CRUISE LIKE A DAVIS : The Manhattan Project- Day 3

New York City- Day 3

An Empire State of Mind

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Morning

We enjoyed an extra hour of sleep and made our way to breakfast around 9AM. Once again, the hotel breakfast was hot, fresh and not at all crowded. We were very pleased with this hotel's breakfast options daily. We then went to Fulton Street Station and made our way to the Empire State Building for our 10:15AM observation deck appointment time. This was part of our C3 City Pass and allowed us to pre-book an arrival time for the 86th floor observation deck.

We enjoyed riding the subway during LESS crowded hours like 9:30AM!

The Empire State Building was just as grand and spectacular as I remember and Chris and the kids were blown away at it's magnitude. We went through the many security lines and got on the elevator to the 86th floor observation deck. TIP- Be sure to look up during the elevator ride... That part is SO COOL!

DON'T FORGET TO LOOK UP!

Once at the top, we were greet with hospitality workers in full old style uniforms who showed us the inside and outside observation decks. We roamed the inside reading all of the information about the ESB and then walked the outside deck 2-3 times. The Empire State Building truly is one of my favorite skyscrapers of all time and every time I go up to the top, it takes my breath away! The kids LOVED it and it was hard to pull us all away but after 2 hours at the top, we ventured back down to ground level Manhattan. But our first stop once back on the street level was the Starbucks Reserve at the base of the Empire State Building. Natalie especially loved this experience but her $12 latte was "nothing special" as she says.

The lower level of the Empire State Building lobby

This was right before the security section of the lobby!

LOVE THIS!

Opening Day for the ESB was May 1, 1930 (just 48 short years before Chris's OPENING DAY)! We thought this was SO COOL!

Our 1st view from the top... Looking west towards New Jersey and THE EDGE!

Looking south towards the One World Trade Center and lower Manhattan!
I legitimately miss the Twin Towers! That is how I remember NYC... in 2000 on my last trip!

Inside the 86 Observation Deck area.

Hello Chrysler Building! I LOVE this architecture of this building!

Be still my heart!

We loved this view!

Family Picture time!

Luke LOVED these binoculars all over the upper decks!

You know me... I had to be silly!

The botanical garden area of the SE corner of the observation deck!

17 years married... and I still love you Chris Davis!

That was a HUGE success!

Hello Starbucks Reserve... And $12 coffee!

Afternoon

After our full morning of Manhattan views, we rode the subway to the Hudson River for our CircleLine Cruise Tour of Manhattan Island. I first took this tour in 1996 during my first family visit to NYC and I have LOVED it ever since. In fact, the last time I was in NYC in the 90s, I promised this would something I "take my kids on" and I wanted to ensure they were able to experience this AWESOME attraction while we were in NYC. We grabbed some lunch at a random "Greek House" since we were running late and it turned out to be wonderful. Chris got a gyro and the kids and I had more massive NY pizza slices.

We got in line at 1PM for our 1:30PM tour time and I sincerely thought we were not going to have a seat on the tour, there were so many people in line. But low and behold, we boarded the boat and got prime time seats on the lower level on the inside of the boat. I was a little upset at first since we could not get a seat on the upper deck but this was a THREE HOUR TOUR and the space we had on the inside and the window views we had, turned out to be perfect for Luke and Chris especially.

Our seats on the lower deck inside the boat were PERFECT!

The tour was a FULL CIRCLE of Manhattan Island and highlighted pretty much EVERYTHING in Manhattan. It was one of our 3 attractions on our C3 City Pass and we paid $5/pp to upgrade to the "Deluxe Full Manhattan Island Tour". In hindsight, we could have stayed with the 90 minute "Highlights of Manhattan" but we all thoroughly enjoyed this tour. We were able to see Midtown, downtown, the Statue of Liberty, Harlem, Queens and even Yankee Stadium from the boat! I highly recommend this tour when visiting New York City.

This boy looks GROWN in this picture!
His first glance at Lady Liberty and he LOVED IT!

We loved this part of the tour!

A view looking back towards Manhattan and the One World Trade Center!

Hello Lady Liberty... again!

I love this one!

The Brooklyn Bridge... An American ICON!

There she is... In all her majesty!
I. LOVE. YANKEE. STADIUM!

After our Circle Line Tour, we took the subway back towards lower Manhattan to check out Washington Square. I was not familiar with this area of Manhattan but it is featured in Friends so I wanted to check it out. BOY... We were a FISH OUT OF WATER! This place was NOTHING like I imagined it and of all of the places we visited in our 7 days in NYC, we felt the most unsafe here. There were people smoking pot and weed, drugs everywhere and people half naked just dancing around or falling off skateboards. Nothing like what is pictured on Friends.

