New York, New York!

20 days to go!

It is somewhat of a relief to have a rough plan for our time in New York. . It has been so overwhelming trying to decide what to see, where to go and what to do in New York. We have been blessed to have been given helpful and useful advice by friendly fellow DISboarders. However, the choices are endless and the time short. Reading so many fabulous Australian trip reports have also made it worse…the number of to-dos has increased! Ok so here are the definites…

We will arrive in the morning on Dec 21. We have a private van booked for pick up from LGA to take the 11 of us to the Novotel Times Square where we will meet up the rest of Family M. Nothing has been planned for the day so far. I am thinking that perhaps some shopping may be in order. Macy's, Century and B&H are on my radar.

We’ve purchased our Statue of Liberty Crown tickets for Dec 22. I have been madly taking the stairs at work to prepare myself for the 354 steps needed to reach the top. After our Ellis and Liberty Island expedition, a visit to Pastis for lunch might be nice followed by a stroll along The High Line Park. If the weather is wet, we can head straight for the Museum of Natural History.

We have also finally decided on which Broadway show to watch. The winner is …Wicked! And we’ve decided to buy our tickets early to avoid disappointment. So the deed is done! On the evening of Tuesday, December 22, Malcolm and I are booked in for a date at 8pm at the Gershwin theatre, which is conveniently only half a block away from our hotel. Sweet! It wasn’t an easy decision. It was tough making the call to not to take the children to a Broadway show. Fortunately, we have Family M and K to help in the babysitting department. To make it up to the children, we are all going to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular! Woohoo!

On Dec 23, we are going on a 6 hour guided “Royal of New York” in our own minibus of 14. Hopefully, this “highlights” tour will stop me from obsessing about what I don’t get to see. Hmmm… unlikely!

The Empire State Building has been slated in for Christmas Day visit. Brunch at Balthazar's will be followed by a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to help move the food along before dinner at Ninja. Japanese served in a ninja castle by ninjas. Could there possibly be a better way to end Christmas Day?

Elliot's Birthday will be a Central Park based day with dinner booked at the Landmarc @ Time Warner. The children's menu looks divine. Fillet mignon for the littlies...mmm! Elliot would love it!

This would have been enough for a normal person, but as my dear husband keeps reminding me, I’m not normal! So I’ve pinned all our planned activities, colour coded them for different days, made sure links to websites are attached and included recommended restaurants in the area. I’ve also included alternate activities just in case we change our minds or we have time to do more!

Rather than me posting more drivel, I will just include the link. Please feel free to comment and make suggestions/recommendations. I am very open to everyone’s thoughts!


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