harryfat1

So we were at Central Park: As I said, most of the Central Park was man made but this hill area is from the old days.

Thanks for the contrarian suggestion. Yes, we actually have thought about making 2 separte trips but as we get older, the bucket list gets longer and the window to vacation is shorter. I don’t think I will have the strength to walk 8 to 10 miles daily 20 years from now so I need to hit as many of the bucket list areas while I still can walk. The top item list is visiting all the Disney parks in the world in the order they are built. Besides London/Paris, we still need to visit Greece and other parts of Meditererian - probably a B2B cruise somewhere down the road next few year. Then there’s Asian countries like Korea/Singapore/Taiwan on top of going to Hong Kong and Shanghai to see the Disney parks there. Then there’s Australia/New Zealand area along with Thailand/Malayasia and Iceland and Norwegian Fjords. Haven’t even talked about Egypt or South America and Africa. I will be long dead before all the items on the bucket list is checked off. Here’s our tentative high level schedule for 2 weeks as that’s the max time I can be away from work. This schedule has us flying into London first but in theory we can switch between the 2 cities if necessary, it will depend on the cost of the airfare. One advantage of going to Paris earlier is their school kids are out by early July and Disneyland would be crowded so it might make sense to got to Paris first. We might shortchange London by a day and give it to Paris as we might go back to London later on for cruises out of Southampton so we can catch whatever we missed this time around. But Paris may not be a repeat visit for any foreseeable future giving the long bucket list.

Thanks for the tip. I will keep an eye out for any events happening during the time we will be in town but since it’s almost 11 months out, not all the events will be published online. We were in Osaka Japan back in 2019 the same week they had the G7 meetings of world leaders there and they closed many of the tourist venues in the area we wanted to visit for security reasons but by then, it was too late to change our plans. My window to vacation is very narrow in trying to align the boys school and my work schedule – it has to be in late June or early August and the one week of Christmas. That’s it. I can’t vacation any other time of the year as you always read that people say “The best time to visit this place is Spring and Fall to avoid the Tourists”. Nope, can’t do that. I am part of the thousands/millions of tourists that people are trying to avoid. I also have to pay a premium in terms of airfare/cruises/hotel to travel in these popular times.

I have never seen such tall and yet narrow buildings until visiting NYC. Wolloman Rink. During the winter months, this becomes another ice skating rink in addition to the most famous one at Rockefeller Center. During the summer, they use the area for the ever-more popular Pickle Ball Courts

I will be the first to admit I don’t know all the names/sites listed so if my pictures don’t match my description, you will know it as someone will point out my error Our tour guide is on the left with a baseball cap. Very nice man from Latin America. Knows the area well. Not a fan of the horse-drawn carriages. More cruelty to animals to make them do this in the heat but many people enjoy their rides Nice clean public bathrooms to use before the tour starts

Being a fan of the TV show, Law and Order, which was filmed in NYC for an astonishing 24 seasons, I have a certain tainted view/bias on NYC. Since the show is about crime, somebody always dies at the beginning of the show from foul play. So my expectation of NYC and Central Park is that you will get robbed/mugged/killed on any given day. It’s like walking across the street in the red light. One of these days, you will draw a short straw and get smacked by a car. I envisioned there were hundreds of murderers hiding in the bushes of Central Park who would come and chop your head off as they kill every 100th tourist and take your money and phone and then you become a chalk outline on the floor as the TV show starts… Yeah, that’s my images of NYC/Central Park. But as the commercial says - Not Exactly....

