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]

Onward with the NYC trip report:

 

OK, now we are on the 92^nd floor.  If your sensory is on overload on the 91^st floor below, wait until you “hit” this area (pun intended as you will see)…

 

They have this sign at the entrance to the area but obviously, nobody saw it or they just ignored it as they said NOT to hit or kick the balloons.

 

[harryfat1]

Ballons and more ballons. 

 

Some are filled with helium, so they are at the top. 

 

Some are just regular air that you are supposed to hold onto, but ALL the people were hitting/kicking them like they have the photo of the politician you dislike on it (fill in Biden/Trump in the blank space).. 

 

All the kids/adults behaved like kids while having a ball(on) with the props.  Where else can see you this many balloons?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Remember the sign that said "No hitting or kicking the balloons"?  Huh, what sign?  Nobody saw any stinking sign as you check out this short video clip...

 

 

 

See the little kid kicking the ballon - right into someone's face...Yeah, you will get hit in the head/body somewhere as you stay in the area

 

 

Oh, yeah, there's more of the million-dollar view looking outside.  But is anybody looking outside?  Nope.  It's all about the balloons...

 

 

[harryfat1]

If your Instagram pages weren’t full from the floor below earlier with all the mirrors, refresh it now and add more photos with balloons.

 

Now you see why they say this attraction is the most Instagrammable place in NYC...

 

And if you were struggling with your hangover from below, you will die coming up here with all the kids yelling and the balloons hitting you on the head/body/everywhere else as they are being kicked and punched as it streaming toward your body.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So if mirrors downstairs were awesome and balloons on this floor were awesome.  What if you combine balloons AND mirrors?  Awesomer (no such word)? More Awesome?

 

 

Which way is up?

 

 

 

 

If I can't sleep at night, maybe I can count balloons in my head, 1, 2, 3, 4...

 

 

Huh, wait, never realized I had 5 kids...The college tuition will bankrupt me

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Oh, OK, let's take a few more pictures outside as in theory, we paid $$ for the view from the 92nd floor...

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

OK, Time to move onto the next stage.

 

More trippy mirrors as you are now one floor above the folks downstairs so you have a different perspective up here:

 

 

 

 

Twins...

 

 

[harryfat1]

So after all your senses are on overload, it’s time to exit this area for time for a restroom break.  And from the bathroom, here is the view. Yeah, even from the bathroom, you have a breathtaking view….

 

Cheapo dad trip reports show you folks nothing but the best...

 

 

[harryfat1]

After that, you go to the “cloud room” where the worker scans the bracelet you were issued on the ground floor, and that brings up the 3D image taken of you from below.

 

Here is what I/we look like with my face in/as the clouds.  Look like part of the science fiction movie about an alien life form attacking the Earth…

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 18 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

 

 

OK.  Enough fun here and time to go up one more level to the 93^rd floor where you will find a more typical outdoor observation deck.

 

I would imagine this deck will not be popular during the snow/rainy weather as it’s outdoors with very tall glass.  It’s good photos for daytime but nighttime photography will be challenging as the glass with create glare reflections.

 

Thus you need to time your visit accordingly based on what’s important to you.  If you want a better daytime picture without glass reflection, come to the Summit before dark.

 

They have signs all over saying don’t throw anything over the glass as it’s a major criminal offense as any object dropped on 93 floors will cause pretty serious injuries to pedestrians below.

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Looking directly south at the rest of the island of Manhattan.  You can see the Empire State Building immediately in front of you and then further out in the background is One World Trade Center which was built after the 9/11 attack.

 

 

 

 

If you have a fear of heights, it’s best not to be too close to the edge of the glass.

 

View of Manhattan traffic from the 93^rd floor looking down

 

 

More construction in Manhattan.  Ordinarily, this building would be very tall in most US cities but here in Manhattan, it’s just a “meh” building amongst all the tall buildings.

 

 

 

Not everyone can perform at every job equally well.  Some jobs require a skill set/fear tolerance that not everyone can handle.  Building a scrapper is such a job.  I don’t have an extreme fear of heights but I don’t love it either.  I'm sure my knees/feet would buckle if I had to work in these conditions. 

 

 

Don’t look down…

 

Edited July 18 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

OK.  All done with pictures of the area and all your senses are on overload stage, time to head back down to Earth, so to speak. Well, at least going back down to the ground floor.

 

But like all good enterprising establishments, they make you go through gift shops and try to sell you stuff before you leave.

 

As many of my CC friends know, I call gift shops and pictures taken as visiting the uncle in prison and feeding the crazy aunt in the basement.  For the new folks, you’d have to invest some time to read the beginning of the trip report to understand the reference.

 

 

 

Anyway, they have both visited their uncle in prison as well as feeding the aunt in the basement in the same area.  First, they had the virtual backgrounds (8) for sale at $20 total and they emailed it to you to do as you please. Certainly a bargain compared to the RCI photo that $20 a piece.  So we got the $20 package.

 

Think my wife bought a magnet from the gift shop as that’s the only affordable item in the way overpriced area.

 

Here are some of the 8 virtual background pictures you get for $20 total:

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Alrighty, back down to the regular Manhattan life after being up in the clouds.

 

Ground floor of Summit One and the view looking straight up.

 

 

 

 

We are literally next door to the Grand Central Terminal.  Similar to airports, lots of taxis linining up to take people all over Manhattan as people exit the Grand Central train station. 

