Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[JamesEM]

I enjoyed your reports and photos, very informative. I had visited NYC many years ago on business, stayed at a hotel at 48th & 8 and worked at 26 Federal Plaza, my sight seeing consisted of visiting bars, restaurants, and some tourist traps.  Thanks again for taking us along on your vacation.   

[Badatz2]

As a Senior native New Yorker I have been there done that many times, but I still enjoyed your report and have followed it from start to finish.  

I learned a few new things and even commented on some of your remarks.

 

Be well and I hope to follow along on future trips.

[KmomChicago]

On 8/6/2024 at 8:44 PM, harryfat1 said:

Would I upset the female readers if I sound sexist in saying the people sitting are mostly ladies as the men are all looking at the planes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure it’s sexism if it’s actually the verified fact. Maybe. But who against? The sitters or the plane viewers? Would you have an opposite effect at the Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky?  
 

That Intrepid museum is great, one of my favorite attractions in NYC. Great aircraft and being in the ship itself is very cool. 

 

I am female and I have always liked military, air and space, and ship museums. I was a small child during the moon landings and had an astronaut cake at my 4th birthday party! I have visited 3 of the 4 Space Shuttles, at Kennedy Space Center, Los Angeles, and the one on the Intrepid.

 

Oddly I have been to DC a couple times since they put the shuttle there but it’s so inconveniently located I never make it out there. 

 

BTW I liked the quilts in Paducah too. I like museums in general. 

[KmomChicago]

Nice job @harryfat1. New York is a hard place to do cheaply and I am sure the trip cost a small fortune but thanks for showing again how careful decisions can get you everything you really want without going completely overboard on the spending. 
 

We also saved on our visits to NYC, by staying over in Jersey City (great, convenient to and from Manhattan daily) or Secaucus (doable but NOT convenient for getting to Manhattan) on Hyatt points, by never staying in the area more than 4 days/3 nights (when we run out of hotel points), by eating some cheapish meals - and enjoying some free attractions like Central Park and just wandering around cool neighborhoods. 
 

EXCELLENT tips about transportation in from JFK! Great deal and efficiency. Good info also about timing subway usage to avoid rush times. As you mention Times Square on New Year’s Eve must be a nightmare unless you’re walking distance to your hotel. 
 

We visited many of the same places and you made me feel like I have been to several new ones so it was fun to re-experience the city with some fresh additions, much appreciated. 
 

Looking forward to your triumphant return to Carnival and next year’s European journey.

[Jaynay]

Still with you until the end!  Great trip report, thank you for taking all this time to put this together for the Cruise Critic readers here!

[MJSailors]

@harryfat1 I have enjoyed reading your posts and looking at your photos of NYC.

You certainly covered a lot of ground during your visit. Your planning for the trip certainly paid off.

As a NYC native-actually from Forest Hills, Queens- I appreciated the photos that showed the City in a good way.

I now live on Eastern LI, but my husband and I have made many frequent trips to the City over the years.

We stopped going in because of Covid and then reports that the City was no longer in the state that we previously knew.

My question for you is, did you encounter homeless living in the streets and did you ever feel unsafe in any area when you traveled about at different hours of the day and night?

I am asking this because we would like to return to the City , but we are cautious based on reports both from the media and friends who have had to make trips into the City recently.

Thank you for your very interesting review and an answer to my question.

Wishing you and your family good days!

MJ

[DelMom18a]

Thanks Harry for the extended report! I grew up outside NYC and never saw most of the things you mentioned and if I ever get back there, I'll refer to your trip report for details on how to get around and what to see.

 

I read this review of the TWA hotel and thought you might find it interesting since you mentioned it yesterday.

 

  https://onemileatatime.com/twa-hotel-jfk-review/

[mikayla73]

Thank you for your entertaining reviews! I'm not sure I'll ever make it to NYC, so I enjoy reading about your travels there. 

 

Looking forward to hearing about your Jubilee trip also!

Edited August 13 by mikayla73

[Coralc]

17 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

We saw this big procession line of police-related escorts and I thought maybe a VIP was there but didn't see any limos 

 

 

There's always some siren happening in Manhattan

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would "guess" that they are probably transporting foot patrol police officers down to the waterfront for the fireworks activities. NYPD seems to have a huge police force compared, to say, San Francisco.  

