I have cut and pasted a Trip Report from another Bulletin Board that I regular post on. Here is my TR from NYC. Forgive me if there is alot of extra info about the flights but the other BB is a Frequent Flyer BB.
The Princess Goes To NYC
Friday, April 26
The alarm clock rings at 5AM and this is when I always ask myself why do I book myself on these early morning flights. I get up though since at least the first part of my trip is a mini vacation. I am packed and ready at 6:10AM to head out to catch my 7:20AM flight to NYC.
I catch a ride on the famous Moms Taxi. The service is quick and the driver is pretty nice too!
I check my luggage using the efficient CO E-Ticket machines. I am assigned my favorite seat, 1A, the window bulkhead seat in first class. My timing was perfect for the airport. The security line was a breeze, so I stopped at the PJs coffee on the concourse before making it to my gate. Boarding started a short five minutes after I arrived at the gate. I went ahead and boarded early so I could get situated. I took out my new book and stowed my laptop in the overhead since 1A has no seat in front of it for under seat storage.
We departed MSY on time and breakfasts orders taken. Choices were cereal or scrambled eggs with cheese. Now call me a princess but I think they should have a hot meal for everyone in FC. If there are 8 FC seats then there should be 8 egg dishes and some additional cereal meals for those who so choose. I digress. Since I was in 1A I got my choice of the scrambled eggs.
Breakfast took a loooooong time to come out. I am not sure if CO is changing the way they operate in FC. There was only one FA in FC. She proceeded to prepare all the trays before passing any of them out. Cant she pass them out as she prepares them? All the trays were finally passed out, and she came around with the breadbasket.
This flight had a movie. It wasnt something I wanted to see, so after the breakfast trays were cleared I settled in for a little nap. We landed on time in EWR, and thankfully we didnt have to taxi very far to reach our gate.
I decided to be adventurous (read cheap) on this trip and take the new AirTrain to NY Penn Station. A cab ride would have been about $50 and the train was $11, so cost prevailed. The train ride was quick, definitely under 30 minutes. While on the train I went to pull out my book, and I realized I left on the plane! That is the second book I have left on a plane that I hadnt finished reading.
Since I had not consulted a map and I didnt know how far I was from my hotel I decided a cab ride from NY Penn Station to the hotel was the best decision. Well traffic was terrible and it was a painful cab ride (lots of honking and lane changing) for the 15-block trip through Midtown Manhattan.
I arrived at my hotel the Sheraton Manhattan, which is on the corner of 7th Avenue and 51st Street. The staff was friendly though not terribly efficient. My room was ready, which was good since it was only 1PM and check in wasnt till 4PM. I was assigned room 1740 on the club level. I asked if the club lounge was open on the weekend and was told no, but I could have breakfast in the restaurant free of charge since the lounge was closed.
Room 1740 turned out to be a rather mediocre room. It was pretty small, but it was clean and suited my needs. If I were going to be there longer I would have requested a better room, but since I was eager to hit the town I decided not to raise a stink. Later that evening I consulted the fire escape map on the back of the door and realized 1740 was much narrower than the room surrounding it.
My first stop was the Times Square Visitors Center where there is a Ticket Master outlet to see what they had for that evening. Now according to ljp99 who lives in NYC only visitors would ever buy tickets there. I said Okay by me, I am a visitor. Buying tickets here has been good luck for me. Generally theaters hold back some good tickets for last minute ticket buyers, which is good news for me. I scored two tickets center orchestra in row D for the evening performance of Chicago the Musical. Not bad for a tourist I thought. Now I know that I may have been able to score tickets at TKTS but I really wasnt interested in standing in line for an hour for tickets to a show I may not want to see at 50% off.
With the evenings entertainment sewn up I was off for a bit of sightseeing. My first stop was the new Toys R Us in Times Square. This was cool. A Ferris wheel inside a toy store, even a grown up would be impressed with this. I stood around and watched the Ferris wheel for a while, looking at each unique car. Each car had a theme of a famous toy; highlights were Mr. Potato Head, Barbie, and a Tonka truck. Since I decided I would look like a real dork riding by myself I passed on riding.
