Once in a lifetime trip to NYC
Sep 24th, 2006, 07:50 AM
#41
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boxer, I just reread your thread in the light of day and have a suggestion... Also, I found the thread I mentioned earlier: in "Train from D.C. to NYC", a poster says you can check your bags at the Hotel Pennsylvania.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34873913
My suggestion is that you try to do the Brooklyn Bridge walk before your dinner at Spice Market (or on a different day??). Spice Market is located in the Meatpacking District, which is a hopping area for "painting the town red". You could easily finish your dinner, then stroll the area. Head west and cross the highway for a romantic stroll along the Hudson, then return to West 14th Street and vicinity for your evening activities. I agree with the others that as a late-30-something I often feel old at nightclubs, but in the Meatpacking there's something for everyone, from bars and lounges to Lotus. I like Son Cubano, which clears out the dining tables late-night and has a fun latin-inspired dance scene (even though I can't dance like that!).
To get in the Brooklyn Bridge, you could do it on Sunday, since your plans that day are to be downtown already. You could:
A) Forego another walk in Central Park; take the subway to Brooklyn (F to York or A-or-C to High St), stop at Jacques Torres famous chocolate shop or across the street at his bakery Almondine. Have your coffee in the Fulton Ferry park with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, then head over the bridge. You can catch the 6 or R train uptown to your brunch at Balthazar (Spring St or Prince St stops, respectively), or walk through Chinatown, cross Canal, then up Broadway in SoHo and window-shop your way to brunch - among others, you'll pass Pearl River Mart with its chic and cheap Asian goods; the new Broadway Bloomindales which showcases up-and-coming designers; and Kate's Paperie packed with high-end stationery and other paper goods. [Take the R back downtown to Rector St for the WTC]
B) Go to brunch at Balthazar's, take the R train downtown to Rector St to see the WTC and St. Paul's (you wrote St Patrick's, but it is St. Paul's), do the Staten Island Ferry. Walk back up Broadway, check out Wall Street if you have any inclination. If you're hungry at this point, there's a nice contemporary Swedish restaurant in the area called Smorgas Chef; otherwise, the financial district is pretty dead on Sundays. Keep going north on Broadway to City Hall Park, the across to the pedestrian ramp for the Brooklyn Bridge. It's true that you'll have the city behind you, but there's plenty of time to stop and turn around for the photo ops! Otherwise, just south of City Hall Park, you can catch the A or C train at Fulton Street stop; take either train one stop into Brooklyn to High Street, then walk over the bridge.
Three websites worth checking out:
www.mta.info - there are a lot of train suspensions and rerouting on the weekends and late night, especially in lower Manhattan due to the construction of a new transit hub near WTC. Go to Service Advisories > NYC Transit > Weekly Subway Advisories.
www.nymetro.com - website for NY Magazine; I like their reviews of shops, restaurants, etc. as they seem to hit our demographic pretty well!
newyork.citysearch.com - extensive listings and reviews on everything New York, but you kind of have to wade through the opinions to get a real sense of things...
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34873913
My suggestion is that you try to do the Brooklyn Bridge walk before your dinner at Spice Market (or on a different day??). Spice Market is located in the Meatpacking District, which is a hopping area for "painting the town red". You could easily finish your dinner, then stroll the area. Head west and cross the highway for a romantic stroll along the Hudson, then return to West 14th Street and vicinity for your evening activities. I agree with the others that as a late-30-something I often feel old at nightclubs, but in the Meatpacking there's something for everyone, from bars and lounges to Lotus. I like Son Cubano, which clears out the dining tables late-night and has a fun latin-inspired dance scene (even though I can't dance like that!).
