Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[harryfat1]

3 minutes ago, rncruiser said:

Insane doesn’t begin to describe it. It’s barely even a line, just a mob of people. You basically push through to get to the fromt

and a security guard gives you about 2 seconds to look and snap a pic. Here’s mine, now you don’t have to bother going. 

Yeah, many people said you have a better view of the painting online than in real life.  At least you have a clean shot of the picture without 5 heads in your picture.

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

When was the last time you saw an actual phone booth and the phones worked? 

 

 

You know you are young when you try to walk up to it and try to pay it with a contactless credit card...

 

Coins?  What's that?

 

[harryfat1]

Artwork in the ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So technically they called the place NYC library but there are no books to check out (that's for the building across the street).

 

This is for the cheapo tourists like yours truly who is too cheap to pay for the Met museum so we just walk around here for free and take a few pictures to pretend we are in a museum and move on.

 

How often do you see a souvenir/gift store inside a "library"?

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Done with the library.  Time to go outside.

 

The NYC  library is part of Bryant Park and they have juggling lessons for anyone wanting to learn

 

 

 

 

 

If you want the actual NYC library to check out books, that’s across the street but that's a lot less interesting to us tourists

 

[harryfat1]

It’s a sunny day.  Better buy a hat for sun protection

 

 

Bryant Park is a nice area to hang out to escape the crowded sidewalks of Midtown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little water break and rest before heading for the subway

 

[harryfat1]

After Bryant Park, it was a short subway ride to Hudson Yards on the west side.  This area is a new development with high-end shops and housing on the west side of Manhattan

 

 

Nice subway entrance/exit.  Very modern.

 

 

 

 

Check out this building as it is a work in progress.

 

Notice something missing?  No windows/glasses.  It's like a big white toothpaste building

 

 

 

  

[harryfat1]

So the first thing you see is "The Vessel". 

 

As we love interesting structures, the Vessel was a must-see for us.  I love the design but some people hated it.  When it was first built few years ago, you could walk all the way to the top of the structure but sadly they had to close the walkway going up after a few people committed suicide in jumping out from the top.

 

They had to close it for a while and I read that they plan to re-open the place again but now with wired mesh at the top so that people couldn’t jump out from the top.  But it wasn’t opened when we were there.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

Taking a picture of ourself in the reflections

 

 

[NHProud]

19 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

I seem to have bad luck with an old email I no longer use as now I can’t access the old Outlook account. 

 

I created the cheapodad@outlook.com account a few years ago when cruisers can email me with questions on my trip report before were too intimated to ask questions in the open forum. 

 

But since I stopped cruising for a while, I stopped checking the account and now I can’t log back in.

 

Maybe I need to create a new account called cheapodad1@outlook.com to match the 1 suffix here at CC…🤪

 

Can you copy and paste the article here?

 

For the Louvre, they force you to select a time in 30-minute increments when you buy the ticket so it’s a timed thing, similar to observation decks in NYC.

 

Supposedly the line to see the Mona Lisa is insane from the YouTube videos.

 

 

 

It is too long . Basically, know the customs of the country you are visiting.  
 

I’m just aghast at the costs at Disney World as reported by your friend on the other thread .  You should publish your money saving tips at Disney .  
 

Looking forward to you wrapping up your NYC trip and awaiting your next installment of the travels of Harry and family.

 

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, NHProud said:

It is too long . Basically, know the customs of the country you are visiting.  
 

I’m just aghast at the costs at Disney World as reported by your friend on the other thread .  You should publish your money saving tips at Disney .  
 

Looking forward to you wrapping up your NYC trip and awaiting your next installment of the travels of Harry and family.

 

Yeah, unfortunately, Disney parks are not cheap.  There has been some backlash from the Disney fans out there complaining about the high cost of visiting the parks.

 

I will only go to WDW when they have promotions where the dining plan is included as part of the total package cost. Otherwise, the cost of food is crazy high.

 

It will be a while before we go back to WDW as our focus now is on the other Disney parks we haven’t visited, like the one in Paris and others in Asia.

 

Almost done with the NYC report.  Days 8 & 9 are not that long.  After this, I still need to look into my Carnival cruise in December although I haven’t really looked into it too much even though it’s a brand new ship. 

 

I’ve been spending my free time looking at London and Paris YouTube videos instead even though that’s over 10 months out. Especially the Disneyland Paris videos as those make me happy just looking at them.