 

If our hotel was further away from Grand Central, we would have had to take a taxi to get us there after we came off LIRR on day 1.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

It was 1:20 already.  If this was a cruise, we would have eaten 3 meals by now.  But it’s not so it’s time to order a NY pizza.

 

Over at Groupon, they had promotions for various NYC eateries and I found a pizza place (Previti Pizza) near Grand Central Terminal just few blocks away. 

 

 

 

 

The deal is that you get a $40 food voucher redeemable at the pizzeria after only paying $20 during the Father’s Day promotion  So it was 50% off. Sounds like a good deal to me (did I mention I’m cheap?)

 

For $40, we got a salad and a whole Grandma’s pizza.

 

One thing about NYC pizzeria is that they have so many variety out there and you can easily window shop to see which ones you like.  I know of no pizzerias in CA or west coast for that matter that has so much pizza out on display to sell you by the slice.  The pizzas here are all sold by the whole pie and the pizzerias only make them after you order them. You would never see slices like this being displayed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As we ordered a whole pizza instead of by the slice, it took awhile for them to bake it from scratch, so I stayed there and waited while my wife and the boys went to the Japanese grocery store across the street – Katagari.  Per a Youtuber, this store is supposed to be the oldest Japanese store in Manhattan (if not all of NYC).  They had a lot of bento boxes for take-out that we would end up buying later in the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

But first thing first, we got the pizza & salad, brought it back to the hotel and ate our meal in the nice quiet comforts of the hotel.  Away from the hustle bustle of Manhattan.

 

 

Similar to being on a cruise – nice to go back to “home” after a long morning excursions and get something to eat. Except you have to pay for each meal…

 

That’s a real advantage of a cruise in that you don’t have to worry about each meal as you do on a land based vacation. On a cruise, you get back to the ship, you have plenty of food.  On land, you need to find food for lunch and dinner (breakfast also if you stayed at hotels that don’t offer free breakfast)

[harryfat1]

After lunch, we all rested/took naps as we were tired/sensory overloaded from the Summit One.  We didn’t walk that much but it felt tiring with the senses being overloaded.

 

Small side view of the Chrysler Building in the background as seen from our hotel room on 17th floor.

 

 

 

Then by 5 PM, we had enough rest that it was time to check out the actual sites of Manhattan.  We went to the world famous Rockefeller Center. Per Google maps, it was 0.4 miles away – near where we ordered dinner last night. 

 

Here is where staying in Manhattan makes a difference in that you can go back to hotel to rest/eat a simple meal and then go back.  Whereas if you stay out further in the suburbs, you will unlikely go back to the hotel to rest in the middle of the day and that makes it harder to recharge your batteries (human and cell phone).

 

That meant going past the famous NYC street – 5^th Avenue as it’s super wide and crowded and full of energy that screams NYC Tourism.  Yeah, Baby…

 

 

[harryfat1]

For those trying to get a bearing of where we are going, here is a Google map on the few stops going to Rockefeller Center and then walking to Empire State Building/Korea Town.

 

We start from the right side and after going left and up, then will head all the way south.  This is all on foot as we are not activating the subway pass until the next day and we wanted to see the sights of the world famous 5th Avenue

 

[harryfat1]

At first, we stopped by a book store.  Haven't been inside an actual book store in ages as many things are bought online via Amazon

 

 

There’s a Nintendo store there for those people who are Nintendo fans. There’s FAO Schwartz, the famous toy store from the old movie, BIG. 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Of course, there is the famous Rockefeller Center. During the winter months, they convert the square into an ice rink. Numerous movies have used this area as a backdrop.

 

There are shops/places to eat underneath the plaza area but we had other dining plans for the night so it was just a quick walk through before moving on.

 

There are numerous YouTube videos talking about the history of the Rockefeller Center and the meaning of the various buildings if anyone is really interested in that.  You can also rent audio guides to listen to on a self guided tour of the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Across from the Rockefeller Center is the famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Very different scenery to have a mega church amongst all the glitz of Fifth Avenue shopping.

 

Maybe the church isn’t as large compared to European church standards but St. Patrick’s certainly stands out within Manhattan’s skyline full of skyscrapers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

After that, we started to head south toward Empire State Building/Korea town going down the famous 5^th Avenue.  This street is super wide and has loads of tourists walking up and down the Avenue throughout the day. 

 

Here is where you will find many food carts/fake handbags along the avenue outside of most  merchanhises that most W-2 wage earners can’t afford with exception of few stores.

 

On the way, you go past the famous landmarks like the NYC library and Empire State Building (which is one block away from Korea Town).

 

 

 

 

Food carts on every block along 5th Avenue

 

 

New York Library (We would visit this later on the trip)

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Iconic Empire State Building (yes, we will visit this place on its own later as well)

 

 

Pizzeria on every block - or so it seems

 

 

Remember the "tiny" building we saw from the Summit when it was seen from the 93rd floor?  From ground level, it looks pretty tall...

 

[harryfat1]

We made it to Korea Town:

 

 

[harryfat1]

For dinner tonight, we went to BCD Tofu House located in Koreatown.  They have a few restaurants in CA as well as in NY.  Since this was one of my son’s restaurants, he wanted to check out the food/ambiance of this place versus the CA one.

 

The wait wasn’t too bad with maybe 20 people in front of us.  They only seat your party if everyone is there.