To get in the Brooklyn Bridge, you could do it on Sunday, since your plans that day are to be downtown already. You could:
A) Forego another walk in Central Park; take the subway to Brooklyn (F to York or A-or-C to High St), stop at Jacques Torres famous chocolate shop or across the street at his bakery Almondine. Have your coffee in the Fulton Ferry park with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, then head over the bridge. You can catch the 6 or R train uptown to your brunch at Balthazar (Spring St or Prince St stops, respectively), or walk through Chinatown, cross Canal, then up Broadway in SoHo and window-shop your way to brunch - among others, you'll pass Pearl River Mart with its chic and cheap Asian goods; the new Broadway Bloomindales which showcases up-and-coming designers; and Kate's Paperie packed with high-end stationery and other paper goods. [Take the R back downtown to Rector St for the WTC]
B) Go to brunch at Balthazar's, take the R train downtown to Rector St to see the WTC and St. Paul's (you wrote St Patrick's, but it is St. Paul's), do the Staten Island Ferry. Walk back up Broadway, check out Wall Street if you have any inclination. If you're hungry at this point, there's a nice contemporary Swedish restaurant in the area called Smorgas Chef; otherwise, the financial district is pretty dead on Sundays. Keep going north on Broadway to City Hall Park, the across to the pedestrian ramp for the Brooklyn Bridge. It's true that you'll have the city behind you, but there's plenty of time to stop and turn around for the photo ops! Otherwise, just south of City Hall Park, you can catch the A or C train at Fulton Street stop; take either train one stop into Brooklyn to High Street, then walk over the bridge.
Three websites worth checking out:
www.mta.info - there are a lot of train suspensions and rerouting on the weekends and late night, especially in lower Manhattan due to the construction of a new transit hub near WTC. Go to Service Advisories > NYC Transit > Weekly Subway Advisories.
www.nymetro.com - website for NY Magazine; I like their reviews of shops, restaurants, etc. as they seem to hit our demographic pretty well!
newyork.citysearch.com - extensive listings and reviews on everything New York, but you kind of have to wade through the opinions to get a real sense of things...
Oct 24th, 2006, 05:57 PM
#43
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Well, just returned from our trip to NYC. Wow, it was a lot to do in a short period of time, and we wore ourselves out every day. It was a great trip, with highs and lows.
The low point got out of the way at the beginning, but lingered like a foul smell. The bellman at the Helmsley Park Lane was very efficient and had our bags out of the trunk and into the lobby before I got out of the cab and paid the driver. When I got into the lobby the first thing I did is count the bags...omg, one is missing! Crap, our cosmetic bag was left in the cab trunk. I yelled to the bellman to stop the cab and he just looked at me and asked "why?". I told him what happenned and he said 'the cabbie slammed the trunk quickly..' and so the excuses began. The manager's only comment was 'how do you know the bag was in the cab?'. I never saw the manager again face to face. I won't go into all the details, but within an hour of being in NYC our names were on a police report. The hotel did nothing, we insisted on filing a report. My wife was amused until we actually surveyed the loss.
The report paid off when the police called the next day to say that a cab driver returned our bag that morning. We were elated, only to find that most all the valuables were missing. We spent half a day or more of our vactation shopping at drug stores and cosmetics counters to restore our lost items. The hotel management displayed a complete lack of ethics, even after it was proven the bag was there by its return. Our only and last stay at a Helmsley hotel property. Pathetic management.
The highs were the theater (we got good seats for the Phantom from Broadwaybox.com), views of the skyscape from The Top of the Rock, our walk along Brooklyn Bridge at dusk, Central Park and shopping on Madison, 5th Ave, etc. We were a bit disappointed at the traffic noise on the bridge, which made it less romantic. Earplugs or an Ipod would be a good idea next time.
