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]

A few more pictures of the area as the tour guide points out the key places to see

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The last stop on the walking tour is the Oculus.

 

 

This phoenix/Dove-looking structure was constructed post 9/11 to replace the transit station that was also destroyed during the 9/11 attack.

 

It’s huge as 95+% of the structure is underground. It’s gorgeous spanking white and clean. It’s a connecting point to many transit places like the train to New Jersey (PATH) as well as many NYC subway lines.

 

It’s easily the prettiest train/subway station in the US as far as I know in terms of architecture   If anyone knows of other places, please leave a comment.

 

If this was a museum area, I would gladly pay the admission price to see this building but the fact it's free since it's a train/subway hub with historical significance is beyond words.

 

At just the right angle, you can see the Freedom Tower through the opening in the spine if you look up:

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I will have more pictures of the Oculus later on but for now, with this last part being the end of the walking tour, it was time to pay/tip the nice tour guide and be on our own to grab lunch. 

 

During the summer months, they have a food truck event in front of the Oculus every Friday so there are a lot of food choices just outside the Oculus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

We decided on the Indonesian Curry Stall.  The boys got burgers and fries

 

 

 

The "glamour" of traveling that never makes it on YouTube as we ate our food truck dishes by the benches outside of the Oculus

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I just saw this NYC video on various scams in the city that came out a few days ago.  The Statue of Liberty cruise scam was one of the items featured here.

 

So for anyone thinking of spending time pre/post-cruise in NYC, watch this video to avoid being ripped off.

 

 

[harryfat1]

After lunch, we took a few more pictures of the surrounding area before standing in line for our 3 PM appointment slot for the 9/11 Memorial Museum.  The entire museum is located underground beneath the original Twin Tower area.

 

The famous "Jinga" building.  If you have played this game, you will understand the nickname of this building

 

 

Back of the Oculus

 

 

 

 

The metallic ball used to be outside of the original Twin Towers.  It was damaged during the attack and they left it unrepaired to show the people the impact from 9/11:

 

 

One World Trade Center.  Height of 1,776 feet to match the Independence Year (including the antenna).  We would be going up at 6 PM

 

[harryfat1]

For the 9/11 Memorial Museum, you can buy tickets online or in person on the day of the visit. Being 9.2 on the anal scale, I of course bought my tickets in advance in looking for discounts and selecting the exact time slot that fit our schedule.

 

 

 

 

It’s a very emotional display showing the chronological order/news footage of what happened that day.  Most of the exhibits are located within an area where no photography is allowed so I can only show what few pictures are permissible.

 

All the exhibits are underground.  Only the roof part of the building is above ground.

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

It was definitely a worthwhile experience to see the 9/11 Memorial Museum.  I wanted the boys to see the history of the attack as they were either too young/weren’t born yet.

 

It's not a "fun" visit like Summit One or Disney parks but sometimes life isn't all about having fun.  Sometimes we need to learn/see history firsthand.

 

On a personal note, I have only been to NYC for one day many years ago with my parents/sister/wife.  We were up at the observation tower of one of the original twin towers.  So it’s a different feeling coming back this time to see the large empty spaces of the 2 fountains knowing we were up there years ago and now being many levels below the original towers.

 

Each tile at the wall represent the victims from the attack.

 

 

 

Over 80% of the detal

[harryfat1]

Done with the 9/11 Museum.  Came back up above ground.  Saw the north pool empty as it’s undergoing maintenance.

 

Empty North Pool

 

 

Water in the South Pool

 

[harryfat1]

Then it was time for the last major event of the day – the One World Trade Center or Freedom Tower as some call it.  This was the replacement tower for the twin towers that were destroyed in the 9/11 attack.  It’s literally next to the old Twin Towers.

 

It’s the tallest structure in the western hemisphere (which is the Americas and Caribbean). They added a tower antenna to the top to make it 1,776 feet as a symbol of Freedom/Independence post the 9/11 attack.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As always, you can buy tickets in advance (cheaper if you can find 3^rd party sellers) or in person. All these observation towers have airport-style security where you take off belts/electronic devices/watches and have your backpack scanned.

 

At 6 PM, there wasn’t much of a line to get in. After security, you go in the elevator that has a video that showed how NYC was built up since the 1600s.  You literally see the buildings being erected in front of you in the time-lapse history clip while inside the elevator.

 

Just like the Disney rides, you get a “pre-show” movie before the actual show.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

Slightly different perspective than yesterday’s view from Summit One.  One World is more south in the Financial District and there are fewer tall (historical name) buildings around it compared to Midtown from yesterday and you can see the Statue of Liberty and more open waters down south.

 

These sceneries are nice on their own but after the big “wow” experience from Summit One yesterday, the One World Obversation is more of a “meh” experience. Maybe we should have come here first and then went to Summit One afterward.  It’s like going to a rock concert first and then going and listening to classical music the next day.  The experience is just not exciting in comparison.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hudson River and New Jersey on the other side of the river.  

