Monday dawned to the sounds of traffic outside our window, and the maid doing the rounds of the rooms on our floor.
We headed out for breakfast, and went to buy some tickets for a tour of the city.
Most of the tours don't actually have an office where you line up, they just have a bunch of people in red jackets roaming the street with mobile eftpos terminals.
They push the hard sell on everybody walking past, so fortunately I had done some investigation from brochures picked up, and already decided on the tour we wanted. However the ticket seller reccomended an upgrade, and after some quick calculations we picked up a 2 day pass to New York, including double decker bus tours downtown, uptown, harbour tour and tickets to the Empire State Building.
The first stop on the tour was the empire state building. While our tour ticket included a pre-paid voucher, we still had to line up to collect our tickets. It was a 30 minute wait on the street to get inside, then another lineup for 20 minutes to go through security, then another 5 minute line to get the tickets and then 30 minutes wait to get into the elevator! Once on the 80th floor, we skipped the 10 minute line for the final elevator, and took the stairs with some breathless tourists up to the 86th floor viewing deck.
New York looks much nicer from upon high, we took some photos and enjoyed the views before heading down back to street level.
Once on the street, we had some time for a bit of holiday bargain hunting in Banana Republic, then jumped back on the double decker tour bus.
As we moved downtown, we saw Greenwich village and the first sign that Manhattan supports the growing of real trees. Also Christopher st - for those who don't want the straight route.
SOHO was a heavy bustle of people on the sidewalks and lots of shopping and honking of horns.
We got off the bus in Chinatown, and were surrounded by people selling DVD's, prada and rolex for cheap cheap cheap!
We found some dinner in a local Chinese restaurant, and went to get back on the bus. We waited for 30 minutes where it dropped us off, but no buses appeared. Because it is new years eve, the buses stopped early, fortunately Aimee and I are subway savvy, so we grabbed a coffee and headed back to our hotel.
When we got off at the 42nd st stop, Times square had been shut down. Police had closed the subway stops and all streets going into Times Square. This allows them to control the number of people in the area, however keeps out unknowing tourists like us.
Aimee and I could not believe that we had come all this way only to be stuck on a side street... so close but so far away.
On advice from the police we began to walk uptown to the streets where they were still letting people in... From 46th, we tried 49th, 55th, 57th and finally headed in with an ever increasing crowd at 59th st.
[Sarcastic] Yay, the only view we had was a big screen 6 blocks away replaying the action.
Feeling pretty let down, we decided that even if we couldn't see it, we could at least hear the celebrations by waiting at 46th street by our hotel.
After telling our sob story to a few officers and getting shoo'd away, one kind rookie must have seen the tears welling in Aimee's eyes, and escorted us into the celebrations!
So here's a tip for those travelling to times square for a new years party; get to times square by 6pm before they close the streets, and stay there.
That way you can avoid the disappointment of possibly missing out, and won't have to beg and plead to get let in.
So the party in times square was amazing, 1 million people partying, lights and music everywhere, and of course the continually increasing number of people, without actually being squashed in.
Our view was fantastic, we were right in the middle of the X shaped square, being on 45th st and the ball dropping from on top of a building on 42nd st.
The music stages we're right behind us on 47th st, and MTV had a stage only meters from where we stood.
At the top of every hour, we had a 'practice' countdown which turned out to be the stroke of midnight in another timezone. When the ball dropped for the new York midnight, the crowd went wild, the fireworks exploded and masses of confetti rained from the sky.
After midnight, most people went away soon after 12, and by 20 past the cleanup crews were in full swing; according to the news 1 metric tonne of confetti was cleaned off the street the next day.
After breathing in the last of the atmosphere, Aimee and I took the short walk back to our hotel, only to find that the lobby had become a VIP only party, and about 30 guests were crowding the doors trying to get up to their rooms.
Being held back while party goers entered unopposed made some guests rather angry, especially after hearing feeble excuses as management tried to delay our entry while they made preparations to ensure we didn't enter or damage the mood of the party...
So while people were yelling at the bouncer, they got progressively more angry, until eventually a few were let in. One older lady was separated from her group as the bouncer stopped too many people from going in, and her daughter pulled her through. Another British guy was left behind from his wife, and swore angrily at the big guy as only the brits know how, pushing his way past.
By this point the bouncer was pretty upset, declaring 'I've had enough of this!' And tore out his earpiece, going after the British guy. Fortunately the wife and the night manager stepped in, and balance was restored before and punches were swung, and the rest of the crowd was ushered in; much to our relief.
Once in our room, sleep soon took over.
