Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[perfect match]

On 8/5/2024 at 9:18 PM, harryfat1 said:

Nancy,

 

Being a Disney fan, you might be interested to check out Mark’s @h20skibum trip report on the RCI boards.  He just got off the cruise ship and is spending time at WDW now with his family.

I’m already there, Harry. We’re on Utopia in January so I wanted to get his take on the ship with a bonus of some Disney thrown in for good measure. 
 

We definitely need a Disney day in the near future. Preferably only that’s not so hot, humid, and thunderstorm ⛈️ filled to leave us with heat exhaustion.  We’re old enough now that we can’t afford to push our boundaries with that. When we first moved here 20 years ago we would go 2-3 times per week. Now, that’s not happening but we are still going and still enjoying our coaster rides while we’re there! 

[harryfat1]

15 hours ago, perfect match said:

I’m already there, Harry. We’re on Utopia in January so I wanted to get his take on the ship with a bonus of some Disney thrown in for good measure. 
 

We definitely need a Disney day in the near future. Preferably only that’s not so hot, humid, and thunderstorm ⛈️ filled to leave us with heat exhaustion.  We’re old enough now that we can’t afford to push our boundaries with that. When we first moved here 20 years ago we would go 2-3 times per week. Now, that’s not happening but we are still going and still enjoying our coaster rides while we’re there! 

I’ve been to Florida once in the summertime for a cruise and never again as I think my brain melted from the heat.  

 

We only go to WDW in December when it’s much cooler in Orlando and you have the Christmas decorations in the parks and hotels on top of Holiday parades so it’s super magical.

 

[harryfat1]

Leaving the Intrepid Museum, we returned to where we started at the Vessel and walked to the High Line.

 

I tried to get Google Maps to go to the High Line but they don’t consider that to be a walking path even though it is.  So I will point it out in my red arrow and you just follow us along the pathway.  If you can see a thin green line to the left of the dotted walking line Google Maps wants us to go...

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The area is called Hudson Yard because they store the NYC subway trains there as a working train yard next to the Hudson River.  You see many train lines as they are parked here

 

 

 

Reflection off the Vessel or if you have a good imagination, it’s the space ship getting signal from the Mother Ship up in Orbit and it’s ready to take off…

 

 

 

Helicopter flying in and out dropping off passengers.  Very very loud as they had multiple helicopters flying in and out

 

 

[harryfat1]

So the High Line used to be a train track that was abandoned years ago and later on converted to a walking park.  What’s cool about it is that it’s elevated so you don’t have to worry about car traffic.

 

With the Internet, this place has become a tourist attraction on the west side.

 

Back to the Vessel as the Hudson Yard is the beginning/end of The High Line trail, depending on where you start the walk.

 

 

Lots of benches to sit and admire the scenery and flowers

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

According to Google Maps, they want me to walk the street below as that's where the blue dots are from the previous map but we are walking above the street.

 

Much more scenic from above

 

 

 

You see the old railroad track is still there as they kept them as a reminder of what this place used to be.

 

 

 

 

Some lady fell or had some medical problem as she was on the ground and her family called 911 for help

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

You can clearly see the train tracks.

 

This area is called the Meat Packing District as they used to load up the meat here as well and a very famous cookie company used to be in the area - Nabisco with their Oreo cookies.

 

 

More seating area

 

 

[harryfat1]

As “the Edge” observation deck is part of the multi-billion dollar Hudson Yard development, you can get a good view of it from the High Line.

 

From this angle, it looks like a spaceship is next to the building

 

 

Not sure how I would feel if I lived in this area of NYC as you have people coming back every hour during the day. If you think the Royal Promenade cabins on the Voyager/Freedom class ships have no privacy, you have thousands of people walking by daily looking into your house…

 

[harryfat1]

There’s also stadium-style seating at one section where you can sit above and watch the traffic go by as you see people taking a water/snack break

 

 

 

They have rotating artwork at the HIgh Line that changes every few months

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

An upcoming artwork at the High Line will be a 16-foot-tall pigeon sculpture

 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/giant-pigeon-sculpture-to-make-its-debut-on-new-york-citys-high-line-180984829/

 

My question is how big will the bird droppings be coming from a 16-foot pigeon? 🤪

 

 

[harryfat1]

Near the end of the High Line is the Starbucks Roastery that my son wanted to see.  This is not your typical Starbucks.  They don’t sell regular Starbucks drinks.  It’s more of a “fu-fu” coffee drink than a regular coffee drink

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As it was almost 7 PM by then, it was time for dinner.  We headed toward the waterfront of the Hudson River a few blocks away and went to the food hall at Pier 57.  The area looks nice and fancy but I can easily say this was the worst meal we had while on the trip.

 

Overpriced food and small portions.  I guess you are paying for the view as you can see the water and Little Island just down the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the view out:

 

 

[harryfat1]

OK. Bad dinner is done.  Time to head out to catch the sunset at the edge of the pier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's New Jersey on the other side of the Hudson River.  Coming from CA, we are not used to having another state just over on the other side of the river.  CA borders other states but those are over much more remote areas.

 

 

NY to the left.  NJ to the right.

 

The July 4th fireworks will be out here tomorrow.  We thought we could just come back here tomorrow night and watch the fireworks here.  Oh, would we be ever so wrong in our naive assessment...

 

 

People enjoying the sunset

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 8 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

We then walked over to Little Island - a man-made little park area donated by the Billionaire, Barry Dillard and his wife Diane von Fustenberg at $260 Million.

