harryfat1 Posted July 23 Author #1526 Share Posted July 23 They have a merry-go-round at the waterfront with lots of kids riding it. Too old/too cheap to pay for merry-go-round a la carte. Either ride the mini one on the Oasis class ships without extra cost or at Disneyland as the price of admission. Lots of places to sit and watch the scenery/people on a good weather day. I highly recommend coming here. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 23 Author #1527 Share Posted July 23 My wife loves to use panoramic photos, here's what it looks like. Super wide shot to include as much scenery as possible albeit distorted 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 23 Author #1528 Share Posted July 23 OK. Done with Brooklyn. Time to find a subway entrance and head back to the hotel and rest as we had done a lot of walking for the day. Similar to going back to the ship to rest after daytime excursions. From here, we took the subway going underneath the East River and transferred around the Oculus area to go back up to Midtown. A few pics of the NYC subway experience. Not a pretty subway compared to other large cities as it’s old but we never felt unsafe at any of the subway stops/rides. Maybe we were just on the tourist routes/stops where there are many fellow toruists on board with us. But the one thing friends said to us when we were visiting NYC was “Be careful on the streets and subway”. We never felt unsafe. Just like any large city, be careful of your surroundings. I have seen many videos of pickpockets in Paris, That looks a lot more scary compared to NYC who wants to scam your money instead of stealing it. Transfer point in Manhattan to go uptown - no line to use the restroom here versus the long lines at the TimeOut Market 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 23 Author #1529 Share Posted July 23 Took the subway from Brooklyn back to Midtown Manhattan, but before going back to the hotel room, we stopped by the Japanese grocery store, Katagari, from the other day and bought bento boxes to eat for dinner that night as well as the rice balls. They make fresh rice balls daily and you can smell the seaweed wrap as soon as you walk into the store with the workers making hundreds of them daily. Another one of those – only in NYC sites as the Japanese stores in CA don’t make them in such high quantities daily. Bentos boxes. We bought this – called the “bomb”. It’s easily their biggest rice ball as it’s almost the size of my palm. Trying to take this on the plane and if TSA opens your backpack and sees the word “the Bomb” on it, do you think they will question you or scan it multiple times to see what’s inside? 🤪 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 23 Author #1530 Share Posted July 23 Anyway, back to the hotel. Similar to the Caribbean cruises where they would have flavored water waiting for you at the pier, Residence Inn had free flavored water at the lobby daily during our stay and different flavors daily. It’s a very welcoming site to see after a hot day of walking around in the NYC humidity feeling the AC of the front lobby and drinking cup(s) of water Another thing similar to the cruise is coming back to the hotel room (cabin) after a long hot day and being happy to feel the AC and plopping down on the sofa/bed after a lot of walking in the heat/humidity. The only difference is some of the hotels nowadays only make up the rooms every other day so while we complained the cruise ships no longer make up the cabins 2 times a day, some land-based hotels only do it once every other day. If you need fresh towels, just call the front desk on the seldom-used hotel room phone to make that request. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 23 Author #1531 Share Posted July 23 Alrighty, it's time to rest in the cold AC room and cool off with some iced tea. After a couple of hours of rest/nap in the room, it was time to go out again at 5 PM to do a little shopping on Fifth Avenue (aka visiting uncle in prison). No, not at the end stores such that if you had to check the prices, you can’t afford it. They do have some major chain stores like Uniqlo and H&M along 5th Avenue the young people like my sons like to buy their clothes without taking out a second mortgage. The benefit of having a hotel in the Midtown area is you can go back to rest and then come back out to the major tourist sites without using the subway. Huge line of people lining up to wait to go inside the Nike store Inside Uniqlo's flagship store in NYC/US 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 23 Author #1532 Share Posted July 23 (edited) The store is on multiple levels so it’s much bigger than your average Uniqlo store. Supposed to be their flagship store in the US in terms of size/selection. They even have seating areas for bored moms/dads like yours truly to sit and waste time on their phones while the boys find their clothes. This was my hangout spot while the wife shopped with the boys Edited July 23 by harryfat1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare perfect match Posted July 23 #1533 Share Posted July 23 Great report, Harry! I’m enjoying seeing New York through your eyes. Life has been busy around here lately so I haven’t gotten here every day but I catch up when I can. You can count on me following along until you’re done showing us the sights of New York. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1534 Share Posted July 24 20 hours ago, perfect match said: Great report, Harry! I’m enjoying seeing New York through your eyes. Life has been busy around here lately so I haven’t gotten here every day but I catch up when I can. You can count on me following along until you’re done showing us the sights of New York. Nancy, Thanks for reading along. No worries. The trip report will always be here. We all have busy lives. Drop by whenever it's convenient. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1535 Share Posted July 24 Done with shopping. Time to go back to the hotel to drop things off. Fifth Avenue with loads of people and cars. We were running low on water from the tours the past couple of days so time to re-stock in going back to the grocery store to get more. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1536 Share Posted July 24 Dinner at the hotel tonight. Good to have a kitchen aera to keep leftover food and drinks cold. Bento boxes that we bought earlier and some leftovers from the Kirean restaurant the other night 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1537 Share Posted July 24 So it’s 9 PM, time to call it a day as we already did enough walking and stay in to watch Netflix in the hotel? Of course not. We are heading out to see the world famous Time Square. It’s a straight walk from our hotel of 0.7 miles. NYC celebrating Pride month with colors of the building as well as banner at the Oculus from the other day. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1538 Share Posted July 24 If you are trying to decide on where to stay at NYC, there are hotels at the Time Square area. Orgianlly I was going to stay there but after talking to people who have been there, they suggested we should be a little further out from Time Square to be away from the hustle/bustle of the neon lights. But if you are the type who wants to be “right there” in the middle of all the action. Hampton Inn has a hotel 1 block away. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1539 Share Posted July 24 OK. We made it to Time Square. Load of people even at 9 PM. Oh, yeah, the weather app says rain will be coming later tonight so we all packed umbrellas in our backpack. The NYC version is like the Vegas version on a sugar high. People everywhere you turn. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1540 Share Posted July 24 We have been to the M&M store on the strip at Vegas years ago and want to check out the NYC version of the same store. Some area in the store you can't even walk through as there are people everywhere 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1541 Share Posted July 24 Doen with M&M store and let’s head out to the Time Square plaza that many people have seen as part of the New Year’s Eve celebetraion on TV. Yeah, that’s a lot of people... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1542 Share Posted July 24 There’s a set of staircases – the red steps that many people try to go up/set on to observe this mass glob of humanity. I assure you that it was not easy trying to squeeze your way up the steps with people standing/sitting at each step. It was a lot of walk and stop and wait for someone to move and then walk and stop and wait some more for the next opening. A lot of effort to go up to the top of these stairs You have a new appreciation for the phrase - stop and go and stop and go.... Right at the top of the picture is where they drop the ball on New Year's Eve to celebrate the New Year. Hard to believe, but they have more people on NYE than in this picture. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 24 Author #1543 Share Posted July 24 After about 10 minutes at the red steps, you noticed something on your face/head. Water drops – rain. Dang. And it kept coming as the NYC rain isn’t like California rain, which starts as a trickle and slowly ramps up before it’s a full blown rain. NYC rain ramps up fast. In less than 30 second, it’s a pouring rain as you see a mass exodus of people from the red stairs/plaza to take cover underneath the building/scaffolding covers. However, we knew the rain was coming and we brought umbrellas and were prepared but not everyone had umbrellas and they were getting pretty wet from it. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare perfect match Posted July 24 #1544 Share Posted July 24 Harry, I know you’ve done your research so you must have learned that New York is the city that never sleeps! At any hour of the day or night there will be people out there doing whatever it is that they do. The nonstop activity level in the city is part of my love/hate relationship with that nonstop city. I find it an exciting, wonderful place to be, but it also exhausts and overwhelms me. It’s a place I’ve enjoyed visiting but I wouldn’t want to live there. Your pictures and descriptions are, as usual, spectacular! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NHProud Posted July 24 #1545 Share Posted July 24 2 hours ago, harryfat1 said: There’s a set of staircases – the red steps that many people try to go up/set on to observe this mass glob of humanity. I assure you that it was not easy trying to squeeze your way up the steps with people standing/sitting at each step. It was a lot of walk and stop and wait for someone to move and then walk and stop and wait some more for the next opening. A lot of effort to go up to the top of these stairs You have a new appreciation for the phrase - stop and go and stop and go.... Right at the top of the picture is where they drop the ball on New Year's Eve to celebrate the New Year. Hard to believe, but they have more people on NYE than in this picture. Not so crowded when my husband made an appearance. I don’t know why he visited the NASDAQ offices. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KmomChicago Posted July 24 #1546 Share Posted July 24 On 7/15/2024 at 8:09 PM, harryfat1 said: Thanks to everyone for reading along with this supplemental trip report to NYC. Originally, I thought it might be just a small group of a few old friends reading along as a continuation of the December cruise report. However, from the various comments I’m seeing today, there are a few new names I don’t recognize. Welcome to those who are new to this thread. I could sound like a YouTuber by saying, "Like and Subscribe and click on the bell icon"...Yeah, spent way too much time on YouTube 🤪 Technically this was a separate trip as it’s 6 months afterward but since the Odyssey will be repositioned to NJ/NY area this Fall/Winter, maybe some folks might be interested in spending a little time in NYC as a pre/post cruise excursion. So perhaps this supplemental trip report will give y’all some ideas on what to see while in town or just a vehicle for the old friends to say hi from a few months ago. I’m a firm believer that tourists see a city differently than locals do. I’m from the SF Bay Area and any tourists to the SF Bay Area have seen places I have never seen as a local. I have never been to Alcatraz or Ghirardelli Square but millions of people visit those places annually. Maybe as tourists, we have the “must-see” list when visiting a city even though some of the places could be “tourist traps” just on name recognition but the locals would scoff at visiting. That’s OK. As long as we are happy with the trip/money spent, being a “dumb tourist” isn’t always a bad thing. This is where I have the best of both worlds. I grew up an hour outside of Chicago; it’s where I mostly fly from to visit other places. But it has always been and is still an excursion to get in the city, so I only do it occasionally, and I still see it as a tourist. I go in for “daycations” or overnights a couple times a year. For spring break this year I took my teenager for 2 nights and we stayed in a different neighborhood (Lincoln Park) than usual (Loop) and had a great time exploring. Loving what you’ve done with NYC. Plenty to photograph in the world’s greatest city. There are actually a lot of cruises from Bayonne (RCI brands) and Manhattan (Carnival brands) so this is definitely a relevant bonus report. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rncruiser Posted July 24 #1547 Share Posted July 24 I’ve lived in NYC all of my life. I grew up in the Bronx and moved to Queens when I got married. Most of NYC is not like Manhattan. II is much quieter and some parts even feel suburban. It is nice to only be a 30 minute subway ride from Broadway shows, museums, and all that Manhattan has to offer. But it is nice to be able to return home to a more peaceful existence. I could never live in the crowds and congestion that most people think is all there is to NYC. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KmomChicago Posted July 24 #1548 Share Posted July 24 On 7/16/2024 at 11:49 PM, rncruiser said: I have to agree with you about modern art. Here’s a couple of pictures I took at the Tate n in London. I would love to know how these are considered museum-worthy. Fellow art lover who also doesn’t get it. I remember asking my mom, about 5 decades ago, why Picasso is a great artist if he can’t do any better than that. Because it looked like the crap we were generating in 2nd grade art class and I knew only like 1 in ten students had any tiny speck of drawing talent even then. She said he could paint better than that, and did it this way on purpose. 🤨🧐🤔 That didn’t help me get it. I have studied further and I know what they say about Picasso but I still think his prolific output supports my general opinion, and he only did one truly great piece in his life as far as Kmom, renowned art critic, is concerned. This is it. I love it. It redeems all the rest. He did one very good cubist piece. Guernica of course. He should have stopped there. I eventually came to a grudging appreciation when compared to Jackson Pollack whose messes I just do not like at all, and my all time art nemesis (see what I did there) Mark Rothko. I have no talent and I can do this. No one would buy it or else I would be doing this. WHY??? 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani negreanu Posted July 24 #1549 Share Posted July 24 Another "art critic" here who doesn't "understand" Rothko.... I've asked by BFF, who is a frequent visitor to museums around the world, what she "finds" in Rothko, whom she admires.... Her reply (which had me chuckle) -- "He fulfills my soul".... Here's one of my DH Rothko inspired paintings.... I rest my case 😉 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani negreanu Posted July 24 #1550 Share Posted July 24 12 hours ago, harryfat1 said: Hampton Inn has a hotel 1 block away My friends and us "swear by" Hampton Inn Times Square North 😎 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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