harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1601 Share Posted July 26 OK. More than enough pictures. Time for a late lunch at 2 PM. Since you are essentially a “captive audience” in being on the island, your food choices are pretty limited in grabbing lunch while at Liberty Island. More in line with average theme park food. You eat to survive not because it looks great. As the impending storm was approaching, it was very windy outside and we opted to eat indoors instead but we couldn’t find tables with seats and had to stand to eat. Just stand there and eat your “meh” lunch. Again, the glamour of traveling that never made it into social media pages... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani negreanu Posted July 26 #1602 Share Posted July 26 19 hours ago, harryfat1 said: How is it to ride the E subway train from the airport? Did you have any issues with the luggage? For us it was very convenient and very cheap. BUT, we travel with carry on only. I've mastered the art of packing light (and sometimes doing some sink washing), centering on one color only -- blue -- trousers, sneakers, shoes, etc. About the Eurostar. I wish we had this option for many of our travels. So easy, no hassle. Highly recommended. We took it from Paris (Airbnb in the Marais, handy to a supermarket, DH had a blast cooking b'fast + dinner). Metro to the train station for London (border control for UK in Paris), choose to stay at Premier Inn St. Pancras, a mere 5 mins walk from the train station. Other visits -- Premier Inn Victoria Station, handy for the tube from Heathrow to Victoria Station. This train station is also a major "hub" for buses and tube, easy to get around. DH prefers the bus to the tube in London, cheaper also. For the flight back to Israel, we took the tube to Heathrow. See a "pattern" here? Again, we travel light....😉 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1603 Share Posted July 26 2 hours ago, dani negreanu said: For us it was very convenient and very cheap. BUT, we travel with carry on only. I've mastered the art of packing light (and sometimes doing some sink washing), centering on one color only -- blue -- trousers, sneakers, shoes, etc. About the Eurostar. I wish we had this option for many of our travels. So easy, no hassle. Highly recommended. We took it from Paris (Airbnb in the Marais, handy to a supermarket, DH had a blast cooking b'fast + dinner). Metro to the train station for London (border control for UK in Paris), choose to stay at Premier Inn St. Pancras, a mere 5 mins walk from the train station. Other visits -- Premier Inn Victoria Station, handy for the tube from Heathrow to Victoria Station. This train station is also a major "hub" for buses and tube, easy to get around. DH prefers the bus to the tube in London, cheaper also. For the flight back to Israel, we took the tube to Heathrow. See a "pattern" here? Again, we travel light....😉 Dani, Thanks for the tips on the areas to stay in London. I’ll come back to this page later on when I’m ready to book the trip. Being anal, I can’t travel light. I have too much “just in case” stuff. Always feel the need to have all the “backup of backups” with me… We were just watching the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on TV. They certainly did a fantastic job in getting people interested in Paris. I can imagine tourism to Paris will reach new heights after the games. Next summer could be a lot of people going there. I’ll be hanging out with lots of my new BFFs in Paris next summer. In watching the opening ceremony on TV, I have created a new Bucket List – attend one Olympics Opening Ceremony to be part of the spectacle. With the Olympics coming to LA in 4 years, that’s probably my best (cheapest) option to attend. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1604 Share Posted July 26 (edited) Speaking of costs and traveling, maybe I should talk a little about some Finances of travel. One trick I use to help with the cost of travel is obtaining credit cards with high rewards after spending X amount within the first 3 months of getting the new credit card. Now do go out and get a new credit card just because you want the rewards and foolishly spend the money buying stuff you don’t need. But if you are going on a vacation that will be expensive (like a cruise), it makes sense to think ahead. Last Fall, I got the JetBlue credit card to use to fly to Florida for the Odyssey cruise and after meeting their spending requirements, I ended up with close to 90,000 miles points. I then turned that into miles to redeem to fly the 4 of us to NYC this summer on JetBlue for free. Not to mention the credit card gives you and 3 other companions free check-in suitcases for free so I can stuff all kinds of “just in case” things inside. Then earlier this year, I got a new Chase card to pay for the NYC hotel and other expenses. That will net me at least 75,000 points which I will use to redeem for next year’s European trip. The idea is to try to think one vacation ahead and get a new credit card with a great sign-up bonus to get you the welcome bonus to offset the next vacation. For my December Carnival cruise, the final payment is due in September. I plan to get a different Chase card that will pay 120,000 points after meeting the spending requirements. Use that card to pay for the Carnival