Quest into the north-east USA

[Drakecula]

Afterwards, I wanted to go visit the Athenaeum, an old public library. Unfortunately it wasn't open! If I had known I would have gone earlier, blast.

Ah well, I continued my wandering walk down more of Benefit St (the half I didn't do the first day) and enjoyed the old houses.

At the end of the street I popped into Trader Joe's to get some brekkie for tomorrow's train ride, then wandered back along the river where I found a Sunday market. Couldn't resist a blind date with a book! (See the what you've been reading thread)

By this stage I was quite hot (30ish today) so headed back to the hotel to cool down and go see how pack up was going in the expo hall. We're off to dinner tonight with everyone. One of the others is off to NYC tomorrow too, so we'll likely meet up with him there at some point.

 

[Drakecula]

Also, I'm no bird expert, but I saw this guy and figured he must be lost...

 

[Drakecula]

We're staying at Library Hotel by Library Hotel Collection while in New York, a bucket list hotel for me. There's ten floors of rooms, each floor a section of the Dewey decimal system. We're in 700.003, Performing Arts. Which is most appropriate as we're cramming in as much Broadway as we can! The room has several shelves of books, all relevant to the subject.

There's also a rooftop bar, and a 24/7 reading room with complimentary snacks and drinks, and lots of books to read.

 

[VPS]

We're staying at Library Hotel by Library Hotel Collection while in New York, a bucket list hotel for me. There's ten floors of rooms, each floor a section of the Dewey decimal system. We're in 700.003, Performing Arts. Which is most appropriate as we're cramming in as much Broadway as we can! The room has several shelves of books, all relevant to the subject.

There's also a rooftop bar, and a 24/7 reading room with complimentary snacks and drinks, and lots of books to read.

View attachment 454636View attachment 454637View attachment 454638View attachment 454639View attachment 454640

Ok officially jealous of you staying in this hotel

 

[Aeryn]

As cool as the concept of the Library hotel is it would be a hard no from me due to having a shower/tub combination.

 

[Drakecula]

I'm having a bit of trouble with wifi here, it'll load 75% of a thing then reset which is a pain. Rest assured there's been lots of NYC exploring. It's hot and sweaty here. Do not recommend visiting in summer if you can avoid it.

But despite that the city is humming and I'm excited to be here.

Might have to do a proper recap when I get home.

 

[Seat0B]

I can recall very well the first time we visited NYC in July a long long time ago whilst on an RAAF posting to the USA. People warned us it would be hot and human. I shrugged it off - I’m Australian, how hot can it really be? Yep it was hot hot hot.

Much nicer when we visited in December and February.

 

[Drakecula]

Okay - we're home! We were a little nervous and had resigned ourselves to the fact we may have missed our connection in LAX due to about a two hour delay departing NYC due to weather. Thankfully they held the plane in LAX, and asked that those with connecting flights put our hands up and asked those that didn't have connections to stay seated so those that did could disembark first.

It worked quite well and even though we were right up the back of the plane, we were able to get out quickly and they'd even parked our plane at a nearby gate to the next plane so we didn't have to rush too far to make the connection.

I forgot to take photos of the food on the LAX-SYD leg, but it was the typical Y fare. Edible, not amazing, etc.

I'll start doing a recap of our days in NYC to round out this report.

 

[Drakecula]

So, Day 1 in NYC was more of a half day, as we left Providence on the train in the morning. Turns out our Flightsim Expo pal's train to NYC was cancelled and he was rebooked onto our train, sitting next to us! A very happy coincidence. The train was Amtrak and we had booked into business class (from memory there were no economy option when I booked) which was fine. There were overhead lockers for bags, as well as space in between seats (if they were back to back) to slide suitcases in.

The train ride was bumpier than I expected, I reckon the commuter rail I'd taken between Providence and Boston was smoother. I don't know if the train was going faster than the commuter would have and therefore was bumpier as a result?

Once in NYC (we arrived at Penn Station) we caught the subway over to our hotel. The subway is pretty easy to navigate. We used google maps to help identify which number or letter train we needed, and then you just have to know which direction you're going. You can tap on using a paywave credit card which we did. Super easy.

After checking in, we did a quick explore of 5th avenue and the Rockefeller centre, before heading to Joe's Pizza for a proper NYC slice of pizza. There was a line out the door, but they moved very efficiently so we were able to get in and get food quick enough.