My next stop was Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I know this is another touristy thing to do, but decided it would be fun. Its actually amazing how real the figures look. I thought they would all be roped off and untouchable. You can actually stand and get very close to the figures. You can even pose with the famous for a picture.
It was now hovering in the 4:30PM range. I decided I should probably start heading back to the hotel since I was meeting up with ljp99 for dinner at 6PM before the show. As I was crossing 7th Avenue I stepped in a huge pothole and fell on my Royal A**. I felt really stupid at this point but a few people did come over and check on me to make sure I was okay. My ankle hurt a bit but I dont think I broke anything. I hobbled the last 2 blocks to the hotel and lay down for a few minutes. I was getting ready to hop in for a quick shower when I realized I left all my travel toiletries at the hotel in the UK. Since I didnt even have a toothbrush I made a quick trip to the drug store down the street. Once I got back there was not enough time for a shower, so a quick brush of the hair and the teeth were going to have to do.
ljp99 met me at my hotel right on time and we walked over to 9th Avenue for some Thai food at Chezpan Thai Cuisine. The food was good and inexpensive by New York standards.
The time was approaching 7:30 so we walked over to the Shubert Theatre on W 44th Street. Our seats were excellent, you could see all the facial expressions of the actors which was really important for a production like Chicago since there is very little scenery or stage props. I really enjoyed the musical. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who hasnt already seen this production.
The theatre let out around 10:30PM. ljp99 walked me back to my hotel and I was in bed asleep 20 minutes later.
Saturday, April 27th
Once again that pesky alarm rang way too early, so this time I turned it off and decided to sleep in a bit. 9AM was late enough to sleep, so I got up and headed down to check out the complimentary breakfast at the hotel. This is better than the typical breakfast you get in the club lounge. It was a full buffet breakfast of eggs, bacon, etc. I had a nice table right next to windows, so I was able to people watch a bit while eating breakfast.
My first stop of the evening was the box office of the Majestic Theatre where The Phantom of the Opera is playing. I was able to a snag 12th row orchestra seat for the 2PM matinee performance. This would work out perfectly since the show lasted about 2.5 hours. I had a couple of hours to kill before the play.
I walked around and found a little salon and had a manicure. This took longer than planned so I needed to head back to the hotel to go ahead and pack up since I would be cutting it close to make it back to the airport after the Phantom. I checked my luggage with the bellman and headed out to find a snack before the 2PM performance.
Just down the street from the Majestic is a great little bagel shop that sells homemade bagels with homemade cream cheese. Talk about good. I had a sesame seed bagel with apple walnut cream cheese. The bagel was hot and crusty but not dry. A perfect snack. I ate my bagel on the way to the theatre.
A few minutes after the performance started the woman behind me started ruffling through her purse and then started smacking away on gum very loudly. I tried to ignore it but it was just too loud. Since the paper ruffling and smacking were very disturbing I turned around and told her not only is smacking gum during the performance rude, it is also disturbing. She stopped her smacking and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the performance.
My time in NYC was coming to a fast close. I headed back to the hotel to collect my things and catch a cab to NY Penn Station. I was adventurous again and took the AirTrain to EWR. The train was really full, but it was definitely the fastest way to get to the airport from downtown.
I checked in with no problems for my flight to MAN, with plenty of time to stop in at the Presidents Club for a few minutes to check email and to put a few Milano cookies in my backpack. Before heading to the gate I stopped off at the Japanese fast food stand and picked up Teriyaki Beef with rice for the flight. The coach food is really bad and it takes too long to pass out, so I did BYOF. Everyone around me commented on how good it smelled and wished they had some. I was done eating before they even were done with the first drink service, so I was able to relax and not bother with the icky airplane food of mystery meat.
There was no coveted operational upgrade for the princess this time, so I was stuck in economy, which was really not that bad. The middle seat was empty, so I had plenty of room to spread out. I relaxed and read for most of the flight. This is a pretty short international flight and I had had a full weekend so it passed quickly. I wont go into anymore details about the flight because I have written about the EWR MAN trip already. My only new comment is why is it that BF passengers get more choices on the in-flight entertainment system? Doesnt it all run off the same set of tapes? I didnt realize this until recently.
So ends another episode of The Princess Goes to
.
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Just one close to the "fun" of NYC... like plays and such... 
but walking is just not a option for me.
