harryfat1

We got the Korean food. Good value and nice tasting on top of being in a bright open area. Highly recommend to anyone in the area looking for a place to eat

We rested until dinner time before heading out. Dinner for the night would be at the Hugh. It’s just 5 blocks from the hotel. Very nice and quiet setting. Not too crowded on a weeknight for dinner as I believe it caters mostly to office workers as well as some tourists staying in the Midtown East.

The same routine as before – coming back to the room to rest and have a snack. Where is Café Promenade and the complimentary snacks? Oh, well, guess we will have to buy our own snacks… Time to try some of the macrons we bought yesterday.

As you can see from the pictures, it was a sunny day, and with the heat/humidity, it was time for a water break before heading back to the hotel via the subway. We got back at 4:30 and the favorite sight daily of coming back to the hotel lobby to see the cold water refreshment. This being a hot day, there’s not much left but good enough for a quick drink at the lobby before heading up to the room.

As the staircase is very narrow where you can only have a person go up or down but not both, they have a worker there with a monitor connected to a camera mounted over the staircase. They only allow you to go up the staircase if there’s no one coming down from it as those people have higher priority. Corner Seat They are renovating the area where they used to have the Shakespeare in the Park plays

We Californians have a special appreciation for men's restrooms... Nice to see the Oasis class bathrooms still have interesting artwork to keep you occupied instead of staring at a blank wall. They had interesting artwork on the Allure as well Enjoy your cruise. Hopefully, the storm approaching Florida will have no impact on your vacation .

Almost Disneyland-like in terms of a fake castle look.

After lunch, it was time to walk back to Central Park as we wanted to see Belvedere Castle. Well, they call it a castle but it’s just a façade castle but nevertheless, you get a good view of the area.

The time was 1:20 PM and time for lunch. NYC is famous for some of the food unique to the area. We have eaten the Halal food and the NYC pizza. Time for the famous NYC bagels for lunch. Most of people associate bagels with breakfast but since we have free breakfast at the hotel, if we wanted bagels, it’d have to be during lunch time. The tour ended on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Per Google Maps, there isn’t a top-notch bagel place nearby and since we planned to go back to Central Park, we didn’t want to take the subway back down to Midtown only to come back up again. So, we walked over to the closest Bagel shop a few blocks away and ordered Bagel sandwiches and ate them there as it was Air conditioned inside and they had nice cold water dispensers as the water inside our bottle from this morning was running low from walking around in the heat all morning long. You don’t see cream cheese on display out here in California. This looks like something you get from an ice cream store so it’s definitely a new experience for us Museum of Natural History on the way as they are literally across the street from Central Park You don't see this type of display back home

The Central Park Tour ends outside of the Dakota Apartments where Lennon was living at the time. Time to tip/pay the man and we are on our own. By the way, there are various kiosks in Central Park with workers there such that you can pick up a free map of the area if you are on your own and need some guidance. But I think you will save time/frustration if you have a guide to take you to see all the highlights

Strawberry Fields – where John Lennon was shot. There’s always a performer here trying to earn a buck from all the people coming by to pay tribute to the great Beatles. Maybe the fact that we all showed up in the large group, the singer decided to perform Lennon’s legendary song with a big crowd gathering Here's the song to follow along:

Back to the Central Park: If you are a fan of the “Friends” TV show, this is supposed to be the fountain from the show but the real fountain is a model in a movie studio.

Haha, no worries about hijacking the thread. Like I said, I don’t believe in the concept of hijacking threads as we are all fellow travelers exchanging information. Besides, I “know” the author of this thread so he won’t mind… Technically, my wife and I have been to London and Paris many years before the boys were born. But it was a brief visit for 2 days at each city as we were part of the Trafalgar tour visiting multiple European countries. We now want to go back to see it again and show the boys. That was back in the old days before cell phone/Google Maps where you would feel intimated to travel to foreign lands without speaking the native language. Nowadays with cell phones (and Wi-Fi), you feel more confident to venture out. Why do I want to visit every Disney property worldwide? Simple – because my wife and I are big Disney fans. How big? We had various Mickey and Minnie items at our wedding. We flew to Florida’s WDW for our honeymoon for 5 days before going on a Caribbean cruise. I can’t count how many times I have been to the CA Disneyland. When the boys were young, we used to have Disneyland annual passes where we would go down to southern CA every vacation break to visit Disneyland to maximize its value. I can navigate both parks without a map. We have been to the Florida WDW about 6 times (including the honeymoon). Been to the 2 Disney parks in Tokyo back in 2019. Covid prevented us from going overseas and now with the boys being much older, it’s time to venture out. To non-Disney fans, every park “is the same”. But to hardcore Disney fans, they are all very different as we can list what each park is different in how the castles are formed or where the color of haunted mansions are different between Disneyland and Disneyworld. Similar to non-cruise ship folks thinking every cruise ship is the same but all the hardcore CC folks will easily point out the differences between ships…

For those who want solitude from the hustle/bustle of Manhattan, the tour guide took us into an area where you can’t see/hear any of the noise of NYC. Which can be a good or bad thing as if you can’t hear others – chances are other people can’t hear you. Call me paranoid if you will, but this could be a perfect spot to murder someone and you end up being in the opening scene of the next episode of Law and Order…😜

The Hans Christian Andersen statue Statue of Alice in Wonderland Be VERY CAREFUL when approaching this statue in the summer as it’s VERY HOT being out in the sun all day long. Lots of kids tried to climb on top of it to take a picture and they all screamed when their bare skin touched the statue. It’s better to be IN FRONT of the statue than sitting on it during sunny days

You can rent rowboats here Even the tour guide is taking pictures...

Bethesda Fountain Supposedly if you come here in the dead of winter, the water fountain won’t be running as it’s too cold.

Bethesda Terrace and Fountain It was in the Dustin Hoffman movie, Running Man as well as in the Marvels movie, The Avengers. Need to look up to check out the tiled ceilings

Quick water break as we approach “The Mall”. Many parts of Central Park consist of smaller trails but this portion of the Central Park is wide open with lots of room. In the old days, wealthy folks would ride their horse carriages down this main pathway, the Mall. Lots of shades in this part as the trees are tall and mature

We move on after the zoo and you see entertainers under the bridge Balto the dog statue and his story here

Anyway, I digress way too much. Back to the Central Park walking tour.

There’s a Central Park Zoo. So let’s try to connect back to a cruise theme once more – as most of you remembered that years ago, RCI had a partnership with DreamWorks to use the characters on their cruise ship shows/parades. The movie series from DreamWorks, Madagascar, was based on the animals from the Central Park Zoo. In fact, if you watch the beginning of the movie, you will see Central Park Zoo as where all the animals lived and the clock tower striking at 9 AM to signify the opening of the zoo. Maybe some boring people on CC don’t like having characters on the cruises but personally speaking, I loved having the parades and activities related to the DreamWorks. Remember what I strive for on my vacation – Entertainment (fun) and not relaxation. I missed these parades/shows on the Royal Promenade/Aqua Theater/ Studio B… Let's toss in few old DreamWorks pics for nostalgia sake: