The Aussietravellers Adventures continue... Updated - Day 26 - Part 1

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Loving the photos. Did you just adore FAO Schwarz. I can't wait to go back and I may even give the piano a whirl myself this time. We have decided we will make a family Muppet while there. We balked at the price last time but I've decided, what they hey, let's do it. Love the location of your hotel, it's awesome. OUr family loved M&M World also. We spent hours in the one in Vegas and then another hour in the one in NY . We all can't wait to go there again and of course stock up on more Hersheys Kisses at the Hershey store.

Thanks for the location of Best Buys. We know where M&M World is so should find it no problems.

Not sure what to do about the internet situation. Will discuss it with hubby tonight. Whilst I do have my own business, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I only checked my emails every 2-3 days and we are only over there for 19 days, unlike yourselves who are there for a ridiculously long time (she says green with envy ). It may be more cost effective for us to just pay the money every few days but I do like the idea of having access to the DIS .

Keep the live updates coming. It will totally help me through the next 6 days.

Enjoy!

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Weather?

What's it like during the day? T-shirt, shorts?

What about evenings? Could I get away with denim 3/4 pants rather than jeans? I'm trying not to have to pack jeans if I don't need them. Want the space for shopping

 

[PrincessInOz]

I've died and gone to heaven. Love the pictures of NYC.

And isn't the Doubletree grand? We stayed there in 2007 and loved it! Did you get the warm cookies on check-in? I can taste them now.....yum!

 

[aussietravellers]

Thanks so much aussietravellers,
We have a four hour stop over in LAX so will look out for the vending machines. Sounds like better value just to buy a couple of phones with credit already on them.

The prepaid cells are great, ours are just little nokias, they are not good quality, like I have an iphone so compared to that it's as light as air But for $29 with $15 credit, it's fine with me

OH OH OH.....nearly forgot did you get some peanut butter M&Ms if not trust me it is worth going back for I loved them! They taste so much better than the nut ones you can't get the peanut butter ones here in oz!

NO.... unfortunately we are a peanut free household. I am anaphylactic to peanut (even an airbourne allergy) so nobody around me can munch on those, makes me very I won't eat any type of them, but DS loves milk choc and I think he got some almond ones and dark choc ones.

So good to read your reports. Very envious. Love the look of the cupcakes, how were they?

We also bought our phones from best buys, probably should of offered them to a fellow diser before they expired. Oh well there's always next time.
We grabbed a flip mio video camera from best buys. Later we grabbed an older model from a vending machine in LA.

That whole foods market is great, we actually had a great lunch at the food hall/deli place too. It was great.

Hope it warms up a little for you.

I love Whole Foods Markets, I always seek them out, the one in LA near Garden Grove is great, so I had printed up the address for the one in NY before I left cause I knew I'd love it. Some of the products I use at home (face cleanser etc) are a US brand, so at home they are like $50 and they have them at whole foods for $9.99. So I stock up

Maybe we should all be chipping in for your broadband stick

Loving the photos. Did you just adore FAO Schwarz. I can't wait to go back and I may even give the piano a whirl myself this time. We have decided we will make a family Muppet while there. We balked at the price last time but I've decided, what they hey, let's do it. Love the location of your hotel, it's awesome. OUr family loved M&M World also. We spent hours in the one in Vegas and then another hour in the one in NY . We all can't wait to go there again and of course stock up on more Hersheys Kisses at the Hershey store.

Thanks for the location of Best Buys. We know where M&M World is so should find it no problems.

Not sure what to do about the internet situation. Will discuss it with hubby tonight. Whilst I do have my own business, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I only checked my emails every 2-3 days and we are only over there for 19 days, unlike yourselves who are there for a ridiculously long time (she says green with envy ). It may be more cost effective for us to just pay the money every few days but I do like the idea of having access to the DIS .

Keep the live updates coming. It will totally help me through the next 6 days.

Enjoy!

I wouldn't get the stick if I didn't need to log in each day. Unfortunately my business I do need to reply to emails etc so it's worth it for me, I wish I didn't have to but really it's giving me something to do in these early hours of the morning I'm lying wide awake.
Oh I know about the build a muppet price. I had a moment and decided to come back thinking it was an impulse moment and I was saying, "seriously, what am I going to do with it once we get home, it will just become a dust collector" But knowing me, we will be back making one before the week is out!

Weather?

What's it like during the day? T-shirt, shorts?

