Not another New York City trip report....
Oct 14th, 2006, 02:53 PM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,411
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Not another New York City trip report....
I’ve been doing tedious business writing for about 12 hours per day this week and am desperate to write about something more interesting—-so, I thought I’d put together a quick report on my trip to New York last weekend.
I really don’t have anything to add to what’s already here, but I did get a lot of good information here in advance of the trip and I always like to return the favor. And, besides, I do have to finish the year with a better than 50% record for getting my trip reports completed. Hopefully some of this will be helpful to others in the future. Thanks to all of those who post here—particularly the New York locals.
Context
I’ve been to New York City probably 40 times, mostly for business. This was my fifth trip purely for fun; the first in about four years. I was last in the city about six weeks ago, but that was for business and I only had a few hours of free time. Joining me for this trip were my mother, who is in her 70s and has visited New York once before (about 15 years ago), and my 13 year-old daughter, who also has been once (about four years ago). Mom has been wanting to go back for awhile, and my daughter had a four-day weekend off for Columbus Day. So, it was time for me to plan a trip! We arrived on the evening of Thursday, October 5, and left on Monday afternoon, October 9.
Hotel
I’ve stayed in plenty of different places in New York City-—from the floor of a friend’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights to the Peninsula. My location of choice is generally Midtown east, which I find to be easy walking distance to many things, but just far enough away from the crowds around Broadway and Times Square.
This is not an inexpensive time of year, but I don’t dare try Priceline with my mother along. I watched Hotwire for months but never saw a deal for that weekend that I was willing to chance. About four months in advance, I booked a studio suite at the Affinia 50 for an average price of $330 per night (one night was about $410, and the other three nights were $310). I thought the kitchen might come in handy, and I like the location. I did continue to watch prices after I booked, but never found anything that I considered to be a better deal. My first choice would have been something like the Omni Berkshire, but that was running at about $475 per night.
The Affinia 50 is at the corner of 50th and 3rd Avenue. There are three other hotels in the same block, along with a couple of restaurants and clubs. The Waldorf Astoria is a block away. It is about four blocks to 5th Avenue (Saks and St. Patrick’s), six blocks to Grand Central, and a couple of blocks to the nearest subway station at 53rd and 3rd.
The room itself was not really any bigger than many other standard hotel rooms, but it did have a tiny but full kitchen (full fridge, four-burner stove/oven, sink, microwave, and some basic dishes and utensils). Our room had two queen-sized beds-—notable, since many hotels advertised doubles and I had to share a bed with my daughter (who, I’ve now discovered, kicks a lot). The beds were very comfortable, and there are plenty of pillows (I think you can request different types of pillows to suit your preference). The bathroom is small—-only room for one person in there at a time, so having the extra sink in the kitchen ended up being handy. Aveda bath products were a nice touch. Wired Internet is available at $9.95 per day. The hotel has a small fitness center (did not use or look), business center, concierge, and lounge area with TVs on the second floor. There’s a breakfast buffet for $14.95, but we did not partake. The ground floor lobby is actually quite small, giving this hotel a much more intimate feel than many others--particularly the New York Hilton, where I’ve stayed many times on business, including my last trip in August.
The main downside was noise. The rooms are not well soundproofed. Our room, on the 10th floor, had quite a bit of street noise, as well as noise from the hallway (people talking and closing doors—-or slamming and yelling, in the case of one group that had multiple rooms on our floor and a bunch of kids). At a few points, we could hear people talking or the TV playing in the adjacent room. For the most part, things quieted down over night, so this did not affect our sleep too much.
Also, we ended up with a number of charges for movies and Internet-browser use on our bill, although we used neither (I used a separate Internet connection that I charged directly to my credit card). I asked the front desk to remove these charges, and the receptionist suggested that we were mis-using our TV remote. I don’t think so—-clearly there was some kind of equipment problem here. At any rate, they took the charges off with no argument, so all’s well…
Overall, I liked the smaller, more intimate feel of this hotel and friendly service, and I would consider staying there again.
I really don’t have anything to add to what’s already here, but I did get a lot of good information here in advance of the trip and I always like to return the favor. And, besides, I do have to finish the year with a better than 50% record for getting my trip reports completed. Hopefully some of this will be helpful to others in the future. Thanks to all of those who post here—particularly the New York locals.
