Day 17 - The Big Apple
We bid a fond farewell to Disney World and made our way to the Big Apple. The checkout process at Disney World is as simple as the rest of the experience where you check in for your flight and check your luggage at the resort before leaving. It is then just a matter of heading to the airport, relaxing over some food and a coffee and then making your way to the gate in time for the flight. We also made our first major purchase with 4 pairs of Dr Dre Solo headphones - now these things rock and also look pretty cool hanging of the end of the iPhone or iPod.
The flight was nice and relaxing and when we arrived in New York we were met by our driver and his 8 seat limousine. Yep that's right, an 8 seat Limo. Well when you arrive in the Big Apple you may as well do it in style. There was a minor delay waiting for the bags to arrive however apart from that the trip to the Hotel was relatively smooth and quick.
The Hotel Beacon is located on 75th and Broadway on the upper west side of Manhattan and is only 2 blocks from one of the major subway stations that runs express to Times Square. We have a room that has a separate bedroom, bathroom and living/kitchenette area so it is quite big and cosy - certainly an upgrade from the resort at Disney World.
We were not in the room for much more than 10 minutes and we headed straight for Times Square. After working out the ticketing system we were quickly on a train and on our way to Times Square. As it was still daylight the impact of all the lights and LCD screens was yet to take effect so we walked around and quickly located the 3 main stores that the kids were hanging out to see: Kids R Us (with it's indoor Ferris Wheel), M&M Land and the Hershey store. As they have not watched Forrest Gump seeing the Buuba Gump Shrimp Store did not really excite them - Jacqui was certainly different - she was quite excited.
We also located a store called Lids and as you can guess it specialises in hats of all shapes and sizes however mainly Baseball and Gridiron based. We all chose our preferred colour and team and selected to have them monogrammed with our names. We headed off for dinner whilst waiting for this to take place. The good thing was once we had finished eating the sun had set and the Times Square light show really took affect. It is simply amazing to see the size of the TV screens and the number of billboards that exist. They have even placed seating to enable people to sit down, relax and take in all the sights, sounds and smells.
After picking up our new lids, we headed to Champs which is a well known sports store specialising in all the latest cool, funky shoes. Zac and Talia picked out a pair each and I took the chance of purchasing a new pair of ASIC Kayano's ($139 USD compared to $270 AUD).
By the time we arrived back at the room it was 11.00pm and we were still hungry so myself and the kids set off to a supermarket across the road. Now this is the coolest supermarket on earth. It has combined an IGA with a fruit market with an organic food store. It has literally everything and like everything in the US it is huge. The plums alone are 4 times the size of what we get in Australia and half the price. As we have the kitchenette we stocked up with breakfast items as a way of minimise the cost of staying in New York.
Tomorrow we off to start to officially explore everything that New York has to offer.
The flight was nice and relaxing and when we arrived in New York we were met by our driver and his 8 seat limousine. Yep that's right, an 8 seat Limo. Well when you arrive in the Big Apple you may as well do it in style. There was a minor delay waiting for the bags to arrive however apart from that the trip to the Hotel was relatively smooth and quick.
The Hotel Beacon is located on 75th and Broadway on the upper west side of Manhattan and is only 2 blocks from one of the major subway stations that runs express to Times Square. We have a room that has a separate bedroom, bathroom and living/kitchenette area so it is quite big and cosy - certainly an upgrade from the resort at Disney World.
We were not in the room for much more than 10 minutes and we headed straight for Times Square. After working out the ticketing system we were quickly on a train and on our way to Times Square. As it was still daylight the impact of all the lights and LCD screens was yet to take effect so we walked around and quickly located the 3 main stores that the kids were hanging out to see: Kids R Us (with it's indoor Ferris Wheel), M&M Land and the Hershey store. As they have not watched Forrest Gump seeing the Buuba Gump Shrimp Store did not really excite them - Jacqui was certainly different - she was quite excited.
We also located a store called Lids and as you can guess it specialises in hats of all shapes and sizes however mainly Baseball and Gridiron based. We all chose our preferred colour and team and selected to have them monogrammed with our names. We headed off for dinner whilst waiting for this to take place. The good thing was once we had finished eating the sun had set and the Times Square light show really took affect. It is simply amazing to see the size of the TV screens and the number of billboards that exist. They have even placed seating to enable people to sit down, relax and take in all the sights, sounds and smells.
After picking up our new lids, we headed to Champs which is a well known sports store specialising in all the latest cool, funky shoes. Zac and Talia picked out a pair each and I took the chance of purchasing a new pair of ASIC Kayano's ($139 USD compared to $270 AUD).
By the time we arrived back at the room it was 11.00pm and we were still hungry so myself and the kids set off to a supermarket across the road. Now this is the coolest supermarket on earth. It has combined an IGA with a fruit market with an organic food store. It has literally everything and like everything in the US it is huge. The plums alone are 4 times the size of what we get in Australia and half the price. As we have the kitchenette we stocked up with breakfast items as a way of minimise the cost of staying in New York.
Tomorrow we off to start to officially explore everything that New York has to offer.
Jacqui and kids enjoying a relaxing drink on the way to the Hotel
