for Christmas!! HA HA

We departed Atlanta on Friday December 26 at 8:30 am and landed in Newark at about 10:15! Luggage arrived quickly as did our driver from Dial7!

We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Soho which I thought was an excellent location! The room was quite small, but I was prepared as I had already read about the room sizes in Manhattan! We had a very nice view of the ESB! Overall, it was a great hotel! I would definitely stay there again.

So, I guess I will just let ya’ll know what we liked and disliked!

First the restaurants:

Lombardi’s was great!

Shake Shack was soooo good! Loved the burgers and the cheese sauce they put on the fries is to die for!!!!!! I need the recipe for that!!!!!

Pearl Oyster Bar was just OK. The terrible service was a turn-off! The food was very tasty! I had the Lobster Roll and the Mussels, my husband had the clam chowder and the kids split a lobster roll and the salt shrimp!

The Famous Halal Cart on 53rd and 6th was amazing! Worth the wait for sure!!! We arrived at 7pm and there was already a line and the cart hadn’t even been unhooked from the van! We waited about 1 hour but it was so worth it!! You have to be careful not to go to the wrong cart; there was another vendor on the other corner that claimed they were the “Famous” cart!! Line up in front of the Hilton and you will be in the right line!!! I can’t really say enough about how good the food was!!!!!!

Burger Joint was not as good as Shake Shack! Line was way too long and $47 for 4 burgers, 4 cokes and one order of fries!!! Not worth the wait!

Washington Square Diner was just OK!

Grimaldi’s has the best pizza we have ever eaten! We ordered a large with sausage and extra mozzarella and devoured it in about 10 minutes! I could have ordered another!! The wait wasn’t too bad! We arrived at 11:30 and were seated by 12! Really the best pizza I have ever eaten!!!!!!!!!! Did I say it was good?

Katz Deli was interesting! We were pastrami virgins, so we decided to order it! Still not sure what it is, but it was really good! Loved the mustard on it and the fresh pickles they give you when you sit down are delicious!!!

We liked the hotdogs from wherever we got them!?

Let’s move on to the touristy part of our itinerary!

Ok, Let me say this out loud!!!!!!!!Very loud!!! Do not go to the top of the ESB!!!! Let me repeat that, Do Not go to the top of the ESB!!!!!!!!!! We had the New York Pass, which I will get to later, and my dear husband said that you couldn’t come to NYC and not go up!!!!! Wrong!!! When we arrived around 6pm the line had about 30 people in it and we were told we would be at the top in about an hour, so we stayed! Bad decision, it took 3 hrs!!!!!!! And so not worth it! One queue after another! I was ready to jump by the time we reached the top!!!!! By the way if you’re willing to pay $45 pp you can go straight to the top!! Would have done that if we had not wasted money on the New York Pass! The Art Deco design of the ESB is interesting and a must see! Just go into the lobby area and walk around!

Top of the Rock was so easy and the view was spectacular!! We went up at about 4pm and watched the sunset! Most certainly the highlight of our trip! I loved the 3 different levels!

We wanted to do the NBC Studio but it was sold out for 3 days!

Madame Tussaud’s was silly! Would not waste money on it, but we had the NYPass!

The Museum of Natural History was great! Highly recommend it! Was quite shocked by how many people thought the animals were going to be real! My son kept saying “Do these people think this is a zoo?”!

The Blue Man Group was awesome! Loved the small venue! The kids really enjoyed the show!

Stomp was also great! It’s amazing what you can do with a broom!

Accomplice The Show was rather boring in the beginning but ended up being pretty good! Takes place in a few different pubs, so keep that in mind if you’re taking the kids.

So the biggest disaster was the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Tour! We arrived at around 8:15 to find there were at least 500 people in line already! This was the one day our schedule was going to be a little tight so we were a little concerned about the time! We reached Ellis Island at 1:00 and walked around for about 45 minutes and left! Complete disappointment! Not with the Island, but with our time constraints! I was beautiful though!

The NYPD Museum was fun! My son loved all the antique weapons and the old patrol car!

Times Square was soooooo packed! It was like NYE every night we were there! It took about 10 minutes to walk 10 feet! We sat at a little table area in the center of the street and people watched!

Rockefeller Center was so beautiful with the tree and all the decorations! We loved watching the ice skaters!

The walk over the Brooklyn Bridge gave us great views of Manhattan! The bridge itself is architecturally stunning!

Ok, the subway system was very easy to maneuver! We bought the 7 day pass for $25 pp and it was well worth it! I think we used our cards at least 30 times!!!

The New York Pass is not worth buying! I will post a separate thread about it!!!

The weather was pretty good while we were there! We were prepared with everything needed to bundle up!

First let me say that New Yorkers were very nice and accommodating to us wide-eyed tourists! You guys and gals were so gracious!

Now let me vent about the tourists! Why does everyone act like they were raised in a barn? I was almost knocked down in Times Square at least a dozen times and never once heard an “excuse me” or “sorry”! Do people really think its ok to stop right in the middle of the sidewalk to take pictures or look at maps? Wow is all I can say! Someone needs to write a book on proper behavior when traveling! I really was shocked by the way people behaved! Shocked!!!!!!!!!!

NYC is absolutely amazing! I wish I lived there!!! We will return again soon and hopefully I will be well enough to thoroughly enjoy it! In the end it was a truly amazing vacation!

If I missed anything I will post again later!

Tammy

Our NYC Trip Report! :)

its here!

Our NYC Trip Report! :)

ilovetheg8tors -- I am glad you had a nice time. However, about that cart at Sixth and 53rd:

You waited needlessly, and could indeed have crossed Sixth Avenue to the other cart, which is indeed owned by the same people. The cart on the southwest corner of 53rd and Sixth is too small to cook all the food it needs. Thus, the same owners have a second cart on the southEAST corner that the use as a backup kitchen. That is why they have the same name, and wear the same t-shirts: they are making the SAME FOOD. From time to time you will see a worker from the cart on the west side of the street cross over to the east side of the street to get more food, which he then carries back to the cart you were waiting at -- if you had crossed the street yourself, you would have gotten your food faster, and it would not have needed to be reheated.

Furthermore, neither cart is in front of the Hilton, which is on the north (and not the south) side of 53rd Street.