Here’s our tour info: https://www.guruwalk.com/walks/50384-connect-with-central-park-s-soul-dive-into-an-exclusive-nature-tour We are going to stop at many places but even then, you can see we will have only see the southern part of the park Here’s our tour info: https://www.guruwalk.com/walks/50384-connect-with-central-park-s-soul-dive-into-an-exclusive-nature-tour We are going to stop at many places but even then, you can see we will have only visited the southern part of the park There's an entire middle and upper part not covered by the tour

So today’s tour is to see the highlights of the Southern part of Central Park. The park itself is huge. You can easily spend 2 days at the park but we only have 2/3 of the day dedicated to it so we only saw some of the big-name areas. The park itself is manmade. It was created in 1858. You can watch YouTube history on the park. Per Wiki, it’s the most visited urban park in the US – although I wonder how they calculate that number as it’s a free park with multiple entrances so how do they do the count? Anyway, I will take their word for it as many people know the park through movies and songs. If you are a native New Yorker, you may not have visited tourist traps like the Empire State Building or Statue of Liberty, but you will likely have visited Central Park at least once. Of the 4 tours we took on this trip, I would rank this as a MUST. You can do your own thing at SoHo or Brooklyn Bridge or Wall Street, but Central Park is big and full of trees. It would be much more work on your end as a first-time visitor navigating through the park. There are kiosks where they give away free maps of the park but unless you know what spots you want to see, I would go with a guide on a walking tour. We booked ours with the Guruwalk and paid $20/pp. If you want to go with another tour, Central Park web page offers tours for $35/pp https://www.centralpark.com/tours/walking/central-park-tour/

The Globe Structure at Columbus Circle is at the southwest corner entrance of Central Park. Behind it is the Trump International Hotel

We are heading UPTOWN today as we typically head DOWNTOWN on the other days as most of the activities are south of us but today we are going north as that’s where Central Park is. The Subway ride north wasn’t very popular/crowded. Just a short ride and you can find a seat to sit

Day 7 July 2 – Central Park/Empire State Building Another morning of hotel breakfast. It may not be the best but it’s certainly convenient to just take the elevator down to the lobby and there’s a mini buffet waiting for you. No need to stand in a long line like Ess A Bagel or have to whip out the wallet to pay for a family of 4 for breakfast daily for coffee/tea. Never-ending construction in NYC.

Done with the prison visit. Time to head back to the hotel as it was 10:30 PM but Times Square was still buzzing full of energy as you see more street performers trying to entertain the people and making a buck. Gotta love NY. Where else do you find a big crowd at 10:30 PM listening to a Mexican band playing music? These people might be staying for the Midnight Moment display Shops are still open Made it back to the hotel by 11 PM to shower Distance walked for the day = 9 miles This concludes day 6 of the trip report as we are about 2/3 of the way done with this supplemental report

Street performers trying to make a buck Time to visit the uncle in prison (aka shopping). Throwing in an RCI cruise photo as this is supposed to be an RCI cruise-related thread so let’s show an RCI logo shirt in NYC it for a mere $130 USD…Cheapo Dad chuckle and kept on walking Instead, I bought this shirt. You might see me wearing it on the December cruise...

Went down the red stairs to be with the masses and check out few stores (aka visiting uncle in prison) I would hate to be driving around this crowd SHOW ME THE MONEY as you need to pay to have photos taken

Here are pictures of another youth group. Think they are from Mexico/South America? Everyone was wearing a red backpack and a clear lanyard with the subway MetroCard inside. They were boisterous and provided a lot of energy to the area when they were singing and dancing as a group. Here’s a tour bus full of tourists taking pictures of the youth group in red while they took pictures of the tour bus – reciprocating phone opts. Note the ad on the bus trying to get people to go to the Cayman Islands in the winter. The billboard had ads about this group as you can see their hands taking pictures of the screen

Back to the Times Square: Zooming in you see the person dressed as Mickey. If you want to take a picture with them, be sure to agree on a price beforehand

Thanks to both for the feedback on London/Paris. Let me go back to the drawing board to rethink my strategy. I was hoping to be lazy in just staying at one place in Paris and not have to move within Paris if at all possible. We are looking to stay 7 nights in Paris and if we switch hotels, it would be 3 nights Disneyland area and 4 nights in central Paris. Or 7 nights in central Paris and take the trains for 2 or 3 days to the Disneyland area. Disneyland Paris closes at 10:30 PM or so during the summer. Being a Disney fan, I anticipate us staying close to closing time and then lingering at the Disney Village until 11 PM. Then we would need to take the train back to Paris to get back to the hotel after midnight. And doing it for 2 nights. So it’s a case of picking my poison in either giving up part of the day to move between hotels to check out/check-in/get settled or spending multiple days going back and forth between places. As for the cost, I was thinking of getting the Navigo Weekly Pass that I saw online the other day which includes every transportation option in Paris, like the RER so we don’t have to pay separately each way:

