New York Planning and Trip Report
So our sort of "babymoon" was a trip to New York over Thanksgiving. We started planning our trip, however, before we knew I was pregnant. Hence the "sort of" babymoon. New York was something Brad had always wanted to do, and he really wanted to go before kids. So we investigated and planned away!
We looked at numerous hotels, and during our investigation we decided we wanted to definitely stay on Times Square. We had it narrowed down to two hotels, The Crowne Plaza and The Muse Hotel. The cost is ultimately what decided it. We had already decided to go Thanksgiving week. We opted to go Sunday-Thursday (coming back Thanksgiving Day). At one point we considered staying Thanksgiving night, but it was going to be really expensive to add on that night, so we opted against it. The Crowne Plaza ended up being much cheaper, so we went with it. We booked a King Bed with a Times Square view.
We flew from Memphis since the day before we would be at an Ole Miss game in Oxford. We flew American Airlines both ways. To New York, we had a layover in Charlotte, but back to Memphis we had a direct flight.
I will tell you, our ultimate budget for the trip was approximately $3,000. We wanted to reserve $1,000 of it for food, entertainment, and shopping. We were able to stay under $2,000 for our room and flight without a problem. We booked both in mid-September. So it was just two months out, but this worked perfectly.
That is really the biggest bulk of our planning. We decided we would just get a cab from the airport to our hotel when we arrived. We also knew we wanted to do the double decker bus tour/pass. But we wanted to wait until we got to New York before purchasing. I did research the bus paths, and we did have a general idea of what we wanted to do each day, but we did not pre-book anything.
We landed in New Jersey around 2:45 p.m. on Sunday. We went and collected our luggage, then we got a cab to New York. There was a line for cabs outside of the terminal where we collected our luggage. We did have someone come and ask us to share a limo with them to New York, but we found that to be way too sketchy (hey, I have seen Taken), so we stuck to the cab line. We probably got to our hotel by 4:15 p.m. at the earliest. Since it was a Sunday, traffic wasn't too bad from the airport to our hotel. The cab driver wasn't the friendliest, but I assumed it was because he wasn't fond of having to take us into the "city". In the future, I would probably pre-book a car to pick us up from the airport. To give you an idea on cost, it was around $90 from Newark Airport to the Crowne Plaza.
We checked into the Crowne Plaza, and we were in our room by 4:45 p.m. At check-in, we were given 2 drink vouchers for each day we were there to use at the bar. Since I could not drink, we only took advantage of this one night during our stay and that was for a coke. But it is a nice perk to have. The hotel and room were gorgeous. And the view from our room was amazing. I can't imagine going back to New York and not getting a Times Square view! Check out our pictures below of the room and view as well as a short video.
After we unpacked some, we headed down to explore Times Square. Our first night there we wanted to stay within walking distance of our hotel. So we really didn't make much of a plan. We walked around and took some pictures and did a bit of window shopping. We also didn't want to commit to buying anything just yet since it was only our first night!
We decided to have dinner at the Hard Rock Café. I know, I know, very touristy place, but we were hungry, there wasn't a wait, and we wanted something we knew would be good. Brad had the burger, and I had a BBQ sandwich. We both enjoyed the food. Nothing spectacular, but we didn't necessarily need that for day one. It cost us about $50 after tip.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the bakery in our hotel. The cost was around $14, but that was for 2 cokes and 2 pastries. It wasn't too bad considering we were in New York, and it was super convenient. After breakfast, we went to the concierge and purchased the tickets for our bus tour. We opted for the Gray Line Freestyle Tour. It was $125 each. It came with unlimited hop-on, hop-off access to the double decker bus for 3 days, admission to 3 attractions, and hop-on, hop-off access to the water taxi boat. It was cheaper for us to buy it here rather than online. They gave us a voucher we had to take to one of the Gray Line "stores". The one they recommended didn't open until 9, and it was like 8:15 a.m., so we went to another store a block over. We waited in line for a few minutes, then we were able to exchange the voucher for our tickets. The only negative to this was that the tickets were printable tickets you would exchange at each attraction. I wish they had a card or something instead of paper tickets you risk losing while traveling through New York, but fortunately we did not lose ours! We were given a map of the bus stops and off we went!
So our first sad encounter was that a bus stop was moved due to construction, and that was no where to be seen on the map. Luckily we just asked someone wearing a Gray Line jacket (they are EVERYWHERE), and he guided us to the closest stop. We were on a bus by 9 a.m. headed Downtown! Our goal on this day was to just explore. We did not plan to really do any attractions. We took lots of pictures and simply got our bearings as we observed everything we passed.
We did decide to do the boat tour on this day since we were simply exploring. The tour guides are really good about letting you know what stops you should take to get somewhere you want to go. We got off at the South Street Seaport stop in order to get on the boat at Pier 11, but they specifically announced at the stop that you should get off if you wanted to go on the boat tour. It was about 10:30, but we were both getting hungry and we were not sure when our next opportunity would be to eat, so we stopped and got a hot dog at a food cart. It was everything I hoped it would be!
We were on the boat by 11 a.m. It had two levels. The bottom level was inside and the top level was all open. They had a bar and snack area were you could purchase things, and they took a picture of you when you got on the boat that you could buy later throughout the tour. It was really cold and windy, so I stayed on the bottom level for the most part. When we got near the Statue of Liberty, I went upstairs and took some pictures.
We decided to hop off the boat at the World Financial Center so that we could walk over to the 9/11 Memorial. We figured while we were downtown, we could go ahead and see it. Unfortunately the admission pass with the Freestyle was for the 9/11 Tribute Center. It was ok, but we were hoping to see the 9/11 Museum, but that's what we get for not reading the fine print! But hey, it gives us something to see next time we go. We did see the memorial, however.
