Chief Dick Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 (edited) Me and Mrs CD are coming to New York in October. My brother is getting inducted into the Merchant Marine Academy Sports Hall of Fame, so we will be in for a long weekend. The plan is to fly in on Thursday during the day and stay in the city Thursday night. We want to stay near Times Square. My wife has never been there, so we want to be in that area. The plan Thursday night is to just hang out in the city, grab a good meal, and go out for some drinks. On Friday we will see some sights and hang out in the city: haven't thought far enough ahead to plan anything. On Friday afternoon we will take the train to the Kings Point area on Long Island, where I suspect we will be busy with the festivities Friday and Saturday. Then we will fly out Sunday at some point. So, the questions are: 1. Do I want to fly into LaGuardia or JFK? Looks like LaGuardia probably makes more sense for us going in both directions. 2. Any hotel recommendations near Times Square? I'm not a millionaire so I don't want to spend a godawful amount. 3. Any hotel recommendations near Kings Point or Great Neck? We will probably be available to meet any local huddlers either for drinks Thursday night or maybe lunch on Friday, but we can figure all that out later. Just want to start some preliminary planning on the main stuff. Edited February 5, 2011 by Chief Dick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rovers Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 (edited) LaGuardia doesn't have train service. I suggest lining up a car service or booking a hotel that offers it. I have never tried any of the Expedia type services, but you might want to try that for the hotel. Any decent place in midtown will be very pricey, and wait until you see all the taxes they add on. If you go further downtown near a subway stop it gets a little more reasonable but still pretty outrageous. . Any of the Hilton/Marriot type hotels are good. There are some older landmark hotels like the Ritz-Carlton but they are pricey. You might want to take a look at the Garden City Hotel near Great Neck. It's a pretty ritzy hotel, but one you will always remember staying at. Otherwise you are likely looking at a Holiday Inn or something and they can be very hit or miss. After you leave Manhattan, you might want a car rental with a drop off at LaGuardia. JFK offers train service to Manhattan, with one stop to change from the Air Train to the LIRR (Long Island RR) at Jamaica station. In this case, get the car rental for a JFK drop off. You don't want to have a rental car in the city but will need it once you move out onto the island and to get back and forth from the hotel and the MM Academy. Taxis are very pricey from either airport, avoid them. I can get you hooked up with a car service if you want at the airport for your arrival. You might want to buy a Fodor's NYC book. Lots of info and cheap to buy. That way you can look for the right hotel much easier in Manhattan, and the restaurant guide is very good too, has all the tourist sight info... http://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/.../new-york-city/ Edited February 5, 2011 by Rovers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seattle LawDawg Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Me and Mrs CD are coming to New York in October. My brother is getting inducted into the Merchant Marine Academy Sports Hall of Fame, so we will be in for a long weekend. The plan is to fly in on Thursday during the day and stay in the city Thursday night. We want to stay near Times Square. My wife has never been there, so we want to be in that area. The plan Thursday night is to just hang out in the city, grab a good meal, and go out for some drinks. On Friday we will see some sights and hang out in the city: haven't thought far enough ahead to plan anything. On Friday afternoon we will take the train to the Kings Point area on Long Island, where I suspect we will be busy with the festivities Friday and Saturday. Then we will fly out Sunday at some point. So, the questions are: 1. Do I want to fly into LaGuardia or JFK? Looks like LaGuardia probably makes more sense for us going in both directions. 2. Any hotel recommendations near Times Square? I'm not a millionaire so I don't want to spend a godawful amount. 3. Any hotel recommendations near Kings Point or Great Neck? We will probably be available to meet any local huddlers either for drinks Thursday night or maybe lunch on Friday, but we can figure all that out later. Just want to start some preliminary planning on the main stuff. I'm in New York a couple times a month and our office is 47th and Broadway (Times Square) so I always stay in Midtown. I'm a kimpton hotel whore and can definitely recommend all of their area hotels. I typically stay at the Muse because it's right next to our office, but Eventi, 70 Park, and Ink 48 are all good. That said, they're typical Manhattan hotel rooms: small. Because of a convention in town last week, I just spent the entire week at the Warwick. I wish they would blow that hotel up. Would also try to avoid the Hilton on 6th and the Sheraton towers. The W Times Square is good. The Flatotel isn't bad and probably has the largest rooms of the places I've stayed at in Manhattan. Regarding price, it's all over the place depending on exact dates so good that you're looking early. A specific room at a given hotel in midtown can range from under $200 a night to over $600. Just book early and you can probably do ok. I've flown into LGA, JFK and Newark and I don't know that there's any real advantage to any of them. Now I fly delta most often so have only flown into JFK in the past few years, but if I had to fly into one of the others, no big deal. Cab fare from JFK to midtown is ~$45. There are usually car services there trying to grab travellers. They typically match the price or are very close to cab fare with a much more comfortable ride. When I leave midtown, I tend to use limores.net to schedule car service. 1.) it is more comfortable. 