Context
I’ve been to New York City probably 40 times, mostly for business. This was my fifth trip purely for fun; the first in about four years. I was last in the city about six weeks ago, but that was for business and I only had a few hours of free time. Joining me for this trip were my mother, who is in her 70s and has visited New York once before (about 15 years ago), and my 13 year-old daughter, who also has been once (about four years ago). Mom has been wanting to go back for awhile, and my daughter had a four-day weekend off for Columbus Day. So, it was time for me to plan a trip! We arrived on the evening of Thursday, October 5, and left on Monday afternoon, October 9.
Hotel
I’ve stayed in plenty of different places in New York City-—from the floor of a friend’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights to the Peninsula. My location of choice is generally Midtown east, which I find to be easy walking distance to many things, but just far enough away from the crowds around Broadway and Times Square.
This is not an inexpensive time of year, but I don’t dare try Priceline with my mother along. I watched Hotwire for months but never saw a deal for that weekend that I was willing to chance. About four months in advance, I booked a studio suite at the Affinia 50 for an average price of $330 per night (one night was about $410, and the other three nights were $310). I thought the kitchen might come in handy, and I like the location. I did continue to watch prices after I booked, but never found anything that I considered to be a better deal. My first choice would have been something like the Omni Berkshire, but that was running at about $475 per night.
The Affinia 50 is at the corner of 50th and 3rd Avenue. There are three other hotels in the same block, along with a couple of restaurants and clubs. The Waldorf Astoria is a block away. It is about four blocks to 5th Avenue (Saks and St. Patrick’s), six blocks to Grand Central, and a couple of blocks to the nearest subway station at 53rd and 3rd.
The room itself was not really any bigger than many other standard hotel rooms, but it did have a tiny but full kitchen (full fridge, four-burner stove/oven, sink, microwave, and some basic dishes and utensils). Our room had two queen-sized beds-—notable, since many hotels advertised doubles and I had to share a bed with my daughter (who, I’ve now discovered, kicks a lot). The beds were very comfortable, and there are plenty of pillows (I think you can request different types of pillows to suit your preference). The bathroom is small—-only room for one person in there at a time, so having the extra sink in the kitchen ended up being handy. Aveda bath products were a nice touch. Wired Internet is available at $9.95 per day. The hotel has a small fitness center (did not use or look), business center, concierge, and lounge area with TVs on the second floor. There’s a breakfast buffet for $14.95, but we did not partake. The ground floor lobby is actually quite small, giving this hotel a much more intimate feel than many others--particularly the New York Hilton, where I’ve stayed many times on business, including my last trip in August.
The main downside was noise. The rooms are not well soundproofed. Our room, on the 10th floor, had quite a bit of street noise, as well as noise from the hallway (people talking and closing doors—-or slamming and yelling, in the case of one group that had multiple rooms on our floor and a bunch of kids). At a few points, we could hear people talking or the TV playing in the adjacent room. For the most part, things quieted down over night, so this did not affect our sleep too much.
Also, we ended up with a number of charges for movies and Internet-browser use on our bill, although we used neither (I used a separate Internet connection that I charged directly to my credit card). I asked the front desk to remove these charges, and the receptionist suggested that we were mis-using our TV remote. I don’t think so—-clearly there was some kind of equipment problem here. At any rate, they took the charges off with no argument, so all’s well…
Overall, I liked the smaller, more intimate feel of this hotel and friendly service, and I would consider staying there again.
Oct 14th, 2006, 03:13 PM
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,411
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Activities
This was kind of a mixed trip for us, to try to suit some different tastes. I could spend my whole time wandering around neighborhoods, but my mother doesn’t share my passion for that—she likes a bit more structure.
Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Mom has never been here, so this was a priority for her. I pre-booked ferry tickets about a week in advance for Saturday morning and elected to get the free tickets for the Statue museum, as well. Fearing a line, we arrived at about 7:50am (first ferry at 8:30). There was a bit of a ticket line forming, but we found a woman handing out the pre-ordered tickets, so we did not have to wait at all. We picked these up, and immediately joined the line for the ferry. Security is just as I remember it from four years ago. We also had to go through a similar security checkpoint in order to get into the Statue pedestal—this time, one that required everyone to go through one of those “air puff’ machines that they have at some airports. We felt the museum in the Statue pedestal was interesting and we’re glad we did that—although I’m especially glad to have done it first thing in the morning (there was a line when we left). Otherwise, we spent more of our time at Ellis Island. We also visited there four years ago, but my daughter has studied American history since then, so she got much more out of this visit.
Lower East Side Tenement Museum. We took the “Getting By” tour one afternoon. Daughter and I thought this was very interesting. Her eighth grade social studies class just finished studying early 20th century immigration, so this was quite relevant for her. I also pre-purchased the tickets for this--about a week ahead of time.
Chihuly Exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden. Mom really likes Chihuly, and we never made it to this exhibit when it was in Chicago a few years ago, so I definitely wanted to include this. I waited until the weekend weather forecasts began to shape up, about three days ahead, before purchasing the tickets online. I picked the first entrance time on Sunday morning. It turned out to be a spectacular, sunny day. We spent about 3 ½ hours at the garden, and easily could have spent more. The café in the garden has decent food, although it was very crowded.
Central Park. One of my daughter’s best friends recently moved to New York, so we spent part of one afternoon visiting with her and her family in the park, generally in the area of 72nd Street. We (well, some of us anyway) particularly enjoyed watching the Central Park Dance Skaters.
Top of the Rock. They’ve done a really nice job with this, IMHO. There are three levels, and the top level has no plexiglass obscuring the view. Even on the lower levels, there are small gaps so that you can take pictures. The views are great, and there was no line (I have bad memories of standing in line for the Empire State Building for an hour or more). It isn’t exactly inexpensive, but definitely nice. We went up at dusk and watched the lights come on across the city. As an aside, the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center opened while we were there, so we spent some time watching (but weren’t daring enough to actually get out there on the ice with so many people taking pictures).
Theater. I purchased tickets for two shows: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and The Drowsy Chaperone. I paid full price for Chaperone; tickets in the center of the second row of the balcony; purchased in July. Using broadwaybox.com, I found discounted ($60 vs. $95) tickets for Spelling Bee; I purchased these in August. Our seats were really good, second row on one side right about at the front of the stage.
I was afraid mom might find Spelling Bee a bit silly, but she did like it and has since recommended it to a friend. Daughter loved it.
Likewise, I was afraid my daughter might find The Drowsy Chaperone boring, but she laughed all the way through. We all loved it. Highly recommended.
Miscellaneous. Other activities included:
-Pizza at Grimaldi’s (yum!) and a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
-The free Grand Central area walking tour (every Friday at 12:30). On the whole, this was pretty interesting, but we did have a big group tagging along so at times it was hard to hear. This was kind of like taking one of the Architecture Foundation walking tours in Chicago, which I’ve done a few times.
-The library—beautiful interior! Go in for a look.
-Light shopping in the area of our hotel.
Food
Mom is not up for much dining out—in fact, she doesn’t eat much, period. The pizza at Grimaldi’s was probably the culinary highlight of the trip. But, it was very good—probably the best pizza I’ve had since I was in Naples. We also ate at Fraunces Tavern, which I thought was pretty average. Otherwise, we had a lot of take out food from PAX, Devon & Blakely, etc., which, on the whole, wasn’t bad. I ate much better on my business trip there in August—Remi and Rosa Mexicana, in particular.
Getting around
We used the Metro North Line to get to the Botanical Gardens and the subway a few times; otherwise we took cabs if we were going anywhere more than about 10 blocks. Normally, I’d probably walk more or use the bus/subway, but this was easier for my mother.
Getting there
I purchased our air in May. Our tickets from Chicago were $198, and mom’s ticket from Phoenix was about $400. She flew into O’Hare and then we all took the same flight to LaGuardia. Yeah—a bit risky with those two airports involved, but it all worked out fairly well. Her flight arrived in Chicago on time. We met her at the gate, had a quick drink in the Red Carpet Club, and boarded our 6pm flight to LGA on time. Then came the bad news—while the weather was good in the metro New York City area, LGA air traffic control was giving us a 7:45pm wheels-up time. Hoping to get that moved up, our captain taxied the plane out near the runway, and we waited. Props to the United crew—they let us get up and move around, they opened up the cockpit door for anyone who wanted to go up and chat, and while the flight attendants can’t provide a full drink service on the taxiway, they did come through a few times with water. Later, we had to sit in a holding pattern for a while over Pennsylvania—“if you’re looking out the window and it seems like the moon is moving in a circle around the plane, you’re not imaging things” is not exactly what you want to hear after waiting so long to take off. We eventually made it in about 11pm. Coming back was a bit smoother—only a one-hour delay to work our way through the ground traffic at LGA. I’ve endured plenty of ORD-LGA horror stories in the past, so all-in-all, this seemed pretty tolerable.
So, that’s it. It was really nice to be back in the city. I’ve resolved to do it more often.
This was kind of a mixed trip for us, to try to suit some different tastes. I could spend my whole time wandering around neighborhoods, but my mother doesn’t share my passion for that—she likes a bit more structure.
Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Mom has never been here, so this was a priority for her. I pre-booked ferry tickets about a week in advance for Saturday morning and elected to get the free tickets for the Statue museum, as well. Fearing a line, we arrived at about 7:50am (first ferry at 8:30). There was a bit of a ticket line forming, but we found a woman handing out the pre-ordered tickets, so we did not have to wait at all. We picked these up, and immediately joined the line for the ferry. Security is just as I remember it from four years ago. We also had to go through a similar security checkpoint in order to get into the Statue pedestal—this time, one that required everyone to go through one of those “air puff’ machines that they have at some airports. We felt the museum in the Statue pedestal was interesting and we’re glad we did that—although I’m especially glad to have done it first thing in the morning (there was a line when we left). Otherwise, we spent more of our time at Ellis Island. We also visited there four years ago, but my daughter has studied American history since then, so she got much more out of this visit.
Lower East Side Tenement Museum. We took the “Getting By” tour one afternoon. Daughter and I thought this was very interesting. Her eighth grade social studies class just finished studying early 20th century immigration, so this was quite relevant for her. I also pre-purchased the tickets for this--about a week ahead of time.
Chihuly Exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden. Mom really likes Chihuly, and we never made it to this exhibit when it was in Chicago a few years ago, so I definitely wanted to include this. I waited until the weekend weather forecasts began to shape up, about three days ahead, before purchasing the tickets online. I picked the first entrance time on Sunday morning. It turned out to be a spectacular, sunny day. We spent about 3 ½ hours at the garden, and easily could have spent more. The café in the garden has decent food, although it was very crowded.
Central Park. One of my daughter’s best friends recently moved to New York, so we spent part of one afternoon visiting with her and her family in the park, generally in the area of 72nd Street. We (well, some of us anyway) particularly enjoyed watching the Central Park Dance Skaters.
Top of the Rock. They’ve done a really nice job with this, IMHO. There are three levels, and the top level has no plexiglass obscuring the view. Even on the lower levels, there are small gaps so that you can take pictures. The views are great, and there was no line (I have bad memories of standing in line for the Empire State Building for an hour or more). It isn’t exactly inexpensive, but definitely nice. We went up at dusk and watched the lights come on across the city. As an aside, the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center opened while we were there, so we spent some time watching (but weren’t daring enough to actually get out there on the ice with so many people taking pictures).
Theater. I purchased tickets for two shows: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and The Drowsy Chaperone. I paid full price for Chaperone; tickets in the center of the second row of the balcony; purchased in July. Using broadwaybox.com, I found discounted ($60 vs. $95) tickets for Spelling Bee; I purchased these in August. Our seats were really good, second row on one side right about at the front of the stage.
I was afraid mom might find Spelling Bee a bit silly, but she did like it and has since recommended it to a friend. Daughter loved it.
Likewise, I was afraid my daughter might find The Drowsy Chaperone boring, but she laughed all the way through. We all loved it. Highly recommended.
Miscellaneous. Other activities included:
-Pizza at Grimaldi’s (yum!) and a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
-The free Grand Central area walking tour (every Friday at 12:30). On the whole, this was pretty interesting, but we did have a big group tagging along so at times it was hard to hear. This was kind of like taking one of the Architecture Foundation walking tours in Chicago, which I’ve done a few times.
-The library—beautiful interior! Go in for a look.
-Light shopping in the area of our hotel.
Food
Mom is not up for much dining out—in fact, she doesn’t eat much, period. The pizza at Grimaldi’s was probably the culinary highlight of the trip. But, it was very good—probably the best pizza I’ve had since I was in Naples. We also ate at Fraunces Tavern, which I thought was pretty average. Otherwise, we had a lot of take out food from PAX, Devon & Blakely, etc., which, on the whole, wasn’t bad. I ate much better on my business trip there in August—Remi and Rosa Mexicana, in particular.
Getting around
We used the Metro North Line to get to the Botanical Gardens and the subway a few times; otherwise we took cabs if we were going anywhere more than about 10 blocks. Normally, I’d probably walk more or use the bus/subway, but this was easier for my mother.
