Trip Report - NYC with a teenage girl

Just returning early this morning from NYC - it was a great trip. Need to write this report before I forget things! :-)

Arrived Friday night into JFK (after a 90 minute delay out of CVG - thank you Delta). Had pre-arranged for Carmel car service to pick us up and take us to the hotel. We waited about 10 mins outside baggage claim for the car and it was about $45 (including tip). We stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel - booked through the National Stationery Show at a rate of $214 which seemed reasonable. Location was good, rooms were small, but nice. Beds were comfy and linens were really soft. Concierge was very helpful. Front desk staff was a little curt; actually the friendliest staff were the housekeepers. Always smiling and saying hello. There are no coffee makers in the rooms at the Roosevelt - just FYI - there sell a limited starbucks menu at their bar in the mornings, however. After dropping our luggage we walked to John%26#39;s Pizza - no wait for a table at 10:00 pm and the pizza was excellent. Service was great too. Thin crust pizza with loads of toppings and not swimming in sauce. Very good!

Day 1 - Sat - we headed to Rockefeller center in the morning. Got there around 8:30 am and it was so nice to be there before it got crowded. Just walked around and looked in the windows of the shops. There%26#39;s a starbucks in the basement of the center that serves breakfast sandwiches (they don%26#39;t do that here in Cinti) so we got coffee %26amp; breakfast sandwiches (BTW, for $2.70 they are large, warm %26amp; tasty), grabbed a table and ate %26amp; watched the rest of a movie from the night before on my iPod. :-) By then the shops had opened and we wandered through a few. Anthropologie has the most gorgeous displays and merchandise. We headed down 6th street which was closed off for street vendors. Had fun shopping for purses, scarves (seemed like the ';uniform'; for NY women), and sunglasses. Even socks for my husband! We made our way to Central Park and decided to splurge on a horse %26amp; carriage ride through the park. Was it worth $40? Probably not, but my daughter thought it was cool. We wandered back towards our hotel - stopped in Kate%26#39;s Paperie (I%26#39;m a stationery designer and love paper so it was a must for us). After a stop at the hotel, we headed to Vinyl in Chelsea for dinner. The line for a cab outside the hotel was long, so we jumped on a pedi-cab and zoomed down there. At first I thought the price $25 was a bit steep, but after I saw how hard the guy worked for that $25 I was fine with it. And, again, my daughter though it was fantastic. Dinner at Vinyl was good (completely forgot to see the bathrooms!) and then we walked to the Gotham Comedy Club. This was one of the highlights for my daughter. We saw Gabriel Iglesias who is her favorite comedian. They had a few warm-up comedians and toward the end of the 2nd one, she has to go to the bathroom (bad timing I%26#39;m telling her because the place is wall to wall people and not very big). But we get up and go downstairs to the restroom. As we%26#39;re heading back upstairs, there%26#39;s a very large man in front of us - it%26#39;s him - Gabriel Iglesias. She thought that was pretty cool! The show was fantastic - very funny. The club itself is small so you%26#39;re pretty close to the stage no matter where you sit, however they have a two drink min. per person per table. A coke was $5.00 and a martinin $12.50. Yikes! Easy to catch a cab back to the hotel and fell into bed.

Day 2 - Sun - today was convention day for me. We headed to Grand Central station (a few blocks away on foot) and caught the show shuttle. Walked the show for a little while and then headed toward Hell%26#39;s Kitchen to see the flea market and NYC cupcake cafe. Since it was raining, the flea market was closed and the cupcake cafe was packed with people. So we just kept walking till we got to Times Square. Since it was raining, we decided to give our feet and umbrella a rest and we popped into the cinema to see Baby Mama (funny movie!). Refreshed and dried off after the movie, we wandered around Times Square (rain stopped) and shopped for t-shirts etc. There was a shop (can%26#39;t remember the name) that carried every possible color and pattern of converse tennis shoes and my daughter found a graffiti print pair that she fell in love with. Walked back to the hotel to change for dinner. We had reservations at Rosa Mexicano. Excellent dinner! Maybe the best we had while we were there. Service was wonderful, the guacamole tableside is to die for, and the margaritas are a true margarita - not a fluffy slushy mix. Entres were wonderful (some kind of enchilada with beef, raisins, pine nuts). If you like mexican, I definitely recommend this place. After dinner we hailed a cab and went to times square to Roxy%26#39;s Diner (?) where we got giangantic pieces of cheesecake to take back to our room. Note: one piece serves 2-3 people (and at $9/slice it should!). The apple caramel cheesecake was excellent! (even better in your room in your pj%26#39;s).