 

Very interesting and thorough report, Harry. Thanks! We have never been to NY or to Washington DC. But they are both places we would like to visit. Just, not on a holiday. 

[irisbax3]

Thanks so very much. Really enjoyed your report. I am now an avid Harry Follower😆

[harryfat1]

22 hours ago, rwest898 said:

I really enjoyed your review.  Thank you for taking us along. I grew up in Oakland so I know flying into San Francisco was a little frightening for me. 

Ahhh, a fellow Bay Area person (or at least ex-Bay Area).  You must be reading the thread in real time as you posted within 10 minutes after I uploaded my last set of pictures.

 

Thanks for following along.

 

Yeah, for those not familiar with SFO geography, planes approach SFO from the southeast and you fly over the water until the edge of the airport runway.  So when you look outside the plane window, all you see is water until right after you touch down.

 

 

Here’s a picture from when we were in the area for lunch a few years ago.  You will see the plane is landing soon but it’s still over water but not that high off the ground.  The red arrow is where the edge of the runway is…

 

[harryfat1]

22 hours ago, NHProud said:

As they say in Paris , merci beaucoup and au revoir . 

As they say in Chinese - 谢谢

[harryfat1]

20 hours ago, kimlet said:

I thought it was great, I learned lots for my upcoming trip in September

I'm glad it’s useful.  Enjoy your trip in September. 

 

Make reservations early if you want to see some of the popular sights.  Hopefully, most of the school crowd tourists will be gone by next month

[harryfat1]

20 hours ago, JamesEM said:

I enjoyed your reports and photos, very informative. I had visited NYC many years ago on business, stayed at a hotel at 48th & 8 and worked at 26 Federal Plaza, my sight seeing consisted of visiting bars, restaurants, and some tourist traps.  Thanks again for taking us along on your vacation.   

Hi Jim,

 

Thanks for reading along as always.  Hope the storm Debby didn’t cause any damage to your area this past week.

 

There is no shortage of things to do in NYC. Glad to know you went to the tourist traps as well…

[KmomChicago]

2 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

I'm glad it’s useful.  Enjoy your trip in September. 

 

Make reservations early if you want to see some of the popular sights.  Hopefully, most of the school crowd tourists will be gone by next month

Especially Statue of Liberty.

[harryfat1]

17 hours ago, Badatz2 said:

As a Senior native New Yorker I have been there done that many times, but I still enjoyed your report and have followed it from start to finish.  

I learned a few new things and even commented on some of your remarks.

 

Be well and I hope to follow along on future trips.

Thanks for following along and providing comments. Much appreciated.

 

Tourists and locals have different perspectives on a city so I’m glad I was able to offer a different view of the city to you and other locals.

 

I will post my Carnival cruise report on the Carnival boards but I will come back here in January to provide a link so if you subscribe to this thread, you will get a notification email in January to access the link.

 

I'm willing to post my European trip report here next year if people are still interested in reading about our travel stories.  It'll be a bit odd to be dragging this old Odyssey report out into next year but we will see where else I can post here in CC.

[harryfat1]

15 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Nice job @harryfat1. New York is a hard place to do cheaply and I am sure the trip cost a small fortune but thanks for showing again how careful decisions can get you everything you really want without going completely overboard on the spending. 
 

We also saved on our visits to NYC, by staying over in Jersey City (great, convenient to and from Manhattan daily) or Secaucus (doable but NOT convenient for getting to Manhattan) on Hyatt points, by never staying in the area more than 4 days/3 nights (when we run out of hotel points), by eating some cheapish meals - and enjoying some free attractions like Central Park and just wandering around cool neighborhoods. 
 

EXCELLENT tips about transportation in from JFK! Great deal and efficiency. Good info also about timing subway usage to avoid rush times. As you mention Times Square on New Year’s Eve must be a nightmare unless you’re walking distance to your hotel. 
 

We visited many of the same places and you made me feel like I have been to several new ones so it was fun to re-experience the city with some fresh additions, much appreciated. 
 

