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]

11 hours ago, h20skibum said:

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

Mark,

 

Thanks for reading.

 

How is your WDW vacation planning coming along?  When are you going?

[harryfat1]

Day 4, June 29 – Brooklyn Bridge/Time Square

 

Typical hotel breakfast. 

 

Make your own fresh waffles from the machines to the right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

We left the hotel earlier as today’s walking tour starts at 9:30 and we are walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

We took the subway to the NYC city hall to meet up with the tour guide.  The dude is from Brooklyn.  Strong sense of Brooklyn versus other boroughs.  Very typical of what you think a New Yorker would be.

 

Red arrows are the starting points of the hotel and the walking tour. Purple arrow are places we will be seeing

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The starting point of the tour is the NY City Hall area

 

 

Checking in with the tour guide

 

 

 

 

NYC mayor's office

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After meeting up, we started exactly at 9:30.  The dude doesn’t mess around to wait for others to join. He’s leaving with or without you…

 

 

 

 

Actual working part of NY City Hall

 

 

You can join a tour that takes you across the bridge on the bike if you prefer that type of tour instead.

 

 

Some YouTuber suggests you take the subway to the Brooklyn side and walk toward the Manhattan side as supposedly you have better scenery of the skyscrapers as you walk toward it inside of having to turn back 180 degrees constantly to take pictures of Manhattan.  You decide what’s more important.

 

Lots of food/refreshment carts at the beginning/end of the bridge walk as the vendors know people will want refreshments/food before/after the walk.

 

 

[harryfat1]

I believe in the past, both the bicyclists and pedestrians shared the same path and it was chaos with pedestrians trying to take pictures and getting in the way of the fast cyclists riding across. Now the bicyclists have their separate lanes down beneath, the walkway is much safer now to walk on.

 

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge is a very thing to do as you can see there are people everywhere along the walkway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

You can see Governor's Island in the middle as well as Cunard's Queen Mary 2 out in the distance as she is ready for another Transatlantic voyage to UK

 

 

 

Tour Guide explaining the history of the Bridge.

 

 

 

Remember the locks from Curaaco earlier in this report?  See more of them here as well.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Manhattan Skyline.  One World building in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the right-hand side, there's a rooftop area called Time Out Market.  That's where we would be having lunch later in the day.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

DUMBO – no, not the Disney ride Dumbo.  DUMBO (all caps) for New Yorker means Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass.  It’s a region at the bottom of the bridge.

 

 

The tour guide said 20 years ago, nobody was here and then after some people posted few DUMBO pictures, EVERYONE and their cousin wants to come here to take a picture for their social media pages.

 

There were at least 200 people there taking pictures of the DUMBO region

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

You see the EMpre State Building in the background as the guide took us to see some of the sights of Brooklyn.

 

It was good to see regular New Yorkers walking around and shopping at the farmers market and not just tourists in Manhattan on 5^th Avenue.

 

 

 

Local flex market under the bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

[h20skibum]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

Mark,

 

Thanks for reading.

 

How is your WDW vacation planning coming along?  When are you going?

They are changing how rides are reserved on the 25th, so we will be able to book a few days after that.  I have my list of rides, and the parks we plan to visit on various days, so I hope things are all finalized the last week of this month.  
 

leaving in 11 days, but we have a short cruise on Utopia before our week at Disney.  
 

I am going to try to do a live for the cruise and Disney.  May be a challenge with all the grandkids with us.  

[irisbax3]

19 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

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

 

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?

 

 

Following along and enjoying every minute of your trip report.

[kimlet]

I am going to NYC in September for a few days, seeing stuff has been very helpful so far.

[dani negreanu]

On 7/21/2024 at 5:12 AM, harryfat1 said:

Leave a comment or two sometimes so I don't feel like I'm writing an online diary. 

 

Thank you, Harry. Following with interest whenever I have time [and mood...].

 

I see that there are many new things to visit in NY since our last time there, Sept. 2017.

[harryfat1]

On 7/21/2024 at 1:41 PM, h20skibum said:

They are changing how rides are reserved on the 25th, so we will be able to book a few days after that.  I have my list of rides, and the parks we plan to visit on various days, so I hope things are all finalized the last week of this month.  
 

leaving in 11 days, but we have a short cruise on Utopia before our week at Disney.  
 