We headed out for breakfast, and went to buy some tickets for a tour of the city.
Most of the tours don't actually have an office where you line up, they just have a bunch of people in red jackets roaming the street with mobile eftpos terminals.
They push the hard sell on everybody walking past, so fortunately I had done some investigation from brochures picked up, and already decided on the tour we wanted. However the ticket seller reccomended an upgrade, and after some quick calculations we picked up a 2 day pass to New York, including double decker bus tours downtown, uptown, harbour tour and tickets to the Empire State Building.
The first stop on the tour was the empire state building. While our tour ticket included a pre-paid voucher, we still had to line up to collect our tickets. It was a 30 minute wait on the street to get inside, then another lineup for 20 minutes to go through security, then another 5 minute line to get the tickets and then 30 minutes wait to get into the elevator! Once on the 80th floor, we skipped the 10 minute line for the final elevator, and took the stairs with some breathless tourists up to the 86th floor viewing deck.
New York looks much nicer from upon high, we took some photos and enjoyed the views before heading down back to street level.
Once on the street, we had some time for a bit of holiday bargain hunting in Banana Republic, then jumped back on the double decker tour bus.
As we moved downtown, we saw Greenwich village and the first sign that Manhattan supports the growing of real trees. Also Christopher st - for those who don't want the straight route.
SOHO was a heavy bustle of people on the sidewalks and lots of shopping and honking of horns.
We got off the bus in Chinatown, and were surrounded by people selling DVD's, prada and rolex for cheap cheap cheap!
We found some dinner in a local Chinese restaurant, and went to get back on the bus. We waited for 30 minutes where it dropped us off, but no buses appeared. Because it is new years eve, the buses stopped early, fortunately Aimee and I are subway savvy, so we grabbed a coffee and headed back to our hotel.
When we got off at the 42nd st stop, Times square had been shut down. Police had closed the subway stops and all streets going into Times Square. This allows them to control the number of people in the area, however keeps out unknowing tourists like us.
Aimee and I could not believe that we had come all this way only to be stuck on a side street... so close but so far away.
On advice from the police we began to walk uptown to the streets where they were still letting people in... From 46th, we tried 49th, 55th, 57th and finally headed in with an ever increasing crowd at 59th st.
[Sarcastic] Yay, the only view we had was a big screen 6 blocks away replaying the action.
Feeling pretty let down, we decided that even if we couldn't see it, we could at least hear the celebrations by waiting at 46th street by our hotel.
After telling our sob story to a few officers and getting shoo'd away, one kind rookie must have seen the tears welling in Aimee's eyes, and escorted us into the celebrations!
So here's a tip for those travelling to times square for a new years party; get to times square by 6pm before they close the streets, and stay there.
That way you can avoid the disappointment of possibly missing out, and won't have to beg and plead to get let in.
So the party in times square was amazing, 1 million people partying, lights and music everywhere, and of course the continually increasing number of people, without actually being squashed in.
Our view was fantastic, we were right in the middle of the X shaped square, being on 45th st and the ball dropping from on top of a building on 42nd st.
The music stages we're right behind us on 47th st, and MTV had a stage only meters from where we stood.
At the top of every hour, we had a 'practice' countdown which turned out to be the stroke of midnight in another timezone. When the ball dropped for the new York midnight, the crowd went wild, the fireworks exploded and masses of confetti rained from the sky.
After midnight, most people went away soon after 12, and by 20 past the cleanup crews were in full swing; according to the news 1 metric tonne of confetti was cleaned off the street the next day.
After breathing in the last of the atmosphere, Aimee and I took the short walk back to our hotel, only to find that the lobby had become a VIP only party, and about 30 guests were crowding the doors trying to get up to their rooms.
Being held back while party goers entered unopposed made some guests rather angry, especially after hearing feeble excuses as management tried to delay our entry while they made preparations to ensure we didn't enter or damage the mood of the party...
So while people were yelling at the bouncer, they got progressively more angry, until eventually a few were let in. One older lady was separated from her group as the bouncer stopped too many people from going in, and her daughter pulled her through. Another British guy was left behind from his wife, and swore angrily at the big guy as only the brits know how, pushing his way past.
By this point the bouncer was pretty upset, declaring 'I've had enough of this!' And tore out his earpiece, going after the British guy. Fortunately the wife and the night manager stepped in, and balance was restored before and punches were swung, and the rest of the crowd was ushered in; much to our relief.
Once in our room, sleep soon took over.
1 comment:
One thing that may help you get where you need to go and what ya need In new york is a big gun, a really really big gun.
S.P:)
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