New York, New York

Idiot of the week (courtesy of Beth):

Wife: (talking to husband): Look, these earrings are made in Wales.
Husband: (On other side of shop): What kind of whale?
Wife: No, they're made in Wales.
Husband: I know but what kind of whale??

Apparently this went back and forth for some time...


So I just had the best four days ever! I worked ten days straight which paid off on friday when Beth, Kirstie and I went to New York. On Friday morning we had to be up at 4am to get our taxi to the airport as our flight was at 6.25am. We were glad to be leaving Orlando as there was the most horrendous storm which made our flight delayed by 30 minutes.

Friday 22nd Janusry

When we arrived at JFK we got a taxi to our Hotel which was called Hotel Edison. We couldn't have picked a better location, the hotel was just off Times Square, it was great. Once we unpacked and sorted ourselves out it was about 11am so we headed out to Times Square to have a look around. The weather wasn't that cold suprisingly, it was actually colder in Florida last week than it was in NY! We went to Planet Hollywood to pick up our New York passes which we bought on the internet. At midday we were meeting Joe and his girlfriend Emma who also work at Disney and happened to be in NY the same time as us. We met them for lunch at Hard Rock Cafe which was really nice and we had our first NY cocktails!
After Lunch we went our seperate ways and we headed down to Central Park, we had a look around and decided to use our NY passes for the first time by going to the zoo. I was suprised at how good the zoo was, I thought it might be abit rubbish like London Zoo but it was really nice. The polar bears kept us amused for ages, they were definitely our faves!
We had a look at the shops around Central Park and stopped for a hot chocolate to decide where to go next! We headed to Rockefeller Center to see the ice rink and we went in the NBC store which broadcasts programmes like Friends, Seinfield, Law and Order and Heroes. By this time it was starting to get dark so we decided to do Top of the Rock which is where you go to the top of Rockefeller and can see the whole of Manhatten. Well, it was by far the best thing we did the whole time there! We went up just at the right time as the sun was just setting and the NY skyline with the Empire State Building looked amazing. We even met an NBC weatherman who was reporting the weather up there!
After Top of the Rock we headed back towards Times Square to go to Madame Tussauds. It was really fun, however I think the Madame Tussauds in London is better!
It was only about 8pm by this time but because we had been up since 3am and had fit so much in we were exhausted and it felt like midnight to us! We grabbed a slice of pizza and headed back to the hotel, we were all asleep by 9pm!

Saturday 23rd January

We were up bright and early the next day and we headed to Pax for breakfast, pancakes to start the day! We decided to go to the Statue of Liberty, however our plans had to change as the subway we had to get wasn't running so we had to have another think. We decided to leave the Staue of Liberty until the sunday and we headed back down to Rockfeller Center to do the NBC Studio Tour. We weren't sure what it would be like as we didn't know many of the shows now filmed there, however it was really good. We saw the news being filmed in the studio and we also went into the studios where they film Saturday Night Live and Dr. Oz. It was really cool.
After the tour we went to the Museum of Modern Art which was interesting. They had an exhibit of Tim Burton's work at 4.00pm which we managed to get the last three tickets too so we left the Museum to grab some lunch.
We went to a place near Central Park called Brooklyn Diner which one the girls advised us to go too. I had some soup and then the biggest slice of coconut cake you've ever seen! Beth got a huge slice of chocolate cake and Kistie got a piece of lemon meringue that looked like a torpedo! It was so good though and we couldn't finish it so we took it to go!
We headed back to the art museum to see the Tim Burton exhibit which was interesting and then we went back to the hotel to freshen up for the evening.
That evening we went to see The Lion King on Broadway. I've seen it before but it was a long time ago and I adored it so I couldn't wait to see it again. We had front row seats and as soon as the music started for 'Circle of Life' I got goosebumps and had a few tears! Lol. Second time round I loved it again, it's the best show I've seen on stage and I got very emotional as usual! Lol. After the show we weren't very hungry so we grabbed a slice of pizza again and finished our cake off at the hotel!

Sunday 24th January

We managed to get the subway to Battery Park to go to the Statue of Liberty this day. Once we got there we headed to a cute cafe for breakfast and had our usual dose of pancakes!
We then got the ferry across to Coney Island and unlike the last time we went we were able to go up the monument that the statue stands on which was cool. It was a dreary day but we could see the skyline of Manhatten and Brooklyn Bridge. We walked around the statue as well and took some photos and then we got the ferry across to Ellis Island. Ellis Island is where back in the day all the immigrants came through when they were coming into New York. There is a museum there which explains all about it and you can see some of the original documents they used and the room that they all had to stand in. You can even look up your name on the database to see if you had any relatives which came through.
Once we got the ferry back to Battery Park we stopped by the cafe again to grab a snack (cookies and brownies!) Then we headed up the road where we passed Wall Street on the way to the World Trade Center site. Obviously there isn't much to see at Ground Zero anymore, it fenced off where they are re-building but it's so strange to see such a huge whole in the ground among all these tall buildings. Next to Ground Zero there is like a memorial store where they show what happened on that day and also what they are planning to do with it, which was interesting to see. After this we headed back to Times Square on the subway.
That evening we went to The Empire State Building. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great and it was really foggy when we got to the top. We couldn't see much and it was so windy we were getting blown away! It was still fun and Manhatten still looked fantastic but we didn't stay up there long! We stopped to have a look at Madison Square Garden and Macys then we headed back to Times Square for dinner. We spent our last night having dinner in Planet Hollywood which was really good, we just missed Rachel!

Monday 25th January

This was our last day so we got up early to fit in some shopping! We had breakfast in the hotel (blueberry waffles this time!) We then headed out and I bought some typical NY stuff like an 'I heart NY' hoodie etc. I also bought soem jeans from American Eagle. Unfortunately the weather was horrendous, it was torrential rain and we didn't want to get soaked so we headed back to the hotel to wait in the lobby.
At around 1.30pm we decided to get a taxi to the airport to check in to our flight. Unfortunately our flight time became later and later and in the end changed gates about 5 times and was delayed by 3 hours! We ended up getting home around midnight absoloutly shattered! However it was an incredible 4 days and I think we managed to fit everything in we wanted to do. We realised on the way home how spoilt we are since we were thinking 'Oh no, we've got to go back to Florida!' Lol.