 

Being 9.2 anal, I doubt I will ever “wing it” on any vacation planning but the December cruise is more of a “been there, done that” feeling in there only being one new port (Mahogany Bay) as we have been to Costas Maya and Cozumel already.

 

Maybe I will get more excited about the cruise after next month when we have to make the final payment and then it will become more real.

 

[harryfat1]

Onward with the trip report:

 

Like I said, I really like the Vessel. I think it looks very interesting but some people hate it.  Just like artwork, not everyone views it the same way.

 

Time for lunch as it was 1:30.  As the Vessel was part of the real estate development area called Hudson Yards, there’s a high-end shopping center next to it.  Easy to just walk over there for lunch.

 

As Shake Shack is an East Coast institution, that’s where we had lunch.  Call me a Homer if you will, but I still prefer the West Coast favorite of In N Out Burger or The Habit more than Shake Shack but I do like their fries.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Done with lunch.  Time to walk out and go to the USS Intrepid.

 

Here is the map of where we will be going the rest of the afternoon.  All are within walking distance.

 

Starting at the Vessel (Hudson Yards) and then making our way up north to see the USS Intrepid museum and then walking back down to the High Line

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Hudson Yards.

 

 

 

The next day is July 4 and for the first time in 10 years, they are having the fireworks on the west side of Manhattan instead of the typical East River side of Manhattan.  Which is too bad as our hotel was much closer to the East River side if they had it there.

 

Anyway, the police are already stationing the gates for traffic control along the waterfront

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The walk from the Vessel to the USS Intrepid is slightly less than a mile but in the sun/humidity of NYC on July afternoon, it felt like a longer walk

 

Some summer school/club events with the school buses there

 

 

That's a lot of portable potties

 

 

This was a funny sign – now obsolete due to Biden dropping out

 

[harryfat1]

We are here at the USS Intrepid.  Being somewhat of a fan of aviation/space things, I wanted to come and see the USS Intrepid as I have never been on an aircraft carrier.

 

As with many NYC attractions, you can shop around online to get discounted tickets to the place

 

 

 

 

Being anal/old school, I printed out the hard copy of the tickets

 

 

[harryfat1]

You start the self-guided tour here in Hanger 1.

 

 

What I like about it is they converted the area to be like a museum and it’s air conditioning.  You appreciate A/C after walking out in the NYC summer heat to get here.

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Would I upset the female readers if I sound sexist in saying the people sitting are mostly ladies as the men are all looking at the planes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

[harryfat1]

Time to walk outside to the next area

 

You see the British Concorde.  The fastest commercial plane between the US and the UK in the old days of going more than 2X the speed of current planes.  It could go from NYC to London in 3+ hours

 

 

Guns of the Intrepid

 

 

 

This looks like it’s a sign for the Avenger’s Campus

 

 

Skylines of NYC

 

 

[harryfat1]

Up on the flight deck, they have various planes from different countries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They just sent a group of F-16s to Ukraine to help them fight against Russia

 

 

Blue Angels.  We saw their Airshow many years ago in SF during Fleet Week.  If you have a chance to see them, don't miss it

 

 

 

F-14, the plane where the original Top Gun movie with Tom Cruise was based

 

 

[harryfat1]

After all the planes, it was time to go up for a tour of the command area

 

 

 

 

Doesn't look like the RCI cruise ship beds

 

 

A museum worker at the top area answering questions

 

 

 

 

 

Captain log - Star Date...Ooops, wrong movie, never mind

 

 

[harryfat1]

We saw the Space Shuttle Endeavour in the museum in LA a couple of years ago.  Since they have the Space Shuttle Enterprise there, we wanted to check that out as well.

 

Then later this December, when we fly down to Houston for the Carnival Jubilee cruise, we will go there one day early to check out the Houston Space Center to see the NASA displays there.

 

If anyone is interested in reading about the Houston Space Center, I will be over at the Carnival boards in January (as Cheapo Dad shamelessly plugs his yet-to-be-written trip report). 

 

Sound like a YouTuber - like and subscribe...🤪

 

 

 

 

 

They could paint the nose cone red during Christmas and call it Rudolph and have Santa fly her in the air 🙃

 

[harryfat1]

All done with the Space Shuttle.  Time to take a water break in the heat. 

 

How great is it to sit underneath the British Concorde to rest and admire history on top of us (literally)

 

 

 

 

 

Time to leave the museum even though they had a submarine exhibit but there was a huge line and we still had other places to see in this event pack day