The restaurants were good (Balthazar) to excellent (Spice Market and Le Bernardin). Balthazar cancelled our reservation for not calling to confirm but we stopped in anyway and had no trouble getting seated. The place was a bit glitzy and fake after having been in authentic old world restaurants in Italy. Spice Market seemed original, perhaps because we have never been to the orient. The food was great and it had a nice atmosphere and lots of folks our age (30-40 something). We took a limo to LeBernardin and there was no doorman, only at the inside door (the hostess had to greet us inside the door). There was a good table waiting for us, and the food was delicious. It served a 4 course meal, price fixed at $105 per person. The ambiance wasn't as romantic as we hoped, but it was nicely decorated. The only negative was my wife's gall bladder attack from all the butter in the sauces. Oh well, we should have expected that but don't eat French every day. French help must be hard to find because all the staff were obviously a blend of New Yorkers. There were so many waiters they clogged the isles and stumbled over themselves to clear your plates. It was a good choice for pre-theater as the restaurant was suitably filled at 5 pm with nice dressed clientele, and it was a short 5 min cab ride to Times Square. We actually arrived at the restaurant 30 min late and still made the theater on time, all we gave up was the plate of candies at the end.
We can also recommend the little restaurant next door to the Helsmley Park Lane, across from Central Park carriage stands, for breakfast. The food was excellent and the ambiance was nice. Next door to that was Mickey Mantle's and they have great Onion Rings to munch on while watching baseball. We anguished with NY'ers when the Mets were knocked out by the Cards.
The cabs were cleaner than expected, and cheaper than other cities overall. I think traffic flowed well and our hotel was centrally located.
All the service people were friendly to us, and the only rudeness we witnessed was a local berating a cafe waiter for what she perceived as rudeness when he made a joke.
Sadly, we saw someone's little lap dog get run over by a car (making a turn)in the street, something we feared from the minute we saw all these women walking these little bitty dogs on leashes.
We never felt that our security was an issue, even when we were the last ones into the subway station at Times Square after the theater (closed at 11:30). They close a gate and we had to wait down there in the subway tunnel for about 15 minutes. We decided to try the subway b/c we couldn't get a cab. It worked out fine and even though we were in our suit and gown we didn't get mugged or even draw much attention. It was an adventure.
We figured out that nobody in NYC cares what you wear, although there was a dress code at Le Bernardin. People were really casually dressed everywhere we went. I thought people dressed casually in Denver, but NYC is equally casual, or more so. Much more so downtown, in SOHO, Chinatown and Little Italy, where anything goes.
Prices in NYC are equal to European cities, so it will probably be a while before we decide to spend our time there rather than go to Europe. We did save a bit on the airfare, but that was about it. I have been to NYC at Chrismastime, and that is really a great time to visit. We also didn't do a carriage ride in Central Park although we meant to. Again, shopping for cosmetics and jewelry. Saks was a much better experience than Bloomingdale's, and we loved Tiffany's.
We heard some other lady yelling at her cab as he started to drive away with her bags, and had to be stopped by a limo driver who jumped out. The cosmetics lady doing my wife said she was the second one that day with the same story...cab driver departing with bag in the car.
The WTC site was very worth our time to see, from our perspective. I had been there before 9/11 and I was just shocked and saddenned by the change in the entire area. Its more profound than I could have imagined. It MUST be rebuilt in some fashion.
SOHO was really different from my visit twenty years ago. It is much more crowded now, no longer 'artsy' so much as just trying to hang on to some character with all the street venders taking over.
A friend recommended that we go to the Hudson Hotel for coctails, which we did one night. It was ok, but all the tables sat empty with reserved signs and empty champagne coolers. Everyone was crowded in the empty space waiting for the celebrities to show I guess. $275 for a bottle of Jack Daniels. Not for us.
We went to the rooftop bar at the Grovesnor Hotel across from Spice Market, which was a bit crowded but cool. We didn't see anyplace with much of a waiting line, although everyplace seemed busy, so that was a pleasant surprise. Service was always good, another pleasant surprise.
Our final day we changed to the Embassy Suites, which was like a cute little apartment, albeit kind of cheaply appointed. The plan was flawless b/c I was able to catch the PATH train to Newark the next morning and make it to my meeting with no problem. I can't believe it was only a buck fifty for the ride and a five for the cab when I got to Newark.