What about evenings? Could I get away with denim 3/4 pants rather than jeans? I'm trying not to have to pack jeans if I don't need them. Want the space for shopping

The weather is really extreme. When we arrived afternoon before last, I was surprised at how warm it was. So next morning (yesterday) when we stepped out of the hotel it was quite cool (but we are from QLD so may notice it more). By lunchtime we had our jacket off and were walking around quite warm, but in jeans. Today is supposed to be 22 and then the next couple of days 23 and 24 and then Monday is supposed to be 27, so hot! Next week (when we have gone but I think you are here), Friday 24th is 19, Sunday 27th 27 then Monday 19 again.
So I guess it depends on if you feel the cold. Yesterday morning we were very cold, no way we could have gone out without jeans, but walking to get cupcakes late afternoon it was nice and 3/4's would have been great. My DS for example does not wear long pants, even at home in winter it's shorts year round, he just doesn't seem to feel the cold, but yesterday he was freezing, but hot in the afternoon.
If you don't feel the cold then just 3/4's may be ok. It is frustrating, with Orlando being so warm it is such a waste of space packing jeans, but I'm glad I did
http://www.accuweather.com/us/ny/new-york/10025/forecast-month.asp?view=table

I've died and gone to heaven. Love the pictures of NYC.

And isn't the Doubletree grand? We stayed there in 2007 and loved it! Did you get the warm cookies on check-in? I can taste them now.....yum!

We are loving the Doubletree. When we went past the Waldorf Astoria yesterday I was thinking, gosh, our hotel is in such a better spot than that. Right outside into the action.

We slept in this morning, woke up at 4am, an hour later than yesterday So if calculations are correct, tomorrow should be 5am and then 6am by the following day

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Thanks for the weather update. It get's pretty cold here in Canberra and I generally never wear full length so I think I might risk it and go with 3/4 jeans. I really appreciate you giving me the feedback.

Your hotel looks like it is in an amazing spot. We stayed at Crowne Plaza last year which was right next door to Hersheys so as you can imagine, AMAZING location. This time we are staying at the Hilton because DH wanted to check out a slightly different area. I hope we don't regret it, although to be honest, it's only 4 blocks or so off Times Square.

More pics please....

 

[aussietravellers]

Thanks for the weather update. It get's pretty cold here in Canberra and I generally never wear full length so I think I might risk it and go with 3/4 jeans. I really appreciate you giving me the feedback.

Your hotel looks like it is in an amazing spot. We stayed at Crowne Plaza last year which was right next door to Hersheys so as you can imagine, AMAZING location. This time we are staying at the Hilton because DH wanted to check out a slightly different area. I hope we don't regret it, although to be honest, it's only 4 blocks or so off Times Square.

More pics please....

I think being used to Canberra weather (cool) you will be OK in 3/4's worst case senerio you need to go shopping. Yep, don't take jeans
4 blocks is nothing in NY isn't it! That will still be a great spot. I think everywhere has somewhere exciting to walk to.

I can't wait to see your photos! You will get some amazing shots of the piano playing! My photos didn't turn out very well of the piano. Actually my camera is not putting out very good photos at the moment, I just have something on the wrong setting. Many of my photos I'm taking on my iphone, the camera on the iphone4 is great (although nowhere near as amazing as some of your photos).

Actually we went to Hard Rock for dinner last night, well we attempted going there. I wanted my DS to pose for a photo, one like your daughter with rocky punching her. That is such an awesome shot. Unfortunately we didn't get there until about 8pm and it was a 20 to 25 minute wait. We waited for about 20 minutes and our name hadn't even come up on the up next board, so we left and went to Bubba Gump. Didn't take many photos because I was so hungry I just started hopping in, then remembered photos, so got some of DS's meal. The kids meal has the fries and some blue gunk served in a cardboard boat, really cute.

Time to head off and get ready for the day. Today's plan is breakfast at Ellens Stardust Diner, more Central Park and a Harbour Cruise and maybe also TOTR, we will try to get there for opening and do a sunrise/sunset ticket (oh and whilst we are there, we may need another Magnolia Cupcake .

 

[Travel Mum]

Gosh, I know I'm selfish, but I'm not looking forward to your time clock correcting itself because I'm loving these live updates and photos!

 

[aussiegirls]

Ooooooh, now I am definately jealous....................we loooooove Bubba Gump. My kids have some sort of weird obsession with jelly, and their fave food in the entire USA was the blue Bubba Gump jelly. When they found out we were going back they were so excited to go and get some blue jelly

xxx

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

My fave meal of our trip last year was at Bubba Gumps - the Mahi Mahi on mash, I think it may have been marinated in bourbon or something. Can't wait to go there again and have it. My mouth waters everytime you think of it.

Do you need some help with your camera? What type, what setting etc.? Happy to help if I can.

Glad you love the pic of my DD and Rocky. It's a real fave of mine too.

I loved capuring my kids on the piano last year. Got tears in my eyes . DH thought I was mad

 

[platypus67]

Not sure what to do about the internet situation. Will discuss it with hubby tonight. Whilst I do have my own business, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I only checked my emails every 2-3 days and we are only over there for 19 days, unlike yourselves who are there for a ridiculously long time (she says green with envy ). It may be more cost effective for us to just pay the money every few days but I do like the idea of having access to the DIS .