 

 

Little Island - Man-made island. The money to set this up was made by the billionaire, Barry Dillard, founder of Fox Broadcasting. We would go there later on the trip.

 

 

This is "The Edge" at Hudson Yard.  

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Another view of King Kong's favorite Playhouse - the Empire State Building. Yup, you guessed it, we will be going there later in the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

You can see one of the 9/11 Memorial Pools from above as well as the 9/11 Museum building next to it

 

 

The Oculus 

 

 

The free Staten Island Ferry runs every 30 minutes between Manhattan and Staten Island. Take this if you don't plan to go on the actual island that houses the Statue of Liberty if you are short on time in NYC.

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I think the One World Observatory is a really nice place to visit.

 

Too bad it’s a letdown after the previous day of Summit One's high fun factor.

 

As on its own, One World is a specular area - how often do you go up to the 100^th floor of any building to see the sights?  You see the Hudson and East River as well as the Statue of Liberty.

 

Maybe going up at 6 PM with the glare of pending sunset didn’t help as too many of our pictures had the afternoon sun glare to them from the glass.

 

It just lacked the fun/excitement of the other observation deck but I still recommend people go as it's historical given its place in the 9/11 attack.

 

 

 

As we were leaving, the line grew longer with people coming in at 7:30 PM ahead of the sunset-watching crowd as some people timed their visits to see the sunset.

 

[harryfat1]

Done with One World.  Time for dinner. 

 

The One World exit drops you off right at the Ocucls as they connect as well as connecting to the mall down the street.  You grow in appreciation of how big/expansive the Oculus area is with food and shops around in addition to being a big transit hub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 21 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

After dinner, we took some pictures of the area and then went back to the Oculus to catch the subway back to the hotel.

 

Sunset over the Hudson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Time to go back to the Oculus via the underground connection

 

 

More steep escalators

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As promised more pictures of the Oculus.  It's all lid up at night time so you get a lot of colors:

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

From the Ocuclus, it was an easy ride back to the hotel as we headed back around 9 PM.

 

The NYC subway operates 24/7 so there’s no issue with missing the subway.  Many YouTubers will caution tourists from riding late at night, especially as solo travelers.  But we saw lots of people on the subway at every stop so we never had any fear for our safety. 

 

The biggest safety risk I encountered during the 9-day visit was the bicyclists that delivered food in Manhattan and the tourists renting bicycles and not knowing where they were going in the streets or at Central Park.

 

The food delivery cyclists are the most dangerous as they ignore red lights and go against the traffic on the one-way streets.  I was almost run over by one at night as the dude had no lights on for his bicycle and he was coming the wrong way on a one-way street. 

 

You never think about looking in the OTHER direction of a one-way street as your biggest concern in theory was a vehicle coming at you but these food delivery guys are super aggressive in trying to earn a buck that they just go nonstop around/against all regular traffic signals just to save a minute or two on the delivery time.

 

More thoughts about NYC traffic later on.

 

Total distance walked today per the phone app = 7.25 miles.

 

I hope everyone is enjoying this supplemental reporting.  We are about 1/3 of the way done at this juncture...

 

Leave a comment or two sometimes so I don't feel like I'm writing an online diary.  Thought for the night - if you write a trip report and nobody reads it, does it become a diary instead?

 

This concludes day 3 of the trip report.

[JamesEM]

Keep up the good work, enjoying the photos and narrative.

[NHProud]

I’m reading along . Your photos are absolutely great .  How much time did you devote to planning your 10 days in NYC ? It’s almost like being there and it’s free for us . 

[h20skibum]

Yeah Harry, I have been here reading along and enjoying your photos.  One of the first threads I go to when I wake up. 

[harryfat1]

13 hours ago, NHProud said:

I’m reading along . Your photos are absolutely great .  How much time did you devote to planning your 10 days in NYC ? It’s almost like being there and it’s free for us . 

Thanks for reading along. 

 

We didn’t decide on going to NYC until February of this year. 

 

When I started this trip report back in January to talk about the Odyssey cruise, we had nothing planned for the summer.  We knew we would be going on a cruise this December so we wanted a land based vacation to balance out the 2 December cruises.

 

We started by researching to go to Vancouver as we couldn’t see the city post 2022 Alaska cruise.  But after looking at the various YouTube videos, the things to see/do in Vancouver wasn’t that exciting for what we wanted.

 

NYC showed up an option during the research and it was one of those cities where you can spend a whole week there and felt like you haven’t seen everything.  So the earnest research for NYC started in late February/early March after I completed the earlier portion of this trip report.

 

Originally we were going to be there in August for 7 days but the plans changed to June for 10 days.

 

As for the pictures, all the credits go to the scenery in providing a great backdrop for the photos.  All these observation decks are spectacular. Anyone can just walk up and take pictures of the area.

 

The hard part is organizing the pictures and adding in enough background so people understand what they are looking at.  It's always scary to post on social media as if you make one mistake, people will be more than happy to point out you are giving out wrong info.