Tuesday, May 07, 2013

TRIP - Ella's first trip to New York City


We are itching and time-constrained to use up some travel vouchers, so another trip to USA and this time it's New York City

NYC 2013.05 - Google Maps  << in  chronological order

Day 1 Friday
  • Drove and parked at Hotel Indigo via Global Airport Parking ($6/day), shuttled to YYZ for YYZ-EWR flight. Couldn't believe we still almost missed our flights despite arriving at post-security lounge 1 hour beforehand. It's a habit of running to board our flights nowadays :)
  • Arrived EWR and bus/PATH'ed to Newport to visit cousin, visited nearby Target and Newport Green Park for some views
  • PATH'ed to hotel (Radisson Martinique on Broadway) for a nap
  • Dinner at Miss Korea (so good) and walked around after
Day 2 Saturday
  • Breakfast for 2, and Check-in at Fairfield Inn
  • Subway'ed to Chelsea Market 14th St, walked on High Line park to 23rd St and bus to the Flatiron building
  • Lunch at Grimaldi's Pizza (tiny small door), tasty pizza
  • Back to hotel for nap again, walked to Bryant Park. M42 to UN building for photo
  • Dinner at MENCHANKO TEI for Japanese ramen
  • Times Square photos, M&M World
Day 3 Sunday
  • Check out Marriott and check-in at Radisson
  • D train to Chinatown for walk
  • Lunch at Excellent Pork Chop House, yummy/homey Taiwan food
  • Waited forever for M5 bus to downtown which never came, so walked to 9/11 Preview Site, and then 9/11 Memorial
  • Met up with cousin to South Seaport to catch the Manhattan by Sail - Clipper City Tall Ship tour. The 90-minute boat tour was great for picture taking, too bad it was too chilly to enjoy and there's no commentary at all @@
  • Dinner at Kunjip. It was okay (a bit $) and didn't like being rushed out with fast bill and waitress hawking us (we were < 1 hour there)
Day 4 Monday
  • Big breakfast buffet at Radisson
  • B train to American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) only to be unlucky enough to see the B/D line stopped due to police investigation uptown. Had to transfer to 1 train
  • Visited Central Park Playground for Ella
  • Waited forever again for M10 bus to AMNH, only to find the bus super packed @@
  • Donated $20 and visited AMNH for 90 minutes
  • Back to Radisson to pick up luggage, N train to Astoria Blvd to catch M60 bus to LGA airport
  • 6:30pm LGA-YYZ, arrived 8 pm and picked up car ~9pm, dinner at BR and grocery at T&T, home around midnight
Tips
  • MTA MetroCards transfer only bus-to-subway or vice-versa, not bus-to-bus. Even then, I don't trust it much either as we used 1 card for 2 persons and sometimes it didn't read the 2 transfers properly. so in future, just buy the 7-day $30 pass
  • Leave plenty of time for transportation, and allocate accordingly. We spent so much time on waiting, transferring, and finding elevators @@ 
  • NYC is not baby-friendly at all, Washington is much better
Expenses
  • Hotel for 3 nights = FREE
    • 2 nights at Radisson with free night certificates (I got them for about ~$80/night, redeemed for $350+/night at NYC!!)
    • 1 night at Marriott (30000 points, obtained free from Chase Marriott credit card signup of 50K points)
  • Flights = $60 + $30 ~= $100 out of pocket
    • YYZ-EWR is $460 for 3 (used $500 United vouchers)
    • LGA-YYZ is $228 for 3 - $200 AMEX Platinum's annual $200 credit
  • Transportation - $30 YYZ Parking, M62/PATH $10, MTA $50
  • Dining - $70 Miss Korea, $15 Grimaldi's Pizza, $50 MENCHANKO TEI, $10 Pork Chop Chinatown, $53 Kunjip
  • Attractions - $6 9/11 Memorial, $60 Clipper City sailboat, $20 AMNH

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