 

I’m not a New Yorker but supposedly the west side of Manhattan historically has been more run down.  Especially the pier area after the hurricanes has not been maintained well and with the addition of Little Island/Hudson Yard/High Line, the area now looks very nice.

 

The little island looks interesting from afar as it has the tulip-looking pods that support the island. It’s completely free to enter.

 

Very nice place to hang out for a while as the sun was setting over NJ

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s another popular area called Chelsea Market but we never made it there as we were getting tired of being out all day long and headed back to the hotel around 9 PM after the sunset to rest for one final day tomorrow.

 

Distance walked today = 9.5 miles

 

This concludes day 8 of the trip report.

[kimlet]

23 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

s with many NYC attractions, you can shop around online to get discounted tickets to the place

Where did you shop around for tickets. We would like to see this when we go in september

[harryfat1]

4 minutes ago, kimlet said:

Where did you shop around for tickets. We would like to see this when we go in september

You can check Groupon for discounted tickets (as well as the food discounts I mentioned):

 

https://www.groupon.com/

 

Agoda (Travel Agency) has good prices for many NYC items.  I used them to book my December 2023 Florida hotels:

 

Agoda Official Site | Free Cancellation & Booking Deals | Over 2 Million Hotels

 

Another travel website is Klook:

 

Best things to do in New York 2024 | Attractions & activities - Klook US

 

Also, try the Get You Guide:

 

The BEST New York City Deals & discounts 2024 - FREE Cancellation | GetYourGuide

 

This one, Working Advantage, not everyone has access to, unfortunately. This company offers corporate discounts to workers.  Ask your HR department at your work if they have an association with them.

 

According to their website, over 40,000 companies use them.  I have gotten many discounted rates through them

 

Working Advantage - Employee Discount Program

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Day 9, July 4 – UN Building/Flushing Chinatown/Fireworks along Hudson River

 

So this is our last full day in NYC.  By now, we were all pretty tired having walked 8+ miles daily and feeling less energetic to see more.

 

Originally I had penciled in to see the Metropolitan Museum (The Met) as you are always aggressive about wanting to see all the sites. Still, after getting there and walking so much daily, at the end, you say “Nah” in paying $30/pp to see a museum that none of us are interested in going to.

 

We opted to go to Flushing, over in the Queens area, to check out the largest Chinatown.

 

The other option was taking the ferry to Governor’s Island to walk around and see more of the NYC skyline.  But as we have already seen enough of that from the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn visit, it didn’t feel that compelling to go to Governor’s Island.

 

We could have gone home today as the flights out of NYC were extremely cheap if we had flown out.  But we wanted to stay in NYC to see the fireworks presented by Macy's as it’s supposed to be the biggest fireworks show in the US.

 

I think many tourists have the same thought as that’s why nobody wanted to fly out on July 4 and the airlines are lowering the price to attract customers that day.

 

Although the forecast has rain coming tonight, we are hoping the rain won’t get here until after the fireworks are over

 

[harryfat1]

Another day of hotel breakfast

 

 

 

We are staying on the east side of Manhattan, but we have yet to venture out to our side of the island.  It was time to walk over to the East side and check out the United Nations Building.

 

 

Since today was July 4, there are no office workers around 2^nd Avenue.  It’s nice to see a very wide street and not filled with tons of people.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

It’s a quick 0.5 mile to the UN Building.  As it was July 4, there was not much happening outside.  They have guided tours of the place during regular business days if that interests you.

 

 

 

Wait, this is Manhattan?  Cars?  What Cars?  People?  What People?

 

Ghost town on this side of the island on a July 4 morning at 11 AM

 

 

UN Building

 

 

On a working day, you'd find different countries' flags here

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

My son is a big Apple fan so he wanted to see the mega Apple store as there’s one at the north part of 5^th Avenue and they are open 24/7. 

 

Yes,  no typo.  They do not close. So if you need help with your Apple device at 3 AM, this is the place to come.

 

 

Back to the more lively part of NYC where the tourists are

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Glass Apple Store front.  The entire store is down beneath

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not into Apple products as I have a Samsung phone so I just sat in one of the many seats enjoying the A/C while the boys looked over the Apple gears

 

 

[harryfat1]

Done with Apple store.  There’s a bagel store down the street that offers rainbow bagels.  We have never seen one before so we just wanted to check it out but we didn’t get any as we planned to have lunch over at Flushing Queens

 

 

 

 

 

You don’t see this type of setup in CA or anywhere on the West Coast of having cream cheese on display like ice cream flavors

 

 

[harryfat1]

Without getting into any political debates, we walked past the Trump Tower where there were a handful of Trump supporters outside.

 

 

 

As the sign outside says, open to the public, we walked inside for a quick peek just to see what it’s like.

 

 

 

 

 

You can have your picture taken by the #45 sign as some people were lining up to have their pictures taken there

 

 

[harryfat1]

Done with the Trump Tower. Time to take a long subway ride to Flushing. 

 

This would be our furthest subway ride since being in NYC as it’s pretty far out in the East side of NYC. We had to do a quick transfer between lines to get there.

 

 

 

The subway drops you off right in the middle of Flushing Chinatown.  It’s supposed to be the largest Chinatown anywhere in the world outside of China.

 

We walked around a bit and it was super crowded being the July 4 holiday with the locals there to eat lunch.