Before heading off to the States it was recommended  that we purchase The New York Pass by a friend. She had used it when she was in New York and said it was great value. We did a bit of research about it on the net and eventually purchased it through the official The New York Pass website prior to leaving Australia.

We have to say that we are glad that she recommended it to us because it definitely turned out to be value for money.

Which card did we buy?

We purchased a 3 day card which cost us $96USD each as we received a 4th July discount.

How did we use our card?

Now my memory is not the best but I am sure Wanda will come in and edit this post if I have missed anything but here is a list of things we received free admission into using the card:

• Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
• Empire State Building
• American Museum of Natural History
• Central Park Zoo
• Statue of Liberty (although we didn’t end up going because of the massive queue to get on the boat)
• We also received a discount on the purchase of our hop-on-hop-off bus

I am sure there are more but I will add them as I think of them. Wanda was sick at the time so we didn’t see everything we wanted to see. Here is a list of some of the other attractions that we didn’t get to see:

• Museum of Modern Art
• The Guggenheim
• Brooklyn Museum of Art
• NBC Studio Tour
• Radio City Music Hall Stage Door Tour
• The United Nations Tour
• Madison Square Garden All Access Tour

This is not an comprehensive list by the way so if you would like to see the complete list then head on over to the New York Pass website.

You can also receive a variety of discounts at certain restaurants and retailers like Macys, the MTV Store, Century21 Department Store and Planet Hollywood. Again this is not a complete list.

A further feature is that you can bypass queues when it comes to buying tickets for some attractions. Always a plus for those of us who are a little impatient.

Overall we definitely recommend this pass for anyone heading to New York.

I found the sweet taste of things a bit cloying after a while. Not being overly fond of sweet tasting everything I was hanging out for something savoury in the end. Paula, doesn’t mind the sweet taste in fact she eats just about anything and never puts on any weight. I think I put the weight on just watching her munch through sweet pastries and tarts.

After breakfast we headed back to Times Square. We had brought relatively small suitcases with us as we were trying to travel light enough to take our cases on board so we wouldn’t have to wait for our luggage when we arrived. This didn’t work out quite how we had planned as we ended up letting the bags go in cargo hold after all. So the small cases were filled to overflowing and I had discared shoes, jeans and a top in Disney World as I couldn’t fit them into my bag.

This meant we needed another suitcase to put in all of the extra stuff we had purchased along the way. We found a small little overnight bag in a souvenir shop for $30 and after buying the obligatory souvenir t-shirts with New York emblazoned over them we headed back to the hotel to pack.

With the new suitcase we had a better experience packing than the day before. Everything managed to fit in nicely and before long it was time for us to leave.

The hotel had been kind enough to let us stay an extra two hours before checking out at 2pm we headed out dragging all three suitcases between us, down to Lexington and 42nd st to catch the shuttle bus to JFK. What a great service, the buses run regularly and it only costs $15 per person.

After making it to the airport early we waited in the queue for about 50 minutes for the Qantas staff to arrive to start the check-in for our flight. Lots of grumpy, grumbling going on around us as people fidgeted and couldn’t go anywhere in case they lost their spot in the queue. Really poor service on the part of Qantas.

At long last we were on our flight and heading back to Australia.

The trip home was a lot better than the trip over. We had the usual stop in LA where we were actually allowed to take a break in the airport and so we sat down at Starbucks to have a cup of tea. Once we got on the plane again we had a meal and then everyone settled down to sleep. We seemed to sleep for most of it which made things a lot easier and we arrived back in Sydney feeling quite good.

We still had to take another plane to get us back to Canberra and because customs was a disorganised mad-house we missed our connecting flight - in fact it seems most people missed their flights as we had to join a long queue of people whingeing about how badly organised everything was.

Finally we were on our plane and heading home all the time wishing we were still back in the States. It’s not that we don’t like being home, it’s just that we love the experiences that travelling gives.

The New York Stock Exchange was under police guard and closed to the general public. We heard on the news later that night that employees in the Wall St area had received death threats.

It is the richest area in the richest city in the world, which makes it an interesting stroll. From Wall St we head towards Battery Park to take the ferry over to The Statue of Liberty.

Well the queues to get tickets and to board the ferry were horrendous. Fortunately our wonderful New York Pass meant that we didn’t have to join the queue to buy tickets, and as the tickets are valid for 6 months we decided to leave the trip to the statue until we return next Saturday.

So we now had a few hours to kill so we tossed up whether to go over to Brooklyn or to see the Bodies exhibition. Well the loop around Brooklyn takes around 2 hours and as we didn’t feel like sitting that long in the sun, we opted to go to the museum.

For some reason the air conditioning on the buses is turned to maximum, so you have the choice of sitting upstairs in the sweltering sun, or rain as the case may be, or freezing to death on the lower level.

So we decide to head to the South Street Seaport exhibition centre to take in ‘Bodies’ The Exhibition.

