Back to New York

Monday, July 16th, 2007 at6:02 am by Paula

This morning we got up early for our flight to New York which was leaving Miami International Airport at 7.45am. We decided to set the clock for 4.30am. This might sound early but we had to drive to the airport and we knew that it would be easy for us to get lost. As it turned out we did the right thing.

Crawling out of bed after spending a late night at Disney World wasn’t the most fun thing to do but we got ready and headed out to the car to head off to the airport. We drove around to the front of the hotel in order to go to reception to check-out. We could have used the express checkout but I always like to check the invoice to ensure we haven’t been charged for anything extra, as we all know that hotels are notorious for getting it wrong.

Then we set off to the airport. Thinking this should be fairly simple we took off confidently but as we have found, things aren’t always what they seem. Signage might be okay if you live in the place but for anyone else it’s terrible. Of course we got lost but not in a bad way as we were still headed in the general direction. Although we somehow ended up at Animal Kingdom and had to ask a security guard how to get to the airport.

After going through three different toll booths we knew we were heading in the right direction. They love toll booths in the States – just make sure you have lots of small change for this as sometimes the booths are unmanned and you need the exact amount of money to get through.

When we got to the airport we had to find the Avis drop-off point. Fortunately the signs were pretty good and we made it into the right car park. Even at that early hour of the morning they had plenty of Avis staff available to take the car and do the check straight away.

Once inside the airport we knew what to do this time and were able to check in with the self service machines quite easily to get onto our Delta flight.

Finally we sat down and relaxed with breakfast and waited for our plane.

While we were waiting, a woman came past us with a little dog in tow. We were quite astounded by this and even more so when she got on the plane behind us still holding onto the pup. In Australia, the only way you can get an animal on board is if it goes into the cargo hold. They aren’t allowed in the cabin.

The flight itself was fairly uneventful and we arrived in New York pretty much on time.

Since we were becoming old hands at this we quickly went out to get a shuttle bus to our hotel. Within a few minutes we were on a mini bus with a few other people. This was fine at the start but after hitting the next two terminals we were jam packed with people. The poor guys in the back were just squashed together like sardines. There were 12 people in a mini-van that could really only seat 10 comfortably.

We have to say though that the driver was excellent. Even though the passengers were covering their eyes in horror for most of the trip, we found the opposite. He managed to squeeze through the tightest places and zip in and out of traffic getting us to our hotels in half the time that others would have. We gave him a little extra tip for his efforts.

We finally made it to our hotel after dropping off all the other passengers and checked-in quickly and easily. We had booked the Sofitel for our last night in New York as it was recommended as the no.1 hotel in New York in TripAdvisor.com. We weren’t disappointed. This is one nice hotel and very convenient to Broadway and Times Square. Even so, we were just as happy with the Grand Hyatt which is a much cheaper hotel.

After settling in to our room we immediately headed out to do a bit of shopping. We were looking for a particular brand of walking sandal that we had purchased in Florence, Italy when we were there last. We loved these shoes but they were seeing better days so we each wanted a new pair. The brand was ARA and the style was Korfu. We tried a couple of shoe stores but neither had them in stock so we gave up on this idea and headed down to Times Square for some lunch.

We ended up at the Red Lobster. This is a very nice restaurant with lovely meals that are fairly reasonably priced. You get plenty of food and the service is great. We ordered two platters as well as an appetizer to share. This was way too much but we managed to get through most of it because it was just so tasty.

Try the Garlic Prawns and the clams – both are to die for.

After our late lunch we headed down to the Hershey store. We had tried some of the Hershey almond and toffee chocolate previously and wanted to take some home with us. We both bought 5 bars of chocolate each plus Wanda bought some of the licorice to try.

After a bit more exploring we headed back to the hotel for an early night.