Looking forward to your triumphant return to Carnival and next year’s European journey.

Thanks for the kind words and for reading this and my other posts.  Also, thanks for your shout-out in your trip reports for other cruisers to check out my reports.

 

As you said, the cost of hotels in NYC is not cheap, but you can stay further out away from Manhattan, or even over at the New Jersey side.  I think many people did that as the lines for the Statue of Liberty to go back to NJ is twice as long as going back to Manhattan. 

 

Assuming locals are not going to the Statue regularly, that tells me a lot of tourists are over on the other side.  Especially since United Airlines flies into Newark regularly, many people are staying out there and taking the train over to Manhattan.

 

NYC can have very high-end food or also very basic affordable food as well so if someone is on a tight budget, they can opt for decent priced food.

 

Will be interesting to go back to Carnival after 10 years. I’m still trying to figure out if there’s a way for me to share my upcoming European vacation photos here on CC if people haven't gotten tired of my trip reports.

[kimlet]

12 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

I'm glad it’s useful.  Enjoy your trip in September. 

 

Make reservations early if you want to see some of the popular sights.  Hopefully, most of the school crowd tourists will be gone by next month

Thank you, I got tickets for the two places we wanted to see. Were hoping for less crowds but we will see. I have never been here before so not sure what to look forward too

[harryfat1]

10 hours ago, Jaynay said:

Still with you until the end!  Great trip report, thank you for taking all this time to put this together for the Cruise Critic readers here!

Thanks for staying until the end. It’s always fun to do one of these trip reports. 

 

When I write the reports, I get to go back and organize my photos as well as pass along whatever experiences from my trip to future travelers as a “pay it forward” as I will be relying on others' reports for my future endeavors as well.

 

Besides, whenever I write these reports, it's as if I am taking the same vacation again as I relive the memories.  Every Cheapo person's dream - two vacations for the price of one and the second one you don't have to sit in cramped airline seats or walk miles in the heat...

[harryfat1]

10 hours ago, MJSailors said:

@harryfat1 I have enjoyed reading your posts and looking at your photos of NYC.

You certainly covered a lot of ground during your visit. Your planning for the trip certainly paid off.

As a NYC native-actually from Forest Hills, Queens- I appreciated the photos that showed the City in a good way.

I now live on Eastern LI, but my husband and I have made many frequent trips to the City over the years.

We stopped going in because of Covid and then reports that the City was no longer in the state that we previously knew.

My question for you is, did you encounter homeless living in the streets and did you ever feel unsafe in any area when you traveled about at different hours of the day and night?

I am asking this because we would like to return to the City , but we are cautious based on reports both from the media and friends who have had to make trips into the City recently.

Thank you for your very interesting review and an answer to my question.

Wishing you and your family good days!

MJ

Thanks for the kind words.

 

I am cheap so I try to maximize my vacation time by seeing as much of the area as possible. There will come a time when I won’t be able to walk 9 miles a day every day on my vacations. 

 

Until then, we will try to do as many of the land-based vacations as possible – like going to London and Paris. 

 

NYC has many iconic sceneries so it’s easy to just walk up to a place and I just need to press the white button on the phone and have a series of photos to share.

 

We never felt unsafe over in Midtown or out in Brooklyn or over Queens. Maybe we were just in the tourist areas but you saw from my photos there were always lots of fellow tourists around us.

 

When we said we were visiting NYC, some people were trying to caution us to watch out for robbery as that’s what’s depicted in the movies.  The only “crime” I encountered was the scamming of people to buy ferry tickets or fake monks in Times Square.

 

We never felt threatened or unsafe as you have seen photos of us returning to our hotel rooms way after 10 PM.

 

That's not to say there are zero crimes in the area. Just never felt threatened with gangs or shady characters walking around the hotel.

 

I felt more unsafe in downtown San Francisco than in NYC. We saw very few homeless in Manhattan.  A lot more homeless in San Francisco by comparison.

 

When you say “return to the city”, do you mean to live there or to visit?  As I said, my perspective is from a tourist.  It’s not the same as living there permanently as many Youtubers have commented that Manhattan is too expensive to live and they wanted to move out.