‘Bodies The Exhibition’ is excellent. It is amazing how they have separated the arterial lines from within the body structures, and the various disected body parts give you a total insight into the workings of the body.It was amusing to see the discarded cigarette packets in the container at the end of the room showing the disgusting state of lungs diseased by cigarette smoking.

This exhibition is insightful, informative and very interesting.

After strolling through the exhibition and marvelling at displays it’s time to get back on the bus to go to Central Park to photograph the John Lennon memorial “Strawberry Field” for my granddaughter Ishta,who is a Beatles fan and in particular a John Lennon fan.

We find that the comentator on this bus is very knowledgable and he points out the many interesting facts about New York, such as how various churches have changed from synagogues to chinese temples, depending on who inhabits a district at a given time.

Donald Trump’s residence is pointed out, along with the apartments of Betty Davis and Katherine Hepburn, which unlike Trump Tower, are modest looking fron the exterior.

We get off the bus at Central Park and as we enter the park near the zoo, we decide to go in and have a look around. Entry is free with the NY pass.

The first stop is the exotic bird sanctuary. There are birds of all sizes in an amazing range of vivid colours.

These birds were quite happy to sit and pose, showing no fear at all when I approached them.

Next it’s onto the reptile cages where there are an assortment of snakes, lizards and gecko’s.

I especially want to see the polar bear but it isn’t in it’s cage, and in fact a number of cages were empty and we were reminded of the line in the movie Jurassic Park “Are there any animals on this tour?”.The zoo is well laid out and it was closing time so the animals had probably been bedded down for the night.

So onto Strawberry Fields, only we have absolutely no idea where it is. One suggestion for the park authorities would be to add a few more maps with directions on where things are, especially when you consider that the park is 843 acres, approx 2.5 miles North to South, 6 miles around and .5miles East to west.

After walking for a while we decided to ask another couple if they knew the way.

We finally reached a sign “Strawberry Fields” and continuing up a winding path we found a plaque honouring John Lennon, a little further on was the circular ‘Peace’ plaque where some aging hippy dropout has placed a pile of junk that he beligerently, and aggressively states is his art. So, photos taken, duty done, we head back to Planet Hollywood for dinner, passing skaters on roller blades, horse drawn carriages and bicycle riders.

The park is a great place to either just sit and relax or undertake all manner of strenuous activity. New Yorkers are so lucky to have such a haven in the midst of their city.

a - of the rain
b - I have been sick.

So we caught the hop on hop off bus and headed downtown to the Empire State Building.

Our New York pass meant we could bypass the ticket queue. We couldn’t avoid the queue to go up to the 86th floor observatory though. So we queued with many others for about 30 mins. We had our photo taken in front of a backdrop of the building.

The elevator stopped on the 80th floor and because of the large numbers we were advised to take the stairs for the last 6 flights.

So I arrived huffing and puffing - note to self - get fit.

We strolled around the observation tower taking lots of photos and jostling for position with everyone else. We decided not to go up to the top 16 levels further up.

The view over New York is awesome.

We walked down the first 6 floors again. The queue to go down was longer than the one to go up.

The Art Deco design of the foyer is worth seeing.

Finally we were outside and we headed off to Ground Zero and Wall Street.

We had prepurchased our tickets months ago in Australia and had no idea what our seats would be like but were pleasantly surprised when we found that we were 5 rows from the front. The theatre is not huge so even the seats at the back would have an okay view.

It is an absolutely beautiful theatre - very ornate with Greco-Roman style relief work with lots of cherubs and statues and the seating was comfortable.Unlike in Australia, when you are seated you are also given a playbill which is a nice momento of the show. You can also buy a full color glossy program of the show. This was only $10 which was a surprise as in Australia they are usually about double that.

We were really looking forward to the show, more for the fact that we were seeing it on Broadway than anything else, but we came out of it a little disappointed. The mostly US audience seemed to really enjoy it and the lady behind us had seen it five times already. But to us it just felt like the quality of some of the school productions we had seen at home. I guess our expectations were really high and we were expecting more from a Broadway production.

The actual storyline also seemed a little like it was thrown together at the last minute and the chemistry between the characters was almost zilch.

Not sure why it felt like this for us when the rest of the audience seemed to love it. Perhaps it is because it is directed towards an American audience. I would love to see the Australian version of the show to compare the difference.

We have been here three nights so far and are extremely pleased with the hotel.

Check-in was very smooth and the lady behind the counter was very pleasant and helpful. We had arrived at about 9pm at night and the room type we had requested was held for us.

The hotel lobby is quite impressive and what you would expect from a hotel of this class. It’s a good feeling to enter it at the end of a long day of walking around New York - almost like an oasis in the city.

You enter the foyer through a revolving door and the foyer is marble with a tiered waterfall , unfortunately the photo does not show the beauty of the decor. To the left there is an escalator up to the reception area.

We are staying on the 31st floor in room 3151. The room has two double beds which are extremely comfortable and nice soft pillows. The air conditioning is quite pleasant and we haven’t had to change it once since we arrived.

