NYC Trip Report Part 2: Times Square and Rockefeller Center

NYC Trip Report:

Music Video
Hotel Review
Amex Centurion Lounge Review
Part 1: Intro and Getting There

Part 2: Times Square and Rockefeller Center

Saturday, October 10, 2015

With our hotel room's great blackout curtains, I was looking forward to sleeping in just a little to make up for our late arrival the night before. Unfortunately, we were all woken up by a persistent knocking on our door at 6:30 a.m. At first I thought it was someone knocking on the door across the hall, but the more I ignored it the more it became clear the knock was on our door. And it was someone who had the wrong room. Ugh! Everyone except for me was able to fall back asleep for about an hour. I gave up and showered.

Tired kids, still happy for what was in store for the day:

We ate breakfast downstairs.

Before we walked to the subway station, we decided to check out the rooftop pool. It didn't open until 10 a.m. so we didn't get a good look at it, but we did go out on the rooftop terrace and saw a view of Manhattan.

At 9:15 a.m., we left our hotel. The walk to the subway station was easy. We studied the map.

As a mom to three active, playful kids, the subway platforms scare me. There is no barrier to the track. I was super-paranoid and wouldn't let my kids go anywhere near the yellow line.

We managed to get seats for the ride into Manhattan.

We got off at the Times Square station, which is the next-to-the-last stop on the 7 line. The Times Square subway station has connections to just about every other subway line. When we climbed to street level, we could see the Toys 'R Us store.

We decided to go to Toys 'R Us first to ride the Ferris wheel before the line got too long. (This Toys 'R Us store is closing/relocating after Christmas, see this article. I hope the Ferris wheel can fit in the new store).

It was so weird to see the Ferris wheel inside of a building.

Only 4 people are allowed in a car, so the boys went together on this taxi car:

And Alyssa and I got a Toy Story car:

The great thing about the Ferris wheel ride is that we could see all the levels of the store and figure out where we should head first. Check out Superman holding up a semi truck from the ceiling:

And this moving dinosaur in the Jurassic Park section:

Toward the back of the store was this life-size Barbie dream house:

I was hoping it would be fun to explore, but it was just filled with Barbies.

The Lego displays at Toys 'R Us are, in my opinion, better than the ones at the Lego Store at Rockefeller Center.

Of course Spiderman has to be in NYC!

The store has a lot of photo-op areas:

We easily spent a few hours in the Toys 'R Us store. So much to see!

Our next stop was the Disney Store. Of course!

The downstairs has New York-specific merchandise. I bought Alyssa a Minnie Mouse Statue of Liberty shirt.

Going upstairs, the ceiling is decorated like the lantern festival from Tangled:

The princess castle is towards the back:

It has a lovely chandelier inside:

And some magic mirrors against the wall (see our video):

Some cast members were telling Star Wars stories. My two kids were the only ones in that section on a busy Saturday afternoon!

After the Star Wars story, the kids got some medals for their participation:

This small Mickey Mouse clubhouse has lots of buttons and levers on the inside:

After the Disney Store, we grabbed a quick lunch at McDonalds. Gasp, I know, all that good New York City food and we chose McDonalds? Well, we had a lot to see during our two days in the city and we didn't want to spend a lot of time eating. This was our view of Times Square from the second level of McDonalds:

Next, we walked a few blocks to Rockefeller Center and visited the Nintendo World store, something my kids were anticipating for a long time!

The store had a scavenger hunt going on, but the kids just wanted to take photos and hunt for Mario game plush.

Our kids had been saving their allowance specifically for this store. A total of six Mario World plush were purchased along with a new video game, and we had some very happy kids.

Next, it was time to visit the observation tower at the top of Rockefeller Center (also known as Top of the Rock). We were surprised that the ice skating rink was already set up.

We had pre-purchased tickets online for a 2:00 p.m. arrival for the observation deck so that we would avoid standing in another line.

The Top of the Rock has three levels of observation decks, and we found the middle one to be the least crowded. Top of the Rock has a great view of Central Park on one side and the Empire State Building on the other side. The views are really impressive, and I think that this one or the Empire State observation deck is a must-do for any tourist.

At this point, we were all really tired from standing most of the day. The kids played with their new toys on this bench-with-a-view for a while.

My oldest son and I circled the observation deck again for some selfies and views:

Family photo:

We spent about an hour at the top, just taking in the views and relaxing. After that, we walked back to