Once we finished at the Tribute Center, we decided to catch the bus at the City Hall bus stop. It was the closest one to us, but be careful that you get on the correct loop bus. Both the Downtown and Brooklyn tours stop here. The ride back to our area was COLD! And it seemed to take forever. At this point of the tour, there are not as many bus stops which was unfortunate because the tour guide back wasn't the best. We got off the bus near our hotel. It took about an hour and a half to get back.
We went back to our room to warm up a bit and decide on dinner. I wanted some New York pizza, so we researched the best place. We ended up deciding to eat at Gotham Pizza. It was really good and really inexpensive. It was about a block from our hotel, so that worked out perfectly.
After dinner, Brad wanted to walk down to Midtown Comics and check it out. He really enjoyed it. It was a little bit of a walk but not too bad. We didn't stay out too late since we planned to try and do the Today Show the next morning. So we walked in a few shops at Times Square, got a dessert from the hotel, and relaxed in our room.
The next morning, we left the hotel around 6:15 a.m. We pre-registered with the Today Show the day before to make check-in a little easier. We had a decent spot by 7:10 a.m. It was the Shop Small Business episode, so it was pretty crowded, but we got some neat pictures and we even made it on TV!!
We finished up around 9 am and headed to Magnolia Bakery to get a muffin for breakfast. It was $6 for two muffins, then we walked across to a street vendor to get a coke to split. All the bakery had was Diet Coke.
After breakfast, we decided to use another attraction ticket and do Top of the Rock. We walked right in, presented our ticket, and went right up! We only spent about 20 minutes at the top. You could stay as long as you wanted, but for us there were only so many pictures to take. It was definitely a neat perspective of the city.
We were finished around 10 a.m., and we did some walking around. We sat inside under the Rockefeller Center and researched where we might want to eat for lunch. We did some more sightseeing and ended up eating lunch at Toasties around 11:15 a.m. We both did the build your own salad. It was really good and refreshing. I would definitely eat there again.
After lunch, we went and used our last admission to go to the Museum of Modern Art. This is a place Brad has always wanted to visit. It is a good place to go to once, but unless there is an exhibit we really want to see, I doubt we would go back. After the museum, we went to Saks, Tiffany's, the Apple Store, and Trump Tower. Then we decided to make our way back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner.
We rested for about an hour before heading to dinner. We decided to try Pasta Lovers. Brad's mom suggested it to us, so we thought it would be good option at 5 p.m. We were seated right away and brought bread and our drinks. The restaurant was nicely decorated for Christmas as well. We ordered cheese ravioli and lobster ravioli. Both were really, really good. I didn't care for the peas that were part of the sauce that topped the lobster ravioli, but we ate around those. For dessert I had lemon sorbet, and Brad had tiramisu. Again, both were really good. In total we spent around $80 with tip.
After dinner, it was around 6 p.m., and we were both exhausted. We decided to call it a night and go back to the hotel. We sat in the lobby bar and used our drink coupons for a coke and people watched before calling it a complete night and going to bed.
The next morning was our last full day. We got up and went downstairs to go ahead and book a car service for the next morning to take us to the airport. This was only $75 and included tip. We then went and caught the Downtown bus so that we could go to Macy's. We toured Macy's, and both of us were not impressed at all. I am not really sure what we were expecting, but it would not be somewhere I would feel the need to go again. We had lunch in Macy's at Au Bon Pain. I had a BLT and Brad had a roast beef sandwich. This was probably the worst meal of the entire trip. It cost us almost $25. We had bad service, it was overly crowded, and the food was just ok. To give you an example of how bad it was, Brad ordered us two fountain drinks. When we went to fill them up, there was literally no drinks available from the drink machine...none. Why did they sell us cups if there was literally nothing available? He went to complain, and they ended up just giving us bottled cokes in exchange for our cups. I mean, at least they made it "right", but you should really be aware of things like this anyhow.
The rest of the day was spent hitting up a few stores before we went to dinner. We went back to Tiffany's to get me some earrings I wanted. Brad went back to Midtown Comics to get a t-shirt. We went to the NBC store to get Melody a cute onesie. Then our last stop before dinner was the Nintendo Store. We spent WAY too much money here, but it was just so neat. It is probably a good thing we did this our last day!
We took all of our purchases back to the room, then we decided to go try Ellen's Stardust Diner. Brad's aunt had recommended it, and since we did not have time for a Broadway Show, we thought we would try out this restaurant and see their entertainment. I must warn you, don't let the long lines deter you from eating here. The line moves really fast. We might have waited 15 minutes. Our waiter was super friendly and a lot of fun. For dinner I ordered the two hotdogs and Brad had the hamburger. I know it's nothing extravagant, but it was really, really good. For dessert I had a caramel sundae and Brad had a coke float. Dinner was around $65 with tip, and well worth every penny. It will definitely be a restaurant we will go back to when we visit New York again!
After dinner, we finished up our shopping in Times Square. It was becoming a lot more crowded now that everyone was arriving for Thanksgiving. After experiencing those crowds, I am glad we didn't stay for the parade! We took some last minute pictures, then we decided to head back and pack up for our journey home!
Our driver was right on time, and we headed to LaGuardia airport. There was definitely some moments where we thought we would never make it to the airport, however. Our driver wasn't aware of all the road closures due to the parade, so we had to make a lot of unexpected turns when a road he wanted to use was closed. But luckily we made it to the airport in plenty of time! We both had TSA precheck which was nice. We did have some hiccups leaving. We had a few delays, but we finally took off around 12:30 and made it back to Memphis in time for Thanksgiving with Brad's family!
Brad and I overall had so much fun in New York. I must admit, it was much more fun than I anticipated it being. We can't wait to go back again now. We have learned a few lessons from this trip, and we will try out some new things next time as well!