Day 3 - Mon - We took the subway down to the south ';something'; piers (can%26#39;t remember the name) and took the one hour NY waterway harbour cruise. It was good because we didn%26#39;t have a lot of time and it allowed us to see the statue of liberty and ellis island from the boat. Unfortunately, there was a group of tourists on the boat who apparently thought it was ok to talk through the guide%26#39;s tour (in another language so they probably didn%26#39;t understand what he was saying) and it was rather annoying and rude. I wanted to tell them, politely of course, to shut up that others wanted to hear what he had to say. Off the boat and walked up to the world trade center site. I%26#39;m not sure we found what we were looking for - we saw a bronze wall dedicated to firefighter who lost their lives, but that was about it. It was rainy and windy and we lost our bearings a bit, so we didn%26#39;t see much more. We popped into a panini/diner for a quick lunch (can%26#39;t remember the name), but it was a nice panini sandwich. Then we headed to Century 21. Let me just say that if you really care about designer labels at discount prices and you can stand the crowds and mess of a store, you should go here. Otherwise skip it. I don%26#39;t need $350 shoes that are discounted to $225. Nope. We gave up there and caught the subway toward Grand Central. The subway is easy and cheap. I highly recommend it. We walked to Herald Square and did some shopping at H%26amp;M (the kid%26#39;s favorite store) and then walked back to the hotel. Had dinner reservations at Jack%26#39;s on 40th - dinner was really quite good. The servings are large. A filet dinner was $30, but it was the biggest filet I%26#39;ve ever had. My daughter had a chicken dinner that was two large chicken breasts. The thai spring rolls were delicious. Seriously, you could split an appetizer and one dinner and be full. After dinner, we walked around the corner to the Nederlander theatre to see Rent. My daughter absolutely loved it! Great show - the vocals were phenomenal. After the show, we tried to get a cab - it was cold %26amp; wet and everyone and their mother %26amp; brother were trying to get a cab too. Finally a cab stopped for us, but there were two young girls waiting before us so I let them have the cab. I figured it was the right thing to do. Then other folks jumped in front of us and grabbed the next few cabs. Not so nice of them. Then, a limo pulls up and asks us where we need to go. I tell him the Roosevelt Hotel and he said I%26#39;ll get you there for $10. Hard to pass that one up when you see the look in your 16 year old%26#39;s face as she%26#39;s about to jump in a limo on Times Square after having seen her favorite musical. I told her it was good karma for having given up the first cab to the two other girls. :-)

Day 4 - Tues - Our last day. We headed to the Rockfeller Center again - breakfast sandwiches from Starbucks and bought our tickets to the TOTR. You can get $3.00 off each ticket with a AAA discount (you need to have your card). No line to get in at all, very friendly people working the queue lines and elevators. Views were nice - rainy again, but nice. After the TOTR we headed to Herald Square for more shopping - Macy%26#39;s, H%26amp;M, Victoria%26#39;s Secret, Gap etc. I needed to go back to the javits center for the show for an hour so we started walking there. Stopped at Andrew%26#39;s Diner on 34th street (?) for a delicious burger %26amp; fries. It%26#39;s pouring down rain at this point and our jeans %26amp; shoes are soaked. Made it to the Javits center, did the things I needed to do there, and took the show shuttle back to Grand Central. Walked back to the hotel, changed clothes and waited for our car from Carmel to pick us up from the hotel. Here%26#39;s where the trip goes sour: I had called Carmel Tues morning to make arrangements for the car. I told them we had an 8:00 pm flight out of JFK and ASKED THEM what time we should be picked up. The guy says 5:30. Heck, I don%26#39;t know how long it takes and they%26#39;re the car service, right? We sit in traffic through the city, then we sit in traffic on the expressway and at 6:45 I ask the driver if we%26#39;re going to make it to JFK for our 8:00 pm flight. He says no. I call Delta to get on a later flight. Nothing out of JFK. We can go out of LaGuardia on a 9:00 pm flight, but it%26#39;s an extra $100 per ticket to change (because we%26#39;re changing airports). The driver gets off the expressway, rushes us through Queens and back streets to get to LaGuardia, we rush to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes and the lady says, ';here are your boarding passes. Your flight has been delayed until 11:30'; You have got to be kidding me!!!!! So we%26#39;re tired, wet, ready to go home and, BTW, I have a 12 yr. old at home by himself who thinks his mom is going to be home at 10:30 pm tonight. Argh!! So, to shorten the story %26amp; report here, we finally got home at 2:00 am this morning, minus an unexpected $200 expenditure.

However, the trip was great. My daughter loved everything we did (although she%26#39;s probably asleep in school right now). I love the city - the only obnoxious people were tourists and those snotty teenagers/young ladies that work at the department stores. Service at restaurants was great - cab driver were great - concierge at the Roosevelt was great. All in all a good trip!!!

