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

ELLA - Y2.M2 (24 months) and visiting New York

Oh my god it's been so long since my last post on Ella
so here I am, trying to capture what has happened since February when Ella turned 2

• Ella is still 90 cm and 14 kg, on diaper size 4(basically unchanged since 6 months old, pretty strange)
• She can understand us very well and somewhat speak okay to express her thoughts
• New passport fee ($57 for 5 years) starts July 1st, so I'm debating whether to renewal her passport now ($22 for 3 years), even when it expires in June 2014
• It's always travel time for us, and we're going back to the Big Apple (New York city) again. 
• First time was Dec 2010 on Expedia's -$300 price error (Ella was 7 months in the belly), and this time almost free using mostly vouchers, credits, and hotel points!!
• Hotel for 3 nights 
• 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 from Chase Marriott credit card signup of 50K points)
• Flights
• YYZ-EWR is $460 for 3 (using $500 United vouchers)
• Return LGA-YYZ is $228 for 3 (using $200 AMEX Platinum's annual $200 credit)

TRIP - New York City

Easier to explain with a Google Map (all points are in the order we visited them) and photos

Unfortunately we missed a few attractions due to time constraint - Nintendo World store (we did have time to go and were right next to it, but miscommunication), Ground Zero/Century 21 (late Sunday night, tired)

Dec 3 Friday

Late for the 7 pm flight (got to airport at 6:20 pm), took the 8:20 flight, landed at Newark (EWR) 10 pm

Took the NJ Transit bus #62 to NJ Penn Station, change to PATH train to 14th Street

Entered the hotel/B&B ~ 11:30 pm

Dec 4 Saturday
Today we head NORTH, covering everything above the 14th st

• BREAKFAST - The Donut Pub
• LUNCH - Ippudo Ny ramen $57
• Empire State Building
• Baby Gap
• Old Navy Flagship $17
• Macy's Herald Square
• Penn Station/Madison Square Garden
• New York Public Library
• Grand Central Terminal
• Chrysler Building
• DINNER - Sala Thai Restaurant $48
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• bought some night snacks from 7-11 $7 and 24-hours McDonald nearby $12

Dec 5 Sunday
Today we head SOUTH

• BRUNCH - Petite Abeille <- Wendy having brunch with high school friend
• Adorama Photo <- Me & Jason head out
• Rockefeller Plaza
• Saint Patrick's Cathedral
• 5th Avenue to Central Park/Tiffany & Co. New York - Fifth Avenue
• Checkout, LUNCH - Popey's Chicken $5
• Chinatown
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Staten Island Ferry - it's COLD with wind
• Tiffany's & Co
• New York Stock Exchange
• DINNER - New Wonjo Korean on 32nd st $80
• Times Square
• Rockefeller Plaza again to see the Christmas Tree 
• Grand Central to catch bus to Newark airport, shuttle to Hilton airport for a short sleep

Dec 6 Monday

Woke up at 4:30 for the 6:38 am flight, took off at 7 am and landed at 8:20 am to see S-N-O-W!

EXPENSES (All Canadian)
Hotel: $175 + $175 + $85
Transportation:

• Flights: $10 + $2 + $88 (Why so cheap, thanks to Expedia)
• Subways: EWR-14th St (Bus #62 + PATH = $10), Day Pass $8.25 x 3 persons x 2 days
• Bus: Grand Central to Newark on Airport Express Bus, $15 x 3 persons = $45

Shopping: Sigma 18-200mm lens $361

Deal of the Year - Expedia SAVE $300 = free trips to New York City

I don't think I can explain it better than a News company - CityNews Article
There was a fear of cancellation, but now that one week has passed I think everyone is safe.

I am glad I saw the deal in time and stayed up late to find a near-zero package. This is my early X'mas presents (flying to NYC for free), and I am glad to take Wendy to NYC before Ella arrives

Booking 1 - Jerry $10
NOV 23, 2010 CONTINEN 00517218357619 0018005233273 NS Airfare $276.29

NOV 22, 2010 EXPEDIA*TRAVEL 800-367-3476 ON Other Travel ($265.32)

Booking 2 - Wendy $2
Nov 23, 2010 CONTINENTAL 00517218359130018005233 276.29
Nov 22, 2010 EXPEDIA*TRAVEL 800-367-34 274.50

Booking 3 - Jason - $88.56, only because I booked him 6 hours later :(
Nov 23, 2010 CONTINENTAL 00517218387770018005233 351.90
Nov 22, 2010 EXPEDIA*TRAVEL 800-367-34 263.34

There are other expensive NYC expenses

• Hotel for 3 nights = $175/night x 2 at 14th & 6th Ave (Manhattan) + $85 at Hilton Newark Airport
• Booking hotels separately because we don't want to stay at Hostels in the Expedia package
• Transportation = $100 for 3 (In & Out of Manhattan and Metro daypass)
• Food = ??

Look on the bright side, we SAVED $900 to spend more money ^_____^