After dinner we had made plans to meet up with our new NYC pal as he was also a musical theatre fan, and he joined us in seeing Chicago that evening. MrD and I have only ever seen the film with Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, so it was great to see it on stage. An excellent start to our Broadway show experience.

Also, Times Square is nuts! It's bright, it's noisy, it's packed with people. Worth seeing once I suppose, to say yes I've been there, but that's it. I can't imagine how more crazier it is on New Year's Eve!

After the show all three of us went back to Library hotel to go to the rooftop bar for a drink. A most excellent first (half) day in NYC!

 

[Drakecula]

Day 2 in NYC saw us head uptown on the subway to about the halfway point of Central Park. Near the Guggenheim. The plan was to explore the park in the direction back towards our hotel. A friend of mine who currently lives in NYC said he'd head to the park and read for a bit so to come find him to say hi.

We caught up with him near Bethesda Terrace and stopped for a drink and some crookies (croissant cookies - they were pretty tasty) and a catch up. We then all three of us continued our wander through the park before hitting 5th Ave. We poked our head into The Plaza (I really need to re-watch Home Alone 2 now, which this hotel featured in, along with Central Park) which is super fancy inside!

We also went inside St Patrick's Cathedral which we had walked past the previous day but didn't go inside. It's really impressive inside. And air conditioned! (It was quite hot this day so air con was a blessing indeed).

We then parted ways near the NYPL and MrD and I continued on to have a look at the J P Morgan Library and Museum. Which was beautiful inside. An amazing library. We backtracked to the NYPL and took a look inside there. Again absolutely beautiful building. Unfortunately we weren't able to get inside the Rose reading room as it was closed down to just those who were there to study (fair enough).

After all the library prettiness, we headed back to the hotel to cool down and relax a bit before our second Broadway show of the trip. We used this time to have dinner (hotdogs from a corner vendor!) and watch Death Becomes Her (the film, with Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep). We needed to refresh our memories of the film as that was the show we were seeing that night.

The Broadway show of the film was an excellent adaptation, fantastic songs and just amazing energy from the cast. We really enjoyed it!

 

[Drakecula]

A few more photos from NYPL...
There's not much here if you're a library user, unless you're after some specific reading rooms. It's definitely more for tourists as they have a fantastic gallery of collection items including Charles Dicken's writing desk and the toys that inspired the book Winnie the Pooh.

A bit of a let down was discovering that the stacks in the opening scenes of Ghostbusters (where the librarian is spooked by a ghost tossing books) weren't in the NYPL - they were a public library in LA!

 

[Drakecula]

Oh forgot to say after our Broadway show we met up with NY pal again (he'd gone to see Book of Mormon, which is a favourite of mine too) and went to try our luck at Ellen's Stardust Diner. There was a line of course, but it moved pretty quickly so we got inside for a late night snack and drink. This diner is known for the singing waiting staff and it was very loud inside. The singers all sung quite well, but yes, very loud. We had a ball though.

 

[Drakecula]

Day 3 was a double header of Broadway shows, the first of which was at 2pm which didn't leave us too much time to explore in the morning. MrD was keen on seeing Ghostbusters HQ, so we headed off on the subway to go find it. It's still a working fire station apparently, but they have the Ghostbusters sign out front which is nice.

From there I wanted to visit The Strand, a famous bookstore with new and used books, a store also recommended by my NY friend that I should check out. It's about three stories full of books, including a rare books section. I was immediately intrigued by the table full of 'blind date with a book' books, all wrapped up in themed paper. We got one each. There's also a comic book store just around the corner which we looked at too, called Forbidden Planet.

I also wanted to see the NY Harry Potter store to see what was there that was different to the other Harry Potter stores I've been to. By this point we were running out of time so it was a quick walk then a bit of a mad dash through the store, but I picked up a new wand and a bag that was very similar to one I had eyed off previously, except this one was on sale (hooray for bargains!).

Then we hopped the subway up to Times Square and got into Broadway show #3 of the trip, Maybe Happy Ending. This had won quite a few Tony awards so I was really looking forward to it. Darren Criss was one of the leads and I've been a fan of his since his Starkid and Glee days. He was excellent, as was Helen J Shen. The staging was beautifully done and the songs and story were lovely. I can see why it did so well as it did at the Tony awards.

