Shall we go to New York on Boxing Day? Why not? Travel home :(

We had a lazy morning packing and watching HGTV before we left our room just before 11.

We dropped our bags with bell services (cost $12) and checked out, our bill for the destination charge and bag fee was $206.

We got coffee and a muffin for a light breakfast in Grand Central before wandering up 5th Avenue.

We met Emma and Chris and were planning to have lunch at Ellen’s Stardust Diner but the line was way too long so we went to Applebees instead.

Rob and I had burgers and Rob had a chocolate dessert, our share of the bill was £65, which was probably a little expensive.

We walked up to Rockefeller and back down 5th Avenue leaving Emma and Chris to try to visit the Lego store (they were staying an extra night). 

We popped in a few shops along the way and then went into Grand Central to get a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery.

Rob decided to buy an Omega vs Swatch Mars watch, he wanted a different one but they only had the Mars version and they all appear to be sold out online.

Mars Watch

We left the hotel just before 1600 and walked to Bryant Park where we caught an E train towards Jamaica. We had decided to try the public transport option…..

We got to 71st Ave and there was an announcement that there was an issue (something about a collapsed ceiling somewhere - the announcement was not very clear) and so people would have to get off and walk to the air train. 

Rob googled later and this was apparently at least 10 blocks!

We got off and grabbed a cab as we were now later than we had planned this took us about 20 mins and cost $42.

We arrived at about 1730 (so not too bad in the end) and bag drop and security were pretty easy - although I got a mega grumpy TSA agent who was just rude!

The journey was very stressful though  and with hindsight we should have just got a cab. We had to stand for the whole journey and then we had the whole issue with the train not going to the station as planned.

We ended up getting pizza before we departed which was just ok - definitely not the best NYC pizza.

We were onboard by 1925 waiting for the rest of the passengers to board - we were in economy but in group 7 for some reason.

The flight was very short - arrived at 0730 - so about 6.5 hours!

We had a man coughing for the whole flight so I will be surprised if we don’t get ill.

We wizzed through passport control via the e-gates and our bag followed quickly. We took a pod back to the car park and were driving out at 0830, getting home at just after 1030.

I was expecting more traffic on New Year’s Eve but the roads were very quiet!