The bathroom is small but not overly so and contains a bath with shower, sink and toilet. The toiletries supplied are just lovely with lavender and citrus scented shampoos and moisturisers.

We found the toilets in the US to be somewhat amusing as the bowl is filled with water which drains away when the toilet is flushed and then the bowl refills with water. This is similar to how the toilets work in China and Hong Kong.

The room also has a walk-in closet with a long mirror and plenty of clothes hangers.

The room has the basics including a TV, iron and ironing board, hair dryer, a desk, office chair and a lounging chair.

What we found did find disappointing was that there is no electric kettle in the room which means no tea and coffee. This would have to be the only hotel we have ever stayed in that doesn’t have this facility and can only think that it is their way of getting you to pay for room service. If we had known about this prior to our booking we probably would have thought twice about staying here. With tea at $8 a cup plus tax and tip, this is something we aren’t prepared to do. What we have done instead is buy a cheap ($11) electric kettle at a Jacks store and some teabags. We have saved plenty this way and will just leave the kettle in the room for the maids to take home.

A mini-fridge is also lacking so there is no way of storing cold drinks. A way around this is to fill up the ice bucket with ice from the free dispenser on the floor and store the drinks in it.

The room has a wireless internet service through T-Mobile and costs $9.99 per day. We found it hasn’t been 100% reliable but it is better than nothing. It seems to work okay for the internet but just drops out when using Skype. You can also access the internet through the TV as a wireless keyboard is available. This is also at a cost but we haven’t investigated the price of this service.

Maid service so far has been excellent. We have been leaving $3 per night as a tip. We are not sure if this has been sufficient or not but it seems to be doing the trick.

So far we haven’t ordered room service and it is not likely we will. It is not so much the price of the food that is the problem, although it isn’t particularly cheap, but the additional costs that bring up the price. In fine print at the bottom of the menu are the words: “All room service orders are subject to State and Local taxes, a delivery charge of $5 per person, an administrative fee of 1% and a service charge of 15%.”

The TV boasts 50 channels of crap. I don’t know how many times I flicked through the 50 channels only to find nothing to watch. It is full of reality style shows which can be tiresome after a while although every now and then something good will be on. Right now we are watching The Mummy 2 while we get ready to head out for the day.

This hotel is rated 4 star but we would probably rate it at the lower end of that rating; but the location is excellent and so for this reason we would recommend it as great place to stay in New York.

From what we can tell there are two bus companies in New York running these types of tours. The other is City Sights NY. Both pretty much do the same thing and charge the same price - $49 for two days of unlimited hop-ons and hop-offs on four different loops around the city. We went with Gray Line mainly because we received a $5 discount on each ticket with our New York Pass.

There are ticket sellers on every corner, they are very polite and if you shake your head or say no they don’t hassle you to purchase a ticket on whichever bus company they represent. Many tourists purchase tickets through the street sellers and it is handy for those who haven’t purchased the New York card as they can board a bus almost immediately, whereas we had to pick our tickets up in 8th Ave, which was relatively close to the hotel.

We got on the first bus we could see which was on the Uptown Loop and set out on the open top double decker bus towards Central Park.The tour guide was kind of annoying and talked non-stop about nothing really relevant and tried to be funny all the time, however, we did manage to pick up a couple of bits of interesting information here and there.

The bus took us past Central Park and the tour guide proceeded to tell us about the famous people who live in the apartments that overlook the park including Yoko Ono, Lauren Bacall, Michael J Fox and Jerry Seinfield.

We then drove through some of the streets of Harlem and then back up along the other side of Central Park.

We decided to get off the bus outside of the Central Park Zoo as apart from the annoying tour guide, the bus was quite cold with the air conditioning turned up and Wanda wasn’t feeling very well as her cold was getting worse.

We walked back to the hotel and on the way picked up some soup from The Original Soupman to eat back at the hotel. Anyone who has seen the ’soup nazi’ episode of Seinfeld will know the story behind this soup. I had the seafood chowder and Wanda had the mushroom & barley. Both soups turned out to be delicious although the seafood chowder was a little more salty than I would have liked.

The meal comes complete with bread rolls, bananas and chocolates:

At the moment Wanda is all doped up on cold tablets and having a sleep. We will be heading out to see Mama Mia tonight at the Wintergarden theatre on Broadway so hopefully she will be feeling better by then.

As we neared the river we had to open our bags on the way through for the cops to check them. The huge police presence was amazing.

We finally managed to inch our way down to the rivers edge and the fireworks started almost immediately.

Unfortunately, with the weather the way it was and the fact that the smoke from the fireworks wasn’t clearing, a good majority of the fireworks couldn’t be seen very well. This was a bit disappointing and a lot of the crowd left well before it finished. Still, the remaining crowd were enthusiastic enough so it turned out to be a fun night.

We thought that there would have been a parade to celebrate the occassion but alas not in Manhatten.

The photos give a bit of an idea of how awesome the fireworks were but as you can see the smoke wasn’t clearing quick enough to give us a clear view.