Lizzy Lemon
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2006
- Messages
- 2,551
John and myself (Wendy) older than I care to state
Glen 17 almost 18
Ashley 14 almost 15
It started this time last year when we finally got our annual leave sorted out at work. Both John and myself had got the half term in February, we favour city holidays in the winter months due to indoor attractions, as we have been to London a number of times where should we go? Having seen trip reports on here for New York it was attracting the planning in me. Glen decided to tell all his friends he was going to New York even before we had definitely decided and so it looked as though our minds had been made up. Continental Airlines from Birmingham to Newark was priced up at just over £400 each, that was the simple part, the next the hotel choice, we kind of knew we wanted to be in the Times Square area so looked at a few but the Crowne Plaza seemed stand out more than the others. We booked a room with breakfast in the lounge. I know people recommend going out for breakfast (cheaper than hotel) but we tried it in Florida last year and it didn't work out, we kept getting distracted by rides/shows/character meets in the parks we kept missing breakfast and having an early lunch, so much easier to fill up before leaving the hotel. So Saturday 19th February arrived, woke everyone up at 4.30am and left home by 5.15. Miserable wet morning, parked car in long term car park 1 at a pre paid cost of £22 (I think it was) and caught transfer bus to terminal. We had tried to check in on line which seemed to work but just didn't print boarding passes (had expected this from what everyone else had said), there was no express bag drop line so had to queue up at 2 manned desks, there were another 2 but for 1st class only (staff sitting doing very little, would have thought they would have called a few of us commoners over). Slow, slow, slowly moving line eventually got more of a move on and half hour or so later we had got rid of the bags. The check in had worked as our seats had already been allocated to us so were told it was worth doing. Off to find somewhere for breakfast - Wetherspoons, £28 for drinks and full English for Glen, huge butties for John and myself and sausage sarnie for Ashley.
Ash
Glen
For saying we thought we would have plenty of time to spare it was approaching 7.45am and the screen showed boarding had started so didn't get to hang around any shops. Had a quick loo stop and went to find the gate. I kid you not we had barely got bums on seats and they were calling out row numbers for boarding. Boys and myself on row 27 John in front of me sitting by the window.
A very damp Birmingham airport
Not too long before we were over a sunny Irish coast.
We are not big eaters but having filled up at just before 8am on breakfast they brought lunch around at 10ish. :erm: Chicken in a cheese sauce escalope (very sickly, only took a mouthful). Remember the chicken in cheese!!!
John had a tv screen not working so the poor man had to have the flight with no entertainment, I offered to swap when the men sitting next to him moved but he stayed put. He was a bit squashed as well as the chap next to him spread his legs out iykwim! Watched My Sisters Keeper, took me about 3 hours as they tried to re boot the system twice to try and get screens not working, working! Everytime it rebooted I had to fast forward the film, I was really glad when it was over!!!!! Looked out the window for the rest of the flight, very, very snowy over Canada.
About an hour before landing we were given a hot chicken and cheese roll, yuk. Had crisps and a chocolate bar, and plenty of drinks served during the flight.
Got a distant view of Manhattan as the pilot banked around quite sharply, the woman behind me was about passing out with fear.
Unfortunately on approach we suffered a little bit of turbulence and Ashley was going a funny colour. He got the sick bag at the ready but we touched down and asked the people around us if we could get off the plane ahead of them, they were very good and let us off, we were off the plane no more than a few minutes and he was back to normal. Got through immigration very, very quickly, masses of desks compared to MCO, picked up luggage easily and tried to ring Carmellimo to arrange pick up. Had a problem with our mobiles not working so used a free phone in the airport. We had landed at terminal B and they were picking us up in terminal C, we caught the train over to that terminal and eventually found our car waiting. We were oooohing, and ahhhhhing all journey at the sights unfolding to a very uninterested driver who spent most of the journey chatting on his phone, the only time he spoke was when he saw John's new digital camera which looks very expensive, during the holiday he got quite a few comments on it, it made me a little nervous that someone would take too much of a liking to it. Got to our hotel in Times Square - the Crowne Plaza, John was cheeky and asked if we could have a Times Square view, the check in clerk was having a bit of trouble with the new system they had just had installed and was trying to override the charge it was wanting to make, we had already pre paid the hotel as it was cheaper to do that than waiting till we arrived. She allocated us room 3407, the lift up was fun, just a few seconds, went upto the 34th floor quicker than the ones I use at work to go up 3 flights!
We unpacked quickly and had a quick drink before going out to explore, it was a very windy day, bitterly cold too, but it was what we were expecting and were prepared with good ski coats.
Contd ...