A friend from home who is also a Broadway nut shared the hot tip of another restaurant that had singing waitstaff, so the three of us (me, MrD and new NY pal) went there to wait out the couple of hours before the final show of the trip, Aladdin. We'd never seen the stage production and we love the Disney movie, so figured why not.

Can I just say, if you're planning on visiting a restaurant that has singing waitstaff, I highly recommend this second place we went to. It's called Friedman's Restaurant and the singers are from Gayle's Broadway Rose - Singing Servers. A much quieter atmosphere, the food and drinks were better too. I had the most delicious old fashioned!

Aladdin was a bit underwhelming to be honest. I knew they had extended some of the songs and included extras to make the stage production a thing, but eh. All three of us felt the same about it. It certainly didn't help that I had an annoying toddler behind me kicking my chair most of the show. We told them off, but it kept happening.

 

[Drakecula]

Our final day in NYC we'd planned to meet up with NY pal again and do the Staten Island Ferry, but he'd ended up catching up with a friend after Aladdin and had a big night, so told us to go without him. So off we went to the subway down to the ferry terminal. We had a late checkout of 1pm, so we planned to be back at the hotel by then.

Now it's worth mentioning that if you catch the subway to Bowling Green (which we did) there's a lot of 'helpful people' (read likely scammers) pointing you in the direction of ferries and tours for the Statue of Liberty. We ignored them in favour of moving towards the Staten Island ferry terminal which is a free ferry that just happens to go past the Statue of Liberty. If you're heading from New York to Staten Island, best to stand on the right of the ferry (starboard) for the best views of the Statue, and then on the left side of the ferry for the return trip (port).

We weren't interested in visiting the island where the Statue is, or getting any closer than the free ferry did, so we were happy to just do the free return trip.

Afterwards, I had a mission to visit Barnes and Noble on 5th as I'd not managed to visit yet. I wanted to get a book (I know, lots of books this trip!) for a friend's birthday and I knew they had it in stock. So a quick walk up and back ticked that off easily. I also picked up a book for the flight/s home.

We checked out, dropped our bags and grabbed lunch with NY pal as our last hurrah before we left. He had arranged to extend his stay a few days longer and stay with a friend of his before he flew back to Australia.

We then caught the Newark Express bus which left from near Grand Central Station out to the airport. It had a sign where you could buy a ticket online via QR code (at $30pp) so we tried that and it wasn't working, so I ducked inside the convenience store which sold tickets for the bus as long as you had cash. Which I did, and it turned out to be $25pp so hooray for some savings!

We didn't have lounge access at Newark, but the terminal seems pretty new and swish, so we found a quiet spot in some comfy chairs with power to charge our phones before boarding. We boarded on time, but due to weather we didn't end up actually departing about two hours later. I was a bit concerned given we had about an hour and a half connection at LAX, and kept an eye on the United app for updates. At one point our ETA into LAX was one minute before our next flight was due to depart. As mentioned earlier, we were lucky that they held the departing plane for us and helped those that had connections get off the plane quickly so we didn't miss our LAX-SYD flight.

Once in SYD it was pretty easy to do customs, collect bags, transfer and board our final flight. We did get re-booked onto a later flight as they didn't think we'd get the bus across to domestic in time. However, we found out there were two CBR flights waiting to board at the same time so we might have made it (maybe our bags wouldn't have...)

Glad to be home! I would have liked to have stayed in NYC longer, but I know I'll be back one day. Pretty happy we were able to cram in as much as we did in the time that we had though.

 

[Drakecula]

I had used my Velocity Amex to book this trip, and made a claim via their complimentary insurance for the first night's accommodation (in Boston) as our flight was cancelled.

I requested a letter via United using their form on this page: https://www.united.com/en/us/customercare/ and I got it pretty much instantly.

Then I created a PDF of a statement from my credit card proving I'd made the purchase, and used it, along with proof of my hotel booking to fill in the claim form with Chubb. I had checked the PDS and it looked like there would be $250 excess against this claim. The hotel booking was more than this, so getting something back was better than nothing.

It was all pretty easy to do online and I got confirmation that I would be paid an amount less the excess two days after I submitted the claim. Can't complain about that. At least it was a pretty clear cut case for me, so I can't see why they would have disputed it.