I just wish I could overthrow the managers at the Helmsley P.L., who certainly were not NY trained, I am sure. I will write a letter to Leading Hotels of the World, as it is a joke that it is listed there.
Best wishes and thanks to all. Anyone who would like to make a donation to our credit card fund is welcome!
The low point got out of the way at the beginning, but lingered like a foul smell. The bellman at the Helmsley Park Lane was very efficient and had our bags out of the trunk and into the lobby before I got out of the cab and paid the driver. When I got into the lobby the first thing I did is count the bags...omg, one is missing! Crap, our cosmetic bag was left in the cab trunk. I yelled to the bellman to stop the cab and he just looked at me and asked "why?". I told him what happenned and he said 'the cabbie slammed the trunk quickly..' and so the excuses began. The manager's only comment was 'how do you know the bag was in the cab?'. I never saw the manager again face to face. I won't go into all the details, but within an hour of being in NYC our names were on a police report. The hotel did nothing, we insisted on filing a report. My wife was amused until we actually surveyed the loss.
The report paid off when the police called the next day to say that a cab driver returned our bag that morning. We were elated, only to find that most all the valuables were missing. We spent half a day or more of our vactation shopping at drug stores and cosmetics counters to restore our lost items. The hotel management displayed a complete lack of ethics, even after it was proven the bag was there by its return. Our only and last stay at a Helmsley hotel property. Pathetic management.
The highs were the theater (we got good seats for the Phantom from Broadwaybox.com), views of the skyscape from The Top of the Rock, our walk along Brooklyn Bridge at dusk, Central Park and shopping on Madison, 5th Ave, etc. We were a bit disappointed at the traffic noise on the bridge, which made it less romantic. Earplugs or an Ipod would be a good idea next time.
The restaurants were good (Balthazar) to excellent (Spice Market and Le Bernardin). Balthazar cancelled our reservation for not calling to confirm but we stopped in anyway and had no trouble getting seated. The place was a bit glitzy and fake after having been in authentic old world restaurants in Italy. Spice Market seemed original, perhaps because we have never been to the orient. The food was great and it had a nice atmosphere and lots of folks our age (30-40 something). We took a limo to LeBernardin and there was no doorman, only at the inside door (the hostess had to greet us inside the door). There was a good table waiting for us, and the food was delicious. It served a 4 course meal, price fixed at $105 per person. The ambiance wasn't as romantic as we hoped, but it was nicely decorated. The only negative was my wife's gall bladder attack from all the butter in the sauces. Oh well, we should have expected that but don't eat French every day. French help must be hard to find because all the staff were obviously a blend of New Yorkers. There were so many waiters they clogged the isles and stumbled over themselves to clear your plates. It was a good choice for pre-theater as the restaurant was suitably filled at 5 pm with nice dressed clientele, and it was a short 5 min cab ride to Times Square. We actually arrived at the restaurant 30 min late and still made the theater on time, all we gave up was the plate of candies at the end.
We can also recommend the little restaurant next door to the Helsmley Park Lane, across from Central Park carriage stands, for breakfast. The food was excellent and the ambiance was nice. Next door to that was Mickey Mantle's and they have great Onion Rings to munch on while watching baseball. We anguished with NY'ers when the Mets were knocked out by the Cards.
The cabs were cleaner than expected, and cheaper than other cities overall. I think traffic flowed well and our hotel was centrally located.
All the service people were friendly to us, and the only rudeness we witnessed was a local berating a cafe waiter for what she perceived as rudeness when he made a joke.
Sadly, we saw someone's little lap dog get run over by a car (making a turn)in the street, something we feared from the minute we saw all these women walking these little bitty dogs on leashes.
We never felt that our security was an issue, even when we were the last ones into the subway station at Times Square after the theater (closed at 11:30). They close a gate and we had to wait down there in the subway tunnel for about 15 minutes. We decided to try the subway b/c we couldn't get a cab. It worked out fine and even though we were in our suit and gown we didn't get mugged or even draw much attention. It was an adventure.