Glen 17 almost 18
Ashley 14 almost 15
It started this time last year when we finally got our annual leave sorted out at work. Both John and myself had got the half term in February, we favour city holidays in the winter months due to indoor attractions, as we have been to London a number of times where should we go? Having seen trip reports on here for New York it was attracting the planning in me. Glen decided to tell all his friends he was going to New York even before we had definitely decided and so it looked as though our minds had been made up. Continental Airlines from Birmingham to Newark was priced up at just over £400 each, that was the simple part, the next the hotel choice, we kind of knew we wanted to be in the Times Square area so looked at a few but the Crowne Plaza seemed stand out more than the others. We booked a room with breakfast in the lounge. I know people recommend going out for breakfast (cheaper than hotel) but we tried it in Florida last year and it didn't work out, we kept getting distracted by rides/shows/character meets in the parks we kept missing breakfast and having an early lunch, so much easier to fill up before leaving the hotel. So Saturday 19th February arrived, woke everyone up at 4.30am and left home by 5.15. Miserable wet morning, parked car in long term car park 1 at a pre paid cost of £22 (I think it was) and caught transfer bus to terminal. We had tried to check in on line which seemed to work but just didn't print boarding passes (had expected this from what everyone else had said), there was no express bag drop line so had to queue up at 2 manned desks, there were another 2 but for 1st class only (staff sitting doing very little, would have thought they would have called a few of us commoners over). Slow, slow, slowly moving line eventually got more of a move on and half hour or so later we had got rid of the bags. The check in had worked as our seats had already been allocated to us so were told it was worth doing. Off to find somewhere for breakfast - Wetherspoons, £28 for drinks and full English for Glen, huge butties for John and myself and sausage sarnie for Ashley.
Ash
Glen
For saying we thought we would have plenty of time to spare it was approaching 7.45am and the screen showed boarding had started so didn't get to hang around any shops. Had a quick loo stop and went to find the gate. I kid you not we had barely got bums on seats and they were calling out row numbers for boarding. Boys and myself on row 27 John in front of me sitting by the window.
A very damp Birmingham airport
Not too long before we were over a sunny Irish coast.
We are not big eaters but having filled up at just before 8am on breakfast they brought lunch around at 10ish. :erm: Chicken in a cheese sauce escalope (very sickly, only took a mouthful). Remember the chicken in cheese!!!
John had a tv screen not working so the poor man had to have the flight with no entertainment, I offered to swap when the men sitting next to him moved but he stayed put. He was a bit squashed as well as the chap next to him spread his legs out iykwim! Watched My Sisters Keeper, took me about 3 hours as they tried to re boot the system twice to try and get screens not working, working! Everytime it rebooted I had to fast forward the film, I was really glad when it was over!!!!! Looked out the window for the rest of the flight, very, very snowy over Canada.
About an hour before landing we were given a hot chicken and cheese roll, yuk. Had crisps and a chocolate bar, and plenty of drinks served during the flight.
Got a distant view of Manhattan as the pilot banked around quite sharply, the woman behind me was about passing out with fear.
Unfortunately on approach we suffered a little bit of turbulence and Ashley was going a funny colour. He got the sick bag at the ready but we touched down and asked the people around us if we could get off the plane ahead of them, they were very good and let us off, we were off the plane no more than a few minutes and he was back to normal. Got through immigration very, very quickly, masses of desks compared to MCO, picked up luggage easily and tried to ring Carmellimo to arrange pick up. Had a problem with our mobiles not working so used a free phone in the airport. We had landed at terminal B and they were picking us up in terminal C, we caught the train over to that terminal and eventually found our car waiting. We were oooohing, and ahhhhhing all journey at the sights unfolding to a very uninterested driver who spent most of the journey chatting on his phone, the only time he spoke was when he saw John's new digital camera which looks very expensive, during the holiday he got quite a few comments on it, it made me a little nervous that someone would take too much of a liking to it. Got to our hotel in Times Square - the Crowne Plaza, John was cheeky and asked if we could have a Times Square view, the check in clerk was having a bit of trouble with the new system they had just had installed and was trying to override the charge it was wanting to make, we had already pre paid the hotel as it was cheaper to do that than waiting till we arrived. She allocated us room 3407, the lift up was fun, just a few seconds, went upto the 34th floor quicker than the ones I use at work to go up 3 flights!
We unpacked quickly and had a quick drink before going out to explore, it was a very windy day, bitterly cold too, but it was what we were expecting and were prepared with good ski coats.
Contd ...
: Blimey the number of people trying to spray you with scent was unbelievable, the number of staff they have just doing that!