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, DelMom18a said:

Thanks Harry for the extended report! I grew up outside NYC and never saw most of the things you mentioned and if I ever get back there, I'll refer to your trip report for details on how to get around and what to see.

 

I read this review of the TWA hotel and thought you might find it interesting since you mentioned it yesterday.

 

  https://onemileatatime.com/twa-hotel-jfk-review/

Thank you for following along and for all your “likes”.

 

Thanks for the article on TWA Hotel.  Yeah, I saw a YouTube video on this place and it looked awesome.  Anyone can just go to the lobby and relax if they have a long layover. No cost. Much better than the terminal seats at the gates.

 

Depending on our flights to/from Europe next summer, if we fly on JetBlue Airlines again, we will have connections in JFK as that's their home hub. So we might have time next year to visit this impressive-looking place.

 

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, mikayla73 said:

Thank you for your entertaining reviews! I'm not sure I'll ever make it to NYC, so I enjoy reading about your travels there. 

 

Looking forward to hearing about your Jubilee trip also!

Thank you for reading.

 

Yeah, NYC may not be a top destination for many people as some prefer Hawaii/Florida/LA/Caribbean more. 

 

But as you saw, numerous cruise ships were sailing out of the NY/NJ area so if you ever end up being on one of those sailings, you can add a day or two of NYC for a quick visit in addition to your cruise.

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, Coralc said:

 

I would "guess" that they are probably transporting foot patrol police officers down to the waterfront for the fireworks activities. NYPD seems to have a huge police force compared, to say, San Francisco.  

 

Very interesting and thorough report, Harry. Thanks! We have never been to NY or to Washington DC. But they are both places we would like to visit. Just, not on a holiday. 

Hi Patti,

 

As always, thanks for reading along.  Hard to believe it’s almost 10 years since we first met in my first Cheapo Dad’s report on the Allure.  I read that she will be finally getting the upgrade that was postponed due to Covid.

 

Yeah,  I agree with your assessment that this is a personnel transfer ahead of the July 4 deployment of police.  I just heard the sirens and police car escort/stoppage of traffic so I thought it was a VIP coming through so I started recording but it was just big buses going past but they were certainly loud.

 

NYC is just a loud place in general.  As my son said, if you buy a car in NYC, the first thing to check for is if the car horn works as you will be using it to honk at somebody.  I think we heard car horns/angry drivers during every day of our visit as they are upset at the traffic jam.  Throw in the sirens, you have a symphony of noise.

 

Yes, there are police everywhere and bag scans at all the major attractions.  NYC is the most security-conscious city in the US after 9/11.  There is a lot of police presence as a result of the 9/11 attack. Even though that’s meant to deter terrorism, I have to think having enough presence around will deter some basic crime.  Not to say there won’t be any.

 

Yeah, don’t visit NYC in the summer.  The humidity/heat is not fun for the West Coast folks like us.  We get hotter out in the west at over 100 degrees than the East Coast most often but the dry heat is different than the humidity heat.

 

If you ever do a cruise out of NY/NJ, that would be a perfect time to visit NYC as you can just add a couple of days pre/post cruise to see the highlights of the area.  It's very different compared to downtown SF/LA/Seattle.

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, irisbax3 said:

Thanks so very much. Really enjoyed your report. I am now an avid Harry Follower😆

Thank you for reading.  As they say on YouTube, like and subscribe…🤪

[harryfat1]

As a bonus for the folks who are still reading this, we went hiking in the San Francisco area a couple of days ago and got some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge from afar. So I thought I would just share those here.

 

Kinda like at the end of the movie where you have the credits scroll along.  Most people walk out of the theater right away but if you ever watch the Marvel Comic movies, you know you always stay until the very bitter end as there will be extras...

 

The area is at the outer corner of San Francisco overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Golden Gate Bridge.  It’s called “Lands End” as it’s as far north as you can get on the stretch of land coming all the way up from Southern CA 400 miles down. 

 

The land mass stops here as it wraps up as part of the bay area before it continues up north at the other end of the Golden Gate Bridge.