Tuesday, November 18, 2014

NY/DC Trip - Day 1

Just got back from a trip with Todd and Mom to New York and Washington, D.C. and we had a great time.
My aunt Shirley was also going to go, but had to drop out due to the death of a friend.  We were sad for the loss of Antonio, and also sad that she wouldn't be able to join us.


We got a great deal on individual flights, so we flew out on American and flew back on Southwest.  Since this meant traveling out of, and back to, different airports, we parked a car at Love Field the night before we left, and my brother drove us to DFW Airport the next morning.

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 10:25am.  We got to the airport a little early and while we waited I had the new Dunkin' Donuts croissant donut.  It just tasted like a regular donut.

Allegedly the flight was over-sold and had standbys, but even so I had an empty seat between me and the person in the window seat.  Hooray!

We landed at JFK airport at 2:30pm and after collecting our bags took the AirTrain to the Jamaica Station subway line.  We were staying at the Sheraton Times Square at 7th and 53rd, so we then took the E line to the 7th Street station in midtown Manhattan, which was right across from our hotel.

Welcome to JFK Airport.  Heading down the escalator to baggage claim.

Now for a short bit of bitch and moan:  We were last in New York in April of 2011, and had also stayed at the Sheraton then.  That was a great experience.  This time however, we were not impressed.  The desk clerks (we had to deal with two of them at two separate times) were not friendly or accommodating.

We booked directly with the hotel, which advertised the rooms as being newly renovated.  We had arranged for two rooms near each other on a higher level floor, with one a king bed room and one a twin beds room.  On arrival the desk clerk did not say welcome, or thank you, or enjoy your stay, or smile.  He told us we had a choice of a king room, or a king handicap room, but that it wouldn't be on the same floor as the other room.  We could get a twin bed on the same floor.  We opted for the king on a different floor, and they sent us to a lower floor.

The room was ok, but it was not newly renovated - it looked exactly the same as the room we stayed in 3 years prior, with 3 years additional wear and tear.  In addition, the safe didn't work.  We went back down about 15 minutes later to see about the king handicap or twin bed room, and/or having the rooms closer together, and the 2nd desk clerk took a brief look at the computer and simply and flatly said they were booked.  The only thing they could do was move both rooms down to the 5th floor and they would both be twins.  When we stated that wouldn't work as we had paid extra for a higher floor, and that the clerk 15 minutes before had said there were more options, and complained that they were supposed to be "newly renovated" he just reiterated they were booked and that was the only option.

We decided just to stay put and told him to call maintenance for the safe - we didn't want to start the vacation out on a sour note, and most of our time would be spent outside the room anyway.  It turned out fine, but we won't be staying at that Sheraton again though.  It was such a shame too as every other worker/cashier/waiter/staff/employee, etc. that we encountered in New York was friendly and helpful.

Thanks for listening.  Now back to the story.

We went back up to the room and waited for the maintenance guy to show up to fix the safe.  He came about 10 minutes later and didn't know how to fix it so a 2nd maintenance guy was called and came to the room.  After another 5-10 minutes the 2nd guy said it would work, you just had to go through the motions twice each time for it to lock or open. He was right.

We finally left the hotel room around 5pm.  It was cold and quickly getting dark, and we were hungry.  We walked to Times Square and looked around, then decided to go to Tony's Di Napoli for dinner.  We walked in at 6pm and the place was packed.  Todd put our name on the wait list and was told to come back in 2 hours.

In Times Square with Mom, 3 statues of liberty, 1 Mario hiding behind me, and 1 Woody coming up on the left.  Due to  recent events, the NYPD now has signs posted stating that you are not obligated to pay if you have your picture taken with costumed characters.

To pass the time we walked to Bryant Park.  On the way we stopped at a street cart and got a pretzel with dijon mustard to split 3 ways.  The cart guy was really nice and also gave Mom a couple of free roasted chestnuts to try.  None of us had ever had them before.  We each tried some and they tasted like potatoes - I'm not sure I see the attraction.  The pretzel on the other hand was delicious.

We arrived at Bryant Park and saw they had a winter festival going on - a large skating rink was set up and they had a ton of little huts set up selling different wares, like homemade soap, chocolates, hand-knitted hats, wood carvings, etc.  Really neat stuff.  I wished we could have spent more time here looking through everything.  We walked through the park and then over to Grand Central Terminal.

Quite the backdrop for skating
Staying off the ice tonight

At Grand Central Terminal we went to the Apple Store and a cute shop called P!Q which sold vinyl art toys, novelties, art-inspired gifts, gadgets, Think-Geek type things, etc.  Very tempted to buy, but resisted for now.
Grand Central Terminal and the Chrysler Building in the background
Grand Central exterior
Grand Central interior - looking at the Apple Store


2014
2011


Hello New York!

We left Grand Central and walked back to Tony's, arriving at 7:50pm.  It was still packed.  Todd checked in at the hostess stand and we waited.  A new hostess replaced the prior one.  At 8:15 I checked with the new hostess who said our name was not on the list.  After nearly losing it I told her we were there 2 hours ago and were told to come back at 8:00, we checked in, were assured we would be called when our table was ready, etc.  She checked again and said she was sorry, but we definitely weren't on the list, but said she would see what she could do.  She talked to the manager and 5 minutes later we had a table.  (See Sheraton, that's the way you do it - apologize for the error/inconvenience and make it right).

Dinner was delicious.  The food is served family-style there, so we had sourdough bread, house salad, zucchini fritti (fried zucchini that was thinly sliced and cooked to perfection), and baked ziti bolognese.  The fried zucchini was one of the food highlights of the trip!

We made it back to the hotel around 10pm, and I had decaf coffee in the room before turning in for the night.

The view from the room

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