The fairly regular trip to Delaware, with a side of New York City! Trip Home

Saturday 22nd March

Our alarm went off at 0445, we had a very generic email from BA which said your flight might be delayed. So, we thought we’d better get ready and head to the airport.

We got our taxi at about 0530 after checking out of the hotel, it turns out taxi rides are faster at that time of the day but no less exciting!

We arrived at JFK at just after 0600 and walked to BA check in. We waited 20 mins to be checked in as there was no one on the WTP desk and the agents constantly called people from the WT line.

We were checked in quickly when we got to the front of our slow-moving line.

We headed to the TSA pre check line which was busy but we didn’t have to remove shoes etc so that was worth a slight wait.

We then looked for somewhere to eat breakfast, there was a lot of work ongoing in the terminal and there were limited options but we managed to secure some omelettes 

Afterward we waited at the gate until boarding started, the flight was showing as on time and we indeed started boarding as normal. They did announce that the flight was very full and asked for volunteers to check in hand luggage.

We boarded and secured our bags, we were sadly in the middle of 4 seats so no aisle access 

We waited while the rest of the flight boarded and it was indeed FULL. We were offered drinks but declined.

We took off pretty much on time and were anticipating an on-time arrival.

Breakfast was served when we got on our way, I had French toast and Rob ended up with the economy full English which was a mistake. It was very poor.

They had given out all of the WTP Full English options. Rob should have asked for the frittata (which is essentially an omelette) but didn’t think through what he was doing. The French toast was not bad as a 2nd breakfast.

I napped for a little while and then I am sure I watched a movie but I forgot to note what it was! I know it wasn’t Barbie though, maybe The Greatest Showman?

I did watch some episodes of Young Sheldon though.

Rob got us some biscuits and dairy milk bars when he went to the toilet. I escaped my seat whenever one of our aisle seat people moved because I am always paranoid about needing to use the toilet. 

About 1 hour before we were due to land they announced we’d be taken to a remote stand and bussed to the terminal. The good news was that we were expected to land early…!

We were on the ground at about 1940 (due at 2000) and boarded our buses and we arrived at the main terminal to a short line for passport control.

We were through the e-gates quite quickly and as we went down the escalator to baggage claim we could see our bags!

This literally never happens and last time we were at Heathrow it took us about an hour! We picked up our bags and headed out.

We boarded our pod to the car park at the Thistle and were on our way at about 2030.

We stopped at Fleet to get dinner (Burger King) and arrived home just before 2300, for regular readers there were no charging dramas!

The fairly regular trip to Delaware, with a side of New York City! Day 3 - NYC

Friday 21st March

Today the alarm went off at 0440 as we had to get ready and head to Peloton Studios for our 30 min trance ride at 0630.

We got ready and got a cab from outside (to avoid the 30 min walk). It cost us about $21 inc tip and we arrived at the studio at just after 0530.

You have to check in at least 30 mins before class or they give your spot away (as seen yesterday when Rob got into his strength class).

We got ready (I had worn most of my gear but had to change into my shorts) and waited for the line to form.

We got bikes at the front which meant we were likely visible for parts of the ride.

It was essentially a 30 min climb which was challenging at such an early time of the day. I got a shout out for my 1650th ride and there was another person in the class from Dorset which was amazing!

The class was good fun and we queued up for our photo after….mine is shocking!

We got showered and changed and headed back to the hotel for breakfast.

We both had muffins and a hot drink, we were back in our room by 0830 and had a little rest after the early start!

As the sun had come back out we headed to Central Park again and had lunch at the Cafe at the Boathouse. Slightly annoying but we didn’t realise that we could have eaten in the main restaurant 

It was much cooler today and quite windy so we had hats and scarves etc on but we still got a few nice photos.

We needed another rest after lunch (that early start was hard on us!) and then later we headed down 5th Avenue to Times Square where we did a bit of window shopping. We definitely don’t find Times Square as much fun as we used to our our first few trips.

We decided to have dinner at Chick fil a, we weren’t feeling like we wanted a big meal and this was just what we fancied.

We sorted out our luggage (we are loving packing cubes) and got everything ready ahead of our planned flight in the morning.

This was the day of the power failure at Heathrow and when we went to bed on Friday night we weren’t at all sure what would actually happen in the morning.

The fairly regular trip to Delaware, with a side of New York City! Day 2 NYC

Thursday 20th March

This morning we had a relaxed start and then we walked down to Pershing Square for breakfast. This was somewhere we had eaten at while we were on our trip a couple of years ago.

We arrived at about 10 and both had an omelette. It was a little bit noisy and our server seemed disinterested and I had to ask for a refill on my coffee 

We think the quieter tables were reserved for people with reservations and we hadn’t made a reservation (nor was it obviously needed.)

We spent most of the day walking and did a chunk of 5th Ave which doesn’t seem as impressive as it used to. There are definitely less ‘flagship’ stores than there used to be.

At some point we had a little snack using our 'resort credit'. I'm pretty sure I had a nutella croissant and Rob had a blueberry muffin.

Rob had put himself on a waitlist for a strength class at Peloton and I popped myself on the waitlist for a cycling class too.

We hadn’t decided whether or not to go, so we ended up speed walking to the studio.

We both checked in, but the text message system wasn’t working, so they told us to come back 30 mins before the start of the class (that’s when the spaces open up if people don’t arrive).

We headed back to the desk and Rob had got into his class – which was amazing as there are actually only 8 spaces in the class. I didn’t get in even though there are 39 spaces in the cycling class – because everyone showed up!

Rob had a fab time and met one of his favourite instructors (Andy Speer) and we got food from Wholefoods for dinner before walking back to the hotel.

This was really good value, there was so much food! They stir fry it in front of you – you can select which vegetables are included and also the type of meat and whether you have noodles or rice.

The fairly regular trip to Delaware, with a side of New York City! Day 1 NYC!

Wednesday 19th March

This morning we had a relaxed start, with pastries and drinks from downstairs – this was mainly because the Hilton has an annoying ‘resort credit’.

You get charged $35 per day and then get a $35 per day food credit (and a $25 laundry credit) but the little café has some expensive prices! I was determined to use the credit though (and we knew about it in advance so it wasn’t a problem.)

We then walked to Hudson’s Yard to visit The Edge, which took us about 36 minutes to do the distance.

We had deliberately waited to book our tickets until we knew the weather forecast and we booked a flexible ticket so that we weren’t fixed to a particular timeslot.

We enjoyed the view and we got some nice photos, although I did not enjoy the glass floor. I don’t mind heights but I find the glass floors very uncomfortable!

We decided to get lunch from Shake Shack in Hudson’s Yard and then we had a little look around the shops, including Uniqlo where Rob got himself some colourful socks.

We walked around to look at The Vessel but didn’t pay to go ‘in’ and then we took a quick look at the Highline before walking towards Central Park.

We arrived in the park at about 1520 and we walked up to around 90th Street over a couple of hours.

The weather was fab, bright and sunny and we got some nice photos of the park, we hadn’t managed to walk this far in on previous visits as it had always been too cold.

We popped back to the hotel and decided on dinner at PizzArte which is about 1 street from the hotel.

We were provided some complimentary bread and olive oil to start.

Then I had a mocktail and a pasta dish, Rob obviously had pizza (I tried a little bit and it was very nice) and I think he had some form of beer/lager.

We obviously had to have desserts  I had tiramisu and Rob had the flourless chocolate cake.

Total cost including tip was $115.