I think London is for the mind and Paris is for the heart in terms of what’s out there. It’s a matter of personal preferences of what each person likes. As you said, the London museums are free and it’s a great enrichment for the mind but Paris is where the books/movies all romanticize the city so it’s for the hearts. From a high level, I think there are more interesting/picture-worthy spots in Paris than in London so if nothing else, we will use the first “jetlag” day in London to meander around the city and not have to worry about the language barrier. Wouldn’t want to spend my first jetlag day standing in line at Disneyland Paris. I haven't decided on Airbnb in Paris or London. I would think one of the stays should be an Airbnb so we can deal with laundry by day 7 or 8 of the trip on either end in doing laundry before leaving the apartment or right after arriving. I was just checking Expedia and the Internet yesterday and found this Paris Disneyland Partners Hotel - Hotel L'Elysee Val D'Europe. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g780713-d289828-Reviews-or20-Hotel_L_Elysee_Val_D_Europe-Serris_Marne_la_Vallee_Seine_et_Marne_Ile_de_France.html It’s across the street from a major suburban mall in Paris and close to the train station. Has free shuttles to Paris Disneyland as well as A/C that you referenced. It's supposed to be a 4-star hotel. Expedia is quoting me $2,400 USD (including tax and fees) for a 7-night stay in late June for 4 of us in 2 queen-sized beds. That price includes a breakfast buffet daily for all of us. I’m very tempted to book this soon just to have something locked up as I pay nothing until next June and it’s 100% cancellable with no penalties for cancellation if I find a better option later on. At $340 USD per night including taxes it’s not a screaming bargain compared to the other cheaper Airbnb places but the location near the mall and train station and free shuttle to Disneyland is a major plus. With A/C and daily breakfast, this place checks off all the boxes. The only concern is that since it’s closer to Disneyland, it’s further out in the suburbs and not within the heart of Paris and we will have to deal with riding the RER train into town daily which is around 40 minutes one way. I will need to check the frequency of the trains later on but at this stage, I’m going to book this sooner than later just to lock in the price/room.

Mark, Have a great vacation. I will be dropping in on your trip reporting in between my postings here. Thanks for the info on your cruise out of UK. I will be checking out your trip info later. Yeah, good decision to skip Paris during the unrest as you never know some crazies could be attacking innocent bystanders. Maybe after this European land trip, we might do the Mediterranean cruise to see Greece but from all the news reports, it doesn’t sound like some of Europeans are welcoming the tourists and the areas are super crowded in the summer periods.

Yeap. We are going to try up the stairs of full of bodies Me and my new BFFs...

After the Broadway theater, we made it back to Times Square where our initial visit the other night was cut short due to the rain. No rain is forecasted tonight and tonight seemed more crowded than the other night. The back view of the red steps

After dinner, we walked past the Broadway show theater where they performed “Wicked”. We thought about going there to see the show but at $150 per ticket, it’s a tad too rich for Cheapo Dad’s wallet books as I can see 3 observation decks for this price. I can catch Broadway-style show back in SF later on but I can’t be in the observation decks later on to see the sights of NYC.

All done with Grand Central Terminal. It was 7:35. Time for dinner. Dinner tonight is at the Urban Hawker food hall. It’s a Southeast Asian cuisine-only food hall just a few blocks from Grand Central and we’d be walking by the Rockefeller Center on the way there On paper, the entire food hall closes at 10 PM. In reality, many of the places were already closed by the time we got there at 8. Dang. They lied I wanted the Hainan Chicken from one of the stalls but they were already closed by 8 PM so the only good option left was just the “meh” fried rice area.

OK, back up to the main level again. If you look way up a the tall glass area, you will notice people walking past periodically. We asked the police officers there if the area is for public access and were told no, not for the general public as my wife wanted to go up there and take a picture looking down.