This was a PICTURE perfect moment... But it was insane behind the camera!

We were TRULY a fish out of water!

After that "life experience" walking through Washington Square, we walked to New York University to check off our college for Natalie and then walked to the Friends Apartment on Bedford Street. This was one of the coolest things about the ENTIRE trip and while it literally was just a picture it was still a highlight of my week. I HIGHLY recommend you meandering to this location when in NYC.

This was worth the walk to Bedford Street and we all (even Luke) LOVED IT!

Evening

We then rode the BUS to 12th Street for our dinner at John's of 12th Street. This is a Diner's Drive-ins and Dives restaurant in lower Manhattan that featured homemade Italian food and pasta. We made a 6:30PM reservation and were able to get right in when we arrived at 6:20PM. The restaurant was not busy but was very small so I am glad we made a reservation. We all enjoyed a wonderful Italian meal... with a little entertainment. Not from the waiters, but from LUKE! While chowing down on his pasta, he accidentally put his cloth napkin in the live candle and caught the entire napkin and tablecloth on fire. The waiters had to come and throw a pitcher of water on it. It made for a very comical end to our dinner. Luckily, nobody was hurt and the pasta did not get any of the water so we were able to finish eating but we sure did make some memories at John's of 12th Street.

You have not experienced NYC unless you've traveled by BUS!
Thank God we went while not BUSY!

Our table at John's of 12th Street
(notice the cloth tablecloth)!

John's of 12th Street Menu

We LOVED this place!

After dinner, we made our way back towards the Empire State Building. With Chris being recently diagnosed as a diabetic, we knew that heavy carbs were not ideal for dinner but per his doctor's orders, a walk after dinner will help lower his blood sugar. We took this advice and walked the 15+ NYC blocks (those are not "Regular" city blocks but 2x the size) back to the Empire State Building from John's of 12th Street. We made a pit-stop about 2/3 of the way there at the Harry Potter Store. This store was UNBELIEVEABLE but we knew we would have time to fully enjoy it so we kept walking towards the ESB.

This was after about 3 blocks! They were having fun!

I love this boy and his sense of humor!

She was LOVING this Harry Potter Store!

Love this!

I will be honest... I was loving this too!

Even if you are just a "minor fan"... Be sure to go to this store! IT IS EPIC!

Once back at the Empire State Building shortly after 9PM, we showed our C3 Pass to the ticket booth monitor and it all went south from there. As mentioned on the City Pass website, a City Pass allows ticket holders to visit the Empire State Building during day AND NIGHT hours on the SAME DAY. No ticket is needed for the night visit, just show your City Pass. However, this was not the case at the ESB. They refused to allow us to go up to the observation deck since we had already used our C3 Pass for the ESB that morning. I kindly showed them the City Pass website that showed we were allowed TWO visits in one day but the Empire State Building workers would not allow it. We called a supervisor, who was ANYTHING but nice to us and basically told us to "shove off". (Of course, he did not say that, he chose other words). After 30 minutes of trying to prove our point of what we paid for on the City Pass website, we chose to be the bigger person and walk away. I have filed a complaint with City Pass about this misprint and as of May 13th, the clause that said TWO VISITS in ONE DAY is now not on the City Pass website.

The weather was PERFECT and gave us EPIC shots as the sun set!

Picture perfect!

I was HIGHLY disappointed as in all of my many visits to New York City, I had not been to the Empire State Building at night. The only time I had seen NYC from above at night was in 2000 when we missed our observation deck time at the World Trade Center and Jorge took us privately to the Top of the World Trade Center. I guess I was secretly hoping something similar would happen but we left in tears.

I wanted to make up for this "miss" so we walked back towards Time Square to see it all lit up at night. It was SO COOL to see Time Square at night and while Luke did not like the large crowds, we all enjoyed walking the lit-up streets.

Time Square NEVER disappoints!

Another bucket list item CHECKED OFF the list!

We ended the night at the M&M Store in Time Square. I spent WAY TOO MUCH MONEY on 4 bags of special M&Ms but it was a memory. Before we went back to the hotel, I insisted on getting a hot and ready donut at Krispy Kreme and it did not disappoint.

$62 later...

This reminds me of my teenage years getting HOT donuts while on vacation!

We rode the subway back to Fulton Street Station and walked back to our hotel with a pit-stop at the local CVS to get some late night snacks for the hotel room. It was a VERY BUSY day but we loved every minute.