We figured out that nobody in NYC cares what you wear, although there was a dress code at Le Bernardin. People were really casually dressed everywhere we went. I thought people dressed casually in Denver, but NYC is equally casual, or more so. Much more so downtown, in SOHO, Chinatown and Little Italy, where anything goes.
Prices in NYC are equal to European cities, so it will probably be a while before we decide to spend our time there rather than go to Europe. We did save a bit on the airfare, but that was about it. I have been to NYC at Chrismastime, and that is really a great time to visit. We also didn't do a carriage ride in Central Park although we meant to. Again, shopping for cosmetics and jewelry. Saks was a much better experience than Bloomingdale's, and we loved Tiffany's.
We heard some other lady yelling at her cab as he started to drive away with her bags, and had to be stopped by a limo driver who jumped out. The cosmetics lady doing my wife said she was the second one that day with the same story...cab driver departing with bag in the car.
The WTC site was very worth our time to see, from our perspective. I had been there before 9/11 and I was just shocked and saddenned by the change in the entire area. Its more profound than I could have imagined. It MUST be rebuilt in some fashion.
SOHO was really different from my visit twenty years ago. It is much more crowded now, no longer 'artsy' so much as just trying to hang on to some character with all the street venders taking over.
A friend recommended that we go to the Hudson Hotel for coctails, which we did one night. It was ok, but all the tables sat empty with reserved signs and empty champagne coolers. Everyone was crowded in the empty space waiting for the celebrities to show I guess. $275 for a bottle of Jack Daniels. Not for us.
We went to the rooftop bar at the Grovesnor Hotel across from Spice Market, which was a bit crowded but cool. We didn't see anyplace with much of a waiting line, although everyplace seemed busy, so that was a pleasant surprise. Service was always good, another pleasant surprise.
Our final day we changed to the Embassy Suites, which was like a cute little apartment, albeit kind of cheaply appointed. The plan was flawless b/c I was able to catch the PATH train to Newark the next morning and make it to my meeting with no problem. I can't believe it was only a buck fifty for the ride and a five for the cab when I got to Newark.
I just wish I could overthrow the managers at the Helmsley P.L., who certainly were not NY trained, I am sure. I will write a letter to Leading Hotels of the World, as it is a joke that it is listed there.
Best wishes and thanks to all. Anyone who would like to make a donation to our credit card fund is welcome!
Jan 7th, 2007, 03:51 PM
#45
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boxer12, did you hear about the drug bust at the Helmsley Park Lane?
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.ph...8-044834-2650r
(And the NY Post tabloid version:
http://tinyurl.com/y7b485)
Sounds like these were your guys!! Maybe they would have treated you better if you'd acted like the "tourist" cops in the article...
All kidding aside, I'm sorry you had to experience such an ugly incident, especially at the beginning of your trip. I'm glad the rest of it worked out well!
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.ph...8-044834-2650r
(And the NY Post tabloid version:
http://tinyurl.com/y7b485)
Sounds like these were your guys!! Maybe they would have treated you better if you'd acted like the "tourist" cops in the article...
All kidding aside, I'm sorry you had to experience such an ugly incident, especially at the beginning of your trip. I'm glad the rest of it worked out well!
Jan 7th, 2007, 04:48 PM
#46
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For my 2 cents I would go to Metropolitan Museum of Art, although you'll have to be selective about what sections you most want to see or you'll spend a whole day there. I also recommend walking the Brooklyn bridge and riding the Staten Island ferry...great way to view skyline and Statue of Lib. quickly and inexpensively. Sounds like you plan on a trip to the theatre, and I second that. Get a good guidebook (like Fodors) either from the library or a bookstore if you like to mark it up and read to find what appeals to you. There's so much to do in NYC that you'll want to have addresses, suggestions, transportation routes, etc at your fingertips and with such a wealth of things to do it really does need to be based on your own preferences.
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