PS: Never, never, never go to NYC without a rain coat - no matter what you THINK the weather is going to be. :-)

Trip Report - NYC with a teenage girl

Absolutely superb, detailed report. A few comments.

The nywaterway cruises leave from pier 78 on west 38 st. but there are other cruises that leave from the South Street seaport. Not sure which you took.

While I probably would have done the same thing with the limo in the pouring rain, it%26#39;s worth mentioning that getting into an unregulated limo is not always a good idea. It%26#39;s always impossible to get a taxi after the theater, but especially in bad weather. I would have taken the crosstown bus to get closer to the hotel.

Last but not least, 5:30 should have been plenty of time to get to JFK for an 8 pm domestic flight. I wouldn%26#39;t blame Carmel. I think you could have well made your JFK flight. What time did you get to LGA? Also, it%26#39;s likely you would have had to pay more money with any change of flight, regardless of whether it was at the same airport or not.

I%26#39;m glad you had such a great trip. I assume son was fine at home?

Trip Report - NYC with a teenage girl

Hi, I just wanted to say thanks for your report. I%26#39;m off to NY in Sept and it has been a great help for tips. If you have any hot tips you haven%26#39;t mentioned I%26#39;d love to hear them, my daughter is 12 so I%26#39;m looking for some child/teenage fun things to do.

Warm Wishes

Faye

Thanks for posting, sounds like a fun time!

What a fun trip! See, everyone: you CAN have fun in NYC in the rain! You won%26#39;t melt!

Just some notes (to help future visitors and HKWT%26#39;s next trip):

- the WTC site (';ground zero';) is the construction site across the street from Century 21, with the fence all around it. You probably walked right by it.

- The Water Taxi was probably at South Street Seaport (was it an outdoor mall?)

- I bet the street fair was on 6th Avenue, not 6th Street.

Thank you for all the details, and sorry about the flight back. Chime in anytime.

Thanks for the report!

It sounds like you hit my favorite breakfast spot, Panini %26amp; Co, down the street from Century 21! If you went out the door on the Trinity Pl side, you%26#39;d have been straight across the street from the WTC site.

Do you mind me asking, how old is your daughter?? My oldest is dying to go, but I%26#39;ve been hesitant to take her by myself!

Interesting an detailed report. Glad you both had a good time.

Great report - thanks for posting

Hey, great report - very helpful. Where abouts is Herald Square??

Herald Square is the intersection of 34th Street, Broadway, and 6th Avenue.

HavKids,

What a wonderful review! It has struck several personal chords. All of them good ones! My feeling on the concierges at The Roosevelt is the same as yours, that they are very helpful. As a guide, though, I have no dealings with any other person there, save the doorman, and he%26#39;s okay. And $214 a night for a midtown hotel really is a good rate.

John%26#39;s Pizza is considered by many the best pizza in midtown. You were right to choose it. But how did you find out about it?

The $40 horse-and-carriage ride, worth it? For $65, you could have had a pedicab tour of the park that%26#39;s 4x the length and would travel much faster, though nothing is as satisfying as those plush carriage seats. If getting a pedicab tour, look for a guide with a license; many pedicabs are driven by guys who are very new to NYC and don%26#39;t get lost in the park only because it%26#39;s a circular road. (Full disclosure: I am a licensed guide and a pedicab owner.)

Water Taxi tour: Guides are used to people chattering away in other languages. It%26#39;s rude, whatever language it is, and whether the guide understands it or not. As rude and as inevitable as car horns in perfectly good traffic.

You and your daughter saw Rent. I%26#39;ve seen half of it twice. I went with two tour groups of rural southern kids, and a few chaperones. The first time, when the chaperones realized it was about ';drug-addicted homosexuals'; they pulled the kids (and me) out during the intermission. A few weeks later, another group had tickets. I thought, ';Oh good, now I%26#39;ll get to see how it ends,'; but the same thing happened! ACK!

You walked from the Roosevelt to Grand Central. It used to have a tunnel. That%26#39;s how the Beatles circumvented 10,000 screaming teens in 1965. They stayed at the Roosevelt!

You are into stationery, so you went to see Kate%26#39;s Paperie -- good choice! My late first wife was a manager there and the chain%26#39;s visual merchandiser. She had made many TV appearances on the morning network talk shows. She was said, in the NY Times Magazine ';Holiday'; issue of 1995, to have been the best gift-wrapper in NYC. The article went on to quote Isaac Mizrahi as saying that you should buy gifts anywhere, but have them wrapped by Kate%26#39;s.

I will pass on your compliments to the concierges at the Roosevelt. Thanks again for your great review!

Stan