cruise and combine the 120K here and 75K from NYC trip, that’s 200K points to use to partly offset the cost to flying a family of 4 to Europe or transfer the miles to the airline and redeem them on Virgin Atlantic or British Air. As I said, don’t get credit cards if you can’t afford the payments. Never carry any balance as the interest rate is crazy high. But if you are going to be going on various trips, look for credit card sign-up bonuses that help offset some of the costs… And never get more than 2 cards per year as that will make your credit score go down and some lenders won't give you a new card if you had more than 5 new cards in a 24 months period. Be strategic in which cards to get and when to get them... Edited July 26 by harryfat1 Why do I need to explain why I am editing my own post? You try to type with your feet and have no typos... 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1605 Share Posted July 26 After lunch, we went to visit the uncle in prison (aka obligatory gift shop for a magnet souvenir) and then stood in line for the ferry to go to Ellis Island. Be sure to stand in line for the correct ferry. The one on the left goes to New Jersey. The one on the right goes to NYC, which surprisingly has less than half of the lines of NJ folks. Guess lots of folks are staying on the NJ side. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1606 Share Posted July 26 Looking at the small areas of blue patches of blue skies, we thought we had avoided the rain. We would be so wrong… Ellis Island – in the old days, European immigrants arrived in NY/US and they were processed at Ellis Island. This serves as the gatekeeper for the US immigration official to determine if the folks are allowed to be in the US or be sent back to their original country. Obviously this area is no longer serving that purpose and they made this place a museum to show the treatment of the immigrants. Sometimes in less than red carpet welcome treatments. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1607 Share Posted July 26 Overall, I rate Ellis Island a “hidden gem”. Everybody knows about the Statue of Liberty and that’s the main draw. Ellis Island is just an “add-on” that some people don’t even care about as it’s optional to get off the ferry to see Ellis Island. Some people remained on the boat during the Ellis Island stop and headed directly back to Manhattan. That’s too bad as they missed an important aspect of US History. I highly recommend people to add one plus hour to their itinerary to see Ellis Island during their Statue of Liberty visit as the price is already included in the ferry ride. Anyway, start from the beginning of the welcome hall. We saw many International students/young people from different countries in NYC as part of their countries’ sponsored tours. Each person has a distinctive color backpack and each one has a plastic lanyard with a NYC MetroCard on their necks to travel to various sites. This yellow backpack group is from Germany. We would see other nationalities later on. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1608 Share Posted July 26 Walking Inside: This is pretty scary - they use this barbaric-looking tool to flip people's eyelids to check for a special disease from Europe. You can blind someone by poking their eyeballs out... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1609 Share Posted July 26 Toto, I don't think we are on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Perfect Day anymore... No, this is not the restroom nowadays but this was from the old days 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1610 Share Posted July 26 All done with Ellis Island and time to catch the next ferry as we walked out at 4:20 (think they close by 5 PM) and guess what – RAIN. Dang. Time to break out the umbrella as we didn’t get lucky after all in missing the pending storm. Coming from California, we are not used to rain in the summer. We only get rain from November through April. Summer rains are not something you would see in CA. Maybe out in the deserts of NV/AZ, you will get some periodic flash floods but regular summer rains are a different experience for us. This is the 3rd rain incident since we arrived. Anyway, you can see the Statue of Liberty in the background so the 2 islands are not that far from each other. Ugly rain clouds overhead Ellis Island looks like a nice place to be on a sunny day. Another tip is if your schedule ends up in having to eat lunch either at Liberty Island or Ellis Island, do it at Ellis Island. Same cafeteria food/prices (the same vendor runs both places) but a lot less crowded on the Ellis Island side. If it wasn’t for the rain, this would a spectacular area to see the skylines of Manhattan. But now, you can barely even see Manhattan out on the left with the rain clouds covering many of the buildings. Yeah, not going to see much up at One World Observation Deck right now. Time to board the ferry 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1611 Share Posted July 26 Now this wouldn’t be a Cheapo Dad’s trip report (supplemental or not) if there wasn’t a Line picture in here somewhere. Granted it’s not the big massive lines that tie up cruise ships but I have never stood next to someone pulling up the lines either. The dude was thinking to himself this dumb tourist takes pictures of EVERYTHING. He must be from a Hicksville area like California that has never been on a ferry before to take a picture of a rope... 