I am going to try to do a live for the cruise and Disney.  May be a challenge with all the grandkids with us.  

Disney planning is a job on its own.  The rules are ever-changing.  I’m sure they will change the rules 12 months from now.

 

I admire your family’s tolerance for the heat/humidity in Florida in August.  I would have melted as soon as we stepped off the plane in Orlando, forget about walking/standing in line during the day.

 

You certainly will be busy the next few weeks with all these vacation plans.  Glad your vacation wasn’t last weekend or else you could be stuck at the airport for hours/days as they are still dealing with flight delays as of yesterday.

 

I can never do a live report here on CC.  Too dumb to walk and chew gum at the same time. Maybe we need to update this old phrase to something more modern as very few people chew gum nowadays – Too dumb to walk and text on the phone at the same time is probably more appropriate for the modern-day world as you probably need to text as you walk to do a live report.

 

I will never get the special message from Laura S. of CC thanking me for doing a live report…

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, kimlet said:

I am going to NYC in September for a few days, seeing stuff has been very helpful so far.

 

On 7/21/2024 at 3:09 PM, irisbax3 said:

Following along and enjoying every minute of your trip report.

 

Thanks for reading along.  I know some readers are just my old friends on CC who have been reading my various reports throughout the years but it’s also important that I help future vacationers on their research on the new area.  Hopefully, my walk-through will be useful for folks thinking of going to NYC later this year.

 

If anyone has any questions about what we have done/seen during our trip, don’t hesitate to jump in and ask questions.  

 

The trip report is more informative if people ask questions as you may be asking questions that I haven't thought of in my trip report and they might be helpful to others.

Edited July 23 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

Hi Dani,

 

Thanks for reading along.  Much appreciated.

 

NYC isn’t what it was when I was younger. Back then, there were more worries of being robbed at gunpoint or being stabbed.  They have since cleaned up the city (at least the tourist areas) to make people feel safer.

 

There are still scammers out on the street trying to cheat you out of your hard-earned money but we never felt unsafe during our visits to the major tourist sites.

[harryfat1]

Onward with the NYC trip report:

 

So we were at the Brooklyn side of NYC and then we got to probably the most scenic part of the walking tour where you can see the Manhattan skyline from the Promenade:

 

 

 

 

My wife said the area reminds her of the facade at the New York, New York hotel in Vegas.  Except this is much larger and real

 

 

 

Lots of New Yorkers enjoying their Saturday

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Got a rare glimpse of QM 2 in port today as it’s docked at the Brooklyn Cruise Port ready to take passengers to England for a Transatlantic cruise. 

 

I can never do a TA cruise.  Too many sea days would bore me to tears, not to mention potential seasickness,  but I know that runs contrary to the popular opinion here on CC where many cruisers can't have too many sea days.  

 

[harryfat1]

My mind works in weird ways – but seeing these 2 young ladies walking across the street, the first thing I can think of is the Cover Album for the Beatles – Abbey Road.

 

 

For the younger crowd, no need to Google Abbey Road Album Cover, here it is:

 

 

As such, let’s throw in a song from the album:

 

 

[harryfat1]

A couple more pictures and then we are all done with the tour.  Time to pay/tip the nice man and we are on our own to roam around.

 

 

 

The tour guide and many others online fols suggest lunch at Juliana’s but one look at the super long line from across the street, as they say in NY - Forget about it or as real New Yorkers say it "Fuhgeddaboudit" as that's a one plus hour wait at the minimum on a Saturday at 12:30 PM.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Instead, we went to the Food Hall at Time-Out Market by the waterfront.

 

The place was super crowded as expected at lunchtime on a Saturday.

 

Found a table at the rooftop area.  The area being high tech, you scan the phone to get the menu of various eateries.  Order on the phone and ID it with the table number and they will deliver the food to you…Beats standing in line to order and then trying to find a table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Do note the area is next to the waterfront, many people use the restroom at the food court so long lines can develop.  Yeah, this is the line to use the ladies room...

 

 

After lunch, it was time to walk around the waterfront to check out the scenery

 

This area is popular with the locals as well as tourists we saw some professional photo shoots happening as everyone wants the bridge/Manhattan background