If you are taking a laptop, check out www.budgetdialup.com This is what I use. I too have my own business and need to check my emails regualrly as well as update the website and blog on a weekly basis. For $9.95 for 20 hours I'm happy to use something a little slower. I've never had a problem and the only other cost for me was a USB modem which I picked up over there for about $20.00. (laptop doesn't have a built in one) I imagine like everything it could have it's problems, but I'm yet to encounter one. I wasn't sure about being able to use it at wdw but the data ports in the rooms appearantly accomodate a dial up connection. If you set it up before you leave you can even check that it is working as it works worldwide.

 

[platypus67]

Enjoying the live reports aussietravellers. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Thanks Platypus. I'm going to look into this now.

 

[aussietravellers]

OK, Day three already but haven't posted about day two yet so will do that first.

Our plans changed from the original plan that day as there were storms predicted in the afternoon so we decided to make that day our American Museum of Natural History day.

We went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.

Ham, spinach, onion and mushroom omelette

We then raced back to the room and off we went to get on the hop on hop off bus on the uptown route. We thought we would hop on that, take it to the Museum and then hop on it again after and take then do the rest of the loop on the way back to Times Square. We did just that and when we got to the museum stop and got off, we realised that it was only 8.50am and the Museum doesn't open until 10am That's what happens when you wake up so early, 8.50am feels like the middle of the day

So as we were in the Upper West Side we initially thought we would wander around Central Park but then decided to go and wander the streets as it is a lovely area and find somewhere to have a coffee. What a great decision. We ended up in Starbucks sitting in the window, just watching the world go by. I love people watching and we got a great view there. People walking dogs, People walking dogs and more people walking dogs Or the other choice, Nanny's pushing prams Loved every minute of it! It was really nice being out of the hectic loud Times Square and being in a residential area, watching locals go about their day.

Ok and the funniest thing that we saw was this right outside

We actually noticed these everywhere in the area and what a fabulous idea! Much better than seeing dogs tied to posts or something.

After our coffee we took a slow stroll back to the Museum, down some really really pretty tree lined streets.

Arrived at the Museum with 10 minutes to spare and everybody was sitting at the bottom of the stairs (a large stairwell, nowhere near the entrance) and out on the street drinking coffee etc, we walked up to the door and they opened it and we went straight in and to the ticket counter. Bought our tickets and saw the line behind us was about half and hour long

Anyway we spent the whole day there, well until about 3.30pm. It was just fantastic, we only saw one of the three shows, it was the Space one and it was absolutely awesome, I highly recommend it if anybody goes to the museum. Here are a few picks from the Museum

Now we kept waiting for some of these characters to come alive After seeing the "night at the museum" movie.

After some shopping at the museum shop on the way out, we hopped back on the hop on hop off bus. There we went around the whole upper part of Manhattan. It's amazing how you move from one area to another how it changes. Harlem was so different from Upper West Side.

More next post.

 

[aussietravellers]

So we got off the Hop on Hop off bus (we bought the two day ticket for this) and headed back to the hotel. It was about 5.30 and we could see the sky was getting very very dark, it was heavily overcast when we left the Museum but now it had that almost blackness that we get at home with summer storms.

So back in the hotel and the storm starts. OMG it was HUGE! Now we are used to summer storms, living in Queensland we have them almost every afternoon but this was massive. The lightning bolts everywhere and the wind. We were about to go out to Hard Rock after our attempt the night before failed due to a ridiculously long wait, so thought we would go early this night. I said that we would just wait until the storm settled a little before going so DS turned on the TV.
TORNADO WARNING FOR NEW YORK
OMG, I have NEVER been in a tornado before. Figured we'd be ok, just going into the hallway so wasn't too worried, but it did create some excitement! They are showing maps of where the circling clouds were. Luckily nothing happened near us, but there is a lot of damage in Queens and Brooklyn I saw on the news later.

So we waited about half an hour and headed out to Hard Rock. One thing these places have on their menu is the calories assigned to each meal and I have to say if that wasn't there I would be hopping into more than I am but when I looked at the meal I wanted at Hard Rock being over 1600 calories, along with the starter and the milkshake, I was fast adding up to a whole weeks worth of calories in one meal. Sorry I only have a photo of my burger, I kind of forget to take photos and then often remember once we are eating
So here is my Mushroom Swiss burger, it was absolutely delicious.

After dinner we just went back to the hotel for an early night. My neck has been really really sore and I have been really worried that the artery may have retorn, at the museum it was torture and the pain killers were doing nothing. So I've been icing it and today are having just a relaxing day as maybe I've been doing too much. It's hard being a normally active person and having this annoying issue and I keep forgetting about it, so maybe its just my body telling me to slow down a bit and rest my injury. Anyway it was so bad later last night and this morning I was considering going home, if it is the artery then I would prefer to be home or near my specialist. But am just going to take it easy and see how it goes today.