2.) it isn't much more $ and 3.) I tend to fly out on a 6:30pm flight. There's a cab shift at 4pm and sometimes it's impossible to find a cab that will take you out to an airport around that time. Finally, there's obviously a ton of food. You can hit any of the famous places and have decent food for too much $$$$. There are a lot of tiny, hole-in-the-wall places that are often better quality for less money. For example, there's a little italian place called Amarone on 9th between 47th and 48th (hell's kitchen area). The food is amazing. If you go there and don't get any that night, you've messed something up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Dick Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 Thanks guys. Appreciate the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loaf Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 congrats to your Brother! And don't bother looking for any busch light in times square... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 CD in the hizzy Thursday night drinks sounds great. Keep us posted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Dick Posted July 20, 2011 Author Share Posted July 20, 2011 Looks like we will fly in on Thursday the 13th of October. Our plan is to stay in the city the whole weekend and take the train to Long Island for his events. We are going to try and get to New York by lunchtime or shortly after on the 13th so we can do a little sightseeing and hang out. I'm thinking we can meet up with Huddlers for dinner and drinks Thursday after you all get off work. My first thought is to have dinner at the place LawDawg suggested (Amarone), and go from there. Thursday will probably be the best day for us to meet up. If it's more convenient for us to meet people somewhere else, we are really flexible. Not sure yet where we are staying yet. Hope to have more of this nailed down later. Just wanted to give you all an update. Hope we can meet as many of you Yanks as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh 0ne Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Should work for me if I'm in town. Don't think they serve Busch light cans in the establishments we'll probably be frequenting. Want me to bring a cooler? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrip Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 If you fly into LGA getting a car service should be cheaper than a cab. If you take public transportation you'll want to off yourself. There actually is a nice little dive bar with reasonable prices off of times square called Jimmy's. It's on 44th. If I was in times square and wanted to hang out and talk football over some food and drinks I'd go to Virgil's bbq, which is conveniently on the same block as Jimmy's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 If you fly into LGA getting a car service should be cheaper than a cab. If you take public transportation you'll want to off yourself. There actually is a nice little dive bar with reasonable prices off of times square called Jimmy's. It's on 44th. If I was in times square and wanted to hang out and talk football over some food and drinks I'd go to Virgil's bbq, which is conveniently on the same block as Jimmy's. There is a place we have had a few huddle gatherings at called Fat Annies which is right down the block from Madison Square Garden. That place never dissapoints either. Ill go anywhere to meet Chiefs wife. Looking forward to it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_am_the_swammi Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 (edited) There is a place we have had a few huddle gatherings at called Fat Annies which is right down the block from Madison Square Garden. That place never dissapoints either. Ill go anywhere to meet Chiefs wife. Looking forward to it yep, good eats and drinks....casual for chatting it up, good to watch the whatever sports might be on. I may have to schedule a visit to our East (edit) side hotel for this gathering Edited July 22, 2011 by i_am_the_swammi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FWmaker Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 yep, good eats and drinks....casual for chatting it up, good to watch the whatever sports might be on. I may have to schedule a visit to our West side hotel for this gathering How about hookin' up CD at the hotel??? Too bad no Thu night game on the 13th. Keep us posted, CD, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wolf Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 There is a place we have had a few huddle gatherings at called Fat Annies which is right down the block from Madison Square Garden. That place never dissapoints either. Ill go anywhere to meet Chiefs wife. Looking forward to it Yep...Fat Annie's was where I met my first Huddlers...Whomp, Puddy, FWMaker. Great place. I am in for the 13th! CD, NYC hotels are generally expensive, with Times Square more expensive than most. Take SLD's advice and book early. No real advantahe to JFK or LaGuardia, however JFK does have the Air Train (it's free), which you can use to go from the airport east to Jamaica train station (Long Island Rail Road). Trip is 10 - 15 minutes. You can then get LIRR tickets to go back west into Penn Station (about 20 minutes). Not as simple as jumping in a cab but it will be much cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_am_the_swammi Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 How about hookin' up CD at the hotel??? Too bad no Thu night game on the 13th. Keep us posted, CD, I already PMd him...he wants to be in Times Square, walking distance to all the spots. Our hotel is over on the river near the UN. With what I could do for him on a discounted rate, he give it all back in cab fare getting around. If he's gonna net the same, he's better off staying where he wants, close to everything. I did give him some tips on trying to get a better rate in Times Square, but getting a discount in NYC October-December is like pulling teeth...city runs 90+% during that timeframe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Dick Posted July 22, 2011 Author Share Posted July 22, 2011 Thanks all for the responses. And thanks swammi and fw for the PM's. I'm looking forward to this trip for sure. I haven't been to New York in probably 15 years. Is it still crowded there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wolf Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Thanks all for the responses. And thanks swammi and fw for the PM's. I'm looking forward to this trip for sure. I haven't been to New York in probably 15 years. Is it still crowded there? Are NFL owners and players still greedy? Is the Pope Catholic? LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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