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 26 Author #1612 Share Posted July 26 Check out the dark clouds hovering over the Statue of Liberty area 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 27 Author #1613 Share Posted July 27 This being a cruise ship forum, let’s try to include some cruise content periodically. As our ferry headed back to Manhattan in the rain, we saw the Celebrity cruise ship sail out and instead of heading straight for the open waters, she was able to sail in front of the Statue of Liberty and all the passengers got a great frontal view. From the comments a few months ago, supposedly this is a rare occurrence as the large cruise ships sailing southward out of NJ typically do not come up north and see the statue up close. For whatever reason/luck, this cruise sailing was able to see the Statue prior to leaving town. From our ferry, it’s as if we are on a tender from ashore going back to the cruise ship for the day. FRONTAL VIEW of the Statue from 120 feet up above water. How cool is that? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 27 Author #1614 Share Posted July 27 One World In case you don’t know it, it’s rainy outside from the window as the Celebrity ship made a 180-degree turn and headed out to the open sea after a brief Statue of Liberty viewing 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 27 Author #1615 Share Posted July 27 By the time we docked, it was really pouring when we got back to Manhattan. God Bless the enterprising folks in NYC since they can’t sell any hats during the rain, they tried selling ponchos to tourists as they got off the boat and totally drenched if they had no rain gear. When life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade, right? Yeah, it’s rainy pretty hard Not many people stop for fruit in this pouring rain A lot of people bought the ponchos 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 27 Author #1616 Share Posted July 27 We made it back to the Midtown area via the subway. The original plan was to go to Flushing Queens to see the largest Chinatown in the US/Canada region but that doesn’t seem feasible in this pouring rain. Instead, we just grabbed another bento box from the Japanese store one block from the subway exit and that would be our dinner. Nobody was in the mood to walk outside in the pouring rain/wet shoes to do more sightseeing for the night. Oh, well, such is life when traveling. When you do the planning at home in perfect 72 degrees weather, you never factor in potential bad weather in your aggressive itinerary as you want to see this and that and that. But the real world has rain/heat that deters you from doing everything on the list. The total distance walked today was only 5 miles as the day was cut short by the rain. This concludes day 5 of the trip report as we have past the half way mark of the trip 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Den7Cruiser Posted July 27 #1617 Share Posted July 27 Thanks Harry! I have always enjoyed your cruise reports and last week I was lamenting the fact that no one was doing a detailed cruise report on the Royal Caribbean Board at all! This was such a great surprise as I was hoping you'd return to this thread to tell us about your trip to New York. Excellent work and your thoroughness is always enjoyed! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani negreanu Posted July 27 #1618 Share Posted July 27 20 hours ago, harryfat1 said: From the comments a few months ago, supposedly this is a rare occurrence as the large cruise ships sailing southward out of NJ typically do not come up north and see the statue up close. We were also lucky that our captain (Vision OTS) took a detour for us to see the Statue of Liberty -- I like the 2nd one with the sun shining on it. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badatz2 Posted July 28 #1619 Share Posted July 28 On 7/26/2024 at 8:20 PM, harryfat1 said: So just making sure I understand what fee you are referring to, are you talking about the $2.50/$2.75 additional fee tacked onto the base taxi fare? Are you saying they never collected this fee? This fee is just on the books they were supposed to collect but was never implemented? Not sure I understand the background. Yes that is correct. The fee was supposed start June 30, 2024 and on June 5th it was "postponed indefinitely" by the state Governor. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare h20skibum Posted July 28 #1620 Share Posted July 28 On 7/26/2024 at 7:13 PM, harryfat1 said: I’ll be hanging out with lots of my new BFFs in Paris next summer. Harry, regarding your Paris planning for Disney. I don’t know if you ever visited this site, but it has an insane amount of data and charts for various parks, and Disney Paris is one of them. Being an anal 9.2 guy, you should appreciate all the data. I think this site would rank at least 9.6, and it looks like it updates every couple minutes. https://www.thrill-data.com/ I found it doing my WDW research. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 28 Author #1621 Share Posted July 28 23 hours ago, Den7Cruiser said: Thanks Harry! I have always enjoyed your cruise reports and last week I was lamenting the fact that no one was doing a detailed cruise report on the Royal Caribbean Board at all! This was such a great surprise as I was hoping you'd return to this thread to tell us about your trip to New York. Excellent work and your thoroughness is always enjoyed! Thanks for reading this and my previous trip reports. Technically, this isn't a cruise report per se but I'm sneaking it in here since the Odyssey is being repositioned to NJ/NY region to replace the Anthem during the winter months. As such, maybe some of the cruisers might visit NYC either pre or post-cruise and this info will be more relevant for them than my FLL pre-cruise info. I can see why the cruise reporting has been decreasing as it's not easy to write a cruise report. Between trying to sound coherent and factually correct (as if you have an error in facts, people will point them out), the software interface to upload pictures is not easy. I frequently have problems with the software rotating my portrait pictures to be landscape so I have to use photo editing software to rotate it back. It's easier (and potentially much more profitable) to upload YouTube reviews than spending days/weeks typing a bunch of gibberish here on CC but I'm old (school) so the written format is still my preferred method. I believe @h20skibum Mark will be doing another live report for his upcoming trip so you can follow his thread 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 28 Author #1622 Share Posted July 28 (edited) 20 hours ago, dani negreanu said: We were also lucky that our captain (Vision OTS) took a detour for us to see the Statue of Liberty -- I like the 2nd one with the sun shining on it. Very nice. It looked like something from the movies to have the sunshine spotlight. Did the captain announce to everyone prior to sailing that y'all will be getting a special treat so you can all gather at the bow? I wonder what the view from the pedestal of the statue would be like when a cruise ship faces the statue straight up? Imagine what this picture would look like if there's a massive cruise ship looking directly at you? How many people will have that picture of a cruise ship out in the water and you have a picture of the bow? Not that we can predict if the Celebrity cruise ship was going to be there at 4:30 when it sailed off, but if I had known, maybe I would have waited for the pedestal visit after 4 PM to see the ship approaching Edited July 28 by harryfat1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 28 Author #1623 Share Posted July 28 4 hours ago, h20skibum said: Harry, regarding your Paris planning for Disney. I don’t know if you ever visited this site, but it has an insane amount of data and charts for various parks, and Disney Paris is one of them. Being an anal 9.2 guy, you should appreciate all the data. I think this site would rank at least 9.6, and it looks like it updates every couple minutes. https://www.thrill-data.com/ I found it doing my WDW research. Mark, Thanks for the info. No, this website is new to me. Nowadays, there are numerous sites on Disney as it's expensive/complicated to visit Disney parks. How many hours/days have you poured into this Disney vacation versus just a regular RCI cruise trip? I used to use Touring Plans when I visited WDW as I like their software/app on predicting the lines and I map my rides based on their predictions. This reminds me that I also need to research Paris Disneyland to see how different they are from other Disneylands and what to expect. I know they have a dragon in the dungeon of the castle that's a must-visit. The second theme park is probably the worst Disney Park worldwide so it's more like a half-day visit there. But at least Disneyland Paris is high on the list so it's worthwhile going there. After the Paris Disneyland, we would have seen the top 6 on the list, having been to Tokyo parks in 2019 https://www.disneytouristblog.com/best-worst-disney-theme-parks-world/ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 28 Author #1624 Share Posted July 28 Day 6, July 1 – SoHo/Little Italy/Chinatown/Grand Central Station/Times Square Typical breakfast at the hotel before heading out. My son's breakfast Today we have a walking tour of some of the big-name neighborhoods in NYC – SoHo/Little Italy/Chinatown https://www.guruwalk.com/walks/46358-chinatown-soho-and-little-italy-arts-and-flavors-of-manhattan-local-secrets-the-coolest-in-town-s Meeting the tour guide at SoHo area. New Yorkers like acronyms. SoHo stands for South of Houston Street. And to the rest of the world, the word Houston is pronounced HUGHS-TON, as in Houston (the city), we have a problem. But New Yorkers being different, pronounce Houston as HOW-STON after a person. Anyway, the area is known for art galleries and cast iron buildings. The tour was advertised as a bit of a food tour stopping at various sites for people to sample food at different stops but we stopped at any of them. Major disappointment. I would rank this walking tour as a “skip”. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryfat1 Posted July 28 Author #1625 Share Posted July 28 Here's a map of us getting there on a different subway line today as it's not in the financial district: Here's a summary of where we are walking for the tour: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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