Getting there
I purchased our air in May. Our tickets from Chicago were $198, and mom’s ticket from Phoenix was about $400. She flew into O’Hare and then we all took the same flight to LaGuardia. Yeah—a bit risky with those two airports involved, but it all worked out fairly well. Her flight arrived in Chicago on time. We met her at the gate, had a quick drink in the Red Carpet Club, and boarded our 6pm flight to LGA on time. Then came the bad news—while the weather was good in the metro New York City area, LGA air traffic control was giving us a 7:45pm wheels-up time. Hoping to get that moved up, our captain taxied the plane out near the runway, and we waited. Props to the United crew—they let us get up and move around, they opened up the cockpit door for anyone who wanted to go up and chat, and while the flight attendants can’t provide a full drink service on the taxiway, they did come through a few times with water. Later, we had to sit in a holding pattern for a while over Pennsylvania—“if you’re looking out the window and it seems like the moon is moving in a circle around the plane, you’re not imaging things” is not exactly what you want to hear after waiting so long to take off. We eventually made it in about 11pm. Coming back was a bit smoother—only a one-hour delay to work our way through the ground traffic at LGA. I’ve endured plenty of ORD-LGA horror stories in the past, so all-in-all, this seemed pretty tolerable.
So, that’s it. It was really nice to be back in the city. I’ve resolved to do it more often.
Oct 14th, 2006, 03:36 PM
#3
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 6,267
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
ms_go, how lucky you are to have your Mom healthy and able to travel with you and your daughter. I wish my Mom could still travel with my daughter and me.
Will you please provide the photo link for your Chihuly photos here in case anyone wants to see them? They are stunning.
I've never heard of the free Grand Central area tour, where did you get info on that? The only free walking tour I know of is the Wall St. one through the Downtown Alliance on Tues and Sat. at noon.
And although we get a lot of recommendations on Affinia hotel shere, there are not so many detailed reports on the rooms like you have done. Affinia-owned hotels like Eastgate Tower suites have much larger rooms. I wonder if the one bedrm suite we have reserved at Affinia Manhattan will be more spacious; I hope so.
I enjoyed your report! Thank you.
Will you please provide the photo link for your Chihuly photos here in case anyone wants to see them? They are stunning.
I've never heard of the free Grand Central area tour, where did you get info on that? The only free walking tour I know of is the Wall St. one through the Downtown Alliance on Tues and Sat. at noon.
And although we get a lot of recommendations on Affinia hotel shere, there are not so many detailed reports on the rooms like you have done. Affinia-owned hotels like Eastgate Tower suites have much larger rooms. I wonder if the one bedrm suite we have reserved at Affinia Manhattan will be more spacious; I hope so.
I enjoyed your report! Thank you.
Oct 14th, 2006, 04:42 PM
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,411
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks, emd. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Here is the link to the Grand Central Partnership walking tour:
http://www.grandcentralpartnership.o..._free_tour.asp
I have photos of the room at the Affinia 50. I did not put them in the Webshots album, but I will try to post a TripAdvisor review (with the photos) in the next few days.
I have two albums of photos from this trip at Webshots:
Chihuly exhibit:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/554675956hOgJSc
All other NYC photos:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/554626179itnQSi
And I'm just now noticing the typos in the above report...sigh. I thought I corrected them. Apologies.
Here is the link to the Grand Central Partnership walking tour:
http://www.grandcentralpartnership.o..._free_tour.asp
I have photos of the room at the Affinia 50. I did not put them in the Webshots album, but I will try to post a TripAdvisor review (with the photos) in the next few days.
I have two albums of photos from this trip at Webshots:
Chihuly exhibit:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/554675956hOgJSc
All other NYC photos:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/554626179itnQSi
And I'm just now noticing the typos in the above report...sigh. I thought I corrected them. Apologies.
Oct 17th, 2006, 07:25 AM
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,411
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I'm glad it's helpful.
For those planning trips in the near future, enjoy! GoTravel-good luck in the marathon. I will try to finish my TripAdvisor review with photos of our room and will post the link here when it's available.
For those planning trips in the near future, enjoy! GoTravel-good luck in the marathon. I will try to finish my TripAdvisor review with photos of our room and will post the link here when it's available.
Oct 18th, 2006, 03:15 PM
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,411
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
jill_h - I'm not sure about necessary, but I think the lines can get pretty long depending on the day/time that you go.
If you do want to pre-reserve ferry tickets, you can do so through this website:
http://www.statuereservations.com/
You might want to pre-reserve if you want the monument access passes for the Statue.
According to the Ellis Island website, it is open every day of the year except December 25.
http://www.ellisisland.com/ellis_visit.html
If you do want to pre-reserve ferry tickets, you can do so through this website:
http://www.statuereservations.com/
You might want to pre-reserve if you want the monument access passes for the Statue.
According to the Ellis Island website, it is open every day of the year except December 25.
http://www.ellisisland.com/ellis_visit.html