Anyway so after a night of worrying about what we will do if it is the artery playing up, we headed off for breakfast at Ellens Stardust Diner with the singing waiters and waitresses.

Boy oh Boy is this place loud! But our waitress was an amazing singer. Some of them were very talented!

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Omlette

The food was ok, but nothing flash. The pancakes were the best but my DS had a milkshake and it was not that nice (compared to the one at Hard Rock the night before that was sensational)

After breakfast on the way back to the hotel we stopped off at Hershey's World

Oh we are going to return to that store, we were in heaven! There is this massive Hershey's bar, it's 5 pounds of chocolate. YUM

 

[aussietravellers]

So we are now back at the hotel. I'm just icing my neck, so thought I would do some posting on Dis whilst sitting here. Plan is to go on the harbour cruise a little later but basically have a very slow day to rest my neck.

For anybody looking for a hotel room for 5 or more here is the layout of the rooms at Doubletree, we absolutely LOVE it, so much room.

Living room with Desk, Sofa (which is a sofa bed) and single chair, big plasma tv and cupboard with draws and a filled mini bar fridge)

Little kitchenette with mini fridge, micorwave and safe in the cupboards, coffee machine.

We have a double room with two queens beds, there is also a wardrobe and a set of drawers and an ottoman (that you can't see in this photo) and another tv.

So you could sleep 6 in this room, two in each of the three beds.

 

[kiwigirl]

I'm really enjoying reading about your exploits! Thanks for packing us in your bags and taking us with you as you travel! Look forward to more adventures.

 

[aussietravellers]

So my day of rest has not been complete rest. After all of my posting before we decided to head out to Macy's. Being the shopping addict that I am, I was very excited to hit the largest department store in the world.

We walked from the hotel to Macy's, it was only 12 blocks, which sounds a lot but the blocks going in that direction are not too long, its the blocks running in the other direction that are long blocks. We would have spent about three hours at Macys and I certainly did some damage to the credit card I do have to share a very funny story though and it had us literally crying with laughter as we said "only in America". So we were at a counter in the women's clothing department and there was a woman and her friend (customers) that were not very happy. Looking after these women was the register lady, the supervisor, the whole stores deputy manager and store security and she was asking for more people She wanted the head of Macy's . So as we were not there for the beginning of the saga I am not completely sure of the circumstances leading to this saga.

So the woman had a large pile of items that she wanted to purchase and then a large pile of items she wanted to return. The options they were giving her was to send her refund in the post (so maybe she made payment for those items by some other means than cash or credit card or maybe the clothes she was returning were old, not sure). Anyway she was having none of that, she wanted the cash. The deputy head of the store again said they have two options to offer her, she can take her returned goods and keep them or she can return them and they would mail her a cheque or a credit. So what did the customer do, SHE CALLED 911!!!!!!

Yes I kid you not, this woman called 911 because the store would not give her what she wanted. 911 was obviously a bit confused as to what exactly this woman wanted and she wanted the police. Now I was seriously trying not to wet my pants. The whole time this was going on, the stores staff just stood there, didn't bat an eyelid and were so lovely and polite to her. Really they should have just told her to go away, but they were just so polite and patient with her and just stood back patiently and waited. Anyway I am not sure what happened or where she went, we were walking by not long after and the police were there along with the store manager and no site of the crazy customer and truely I don't know how they all kept a straight face throughout the whole thing.

Anyway so on our walk back from Macys with all of our shopping we stopped in at Planet Hollywood for a quick Linner (Lunch/Dinner). Funny enough, everybody had the same thing and shared a side salad and spinach and parmesan dip.

Salad

Spinach and Parmesan Dip

Chicken Sandwich (looked like a burger to us)

All washed down with a Chocolate Milkshake

The Burger was absolutely delicious, the milkshake was out of this world YUMMMMM and the dip was just so so, wouldn't order that again.

So that's the updates for now.

Tomorrow's plan is Bronx Zoo!

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

double post

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Yay more updates. Loving them. We weren't planning on using the hop on hop off bus but you seem to be getting such good use out of it I'm going to research it today. I love that you got to just sit and people watch. That is definitely something I'd like to do this time.

We are going to the museum so will keep an eye out for the Space show for sure, thanks for that.

about the storm, yikes. I would've been a little panicked.

I'm glad you enjoyed Ellen's. It's definitely not about the food but the singers are AMAZING!!!

Loving the photo of the Hershey's store, hmmmm yum. See the Crowne Plaza sign to the side, that is where we stayed last time.

Sorry to hear your neck is causing problems. I hope your day of rest has helped immensely.

Look forward to more.

 

[kyl]

Yes I really hope your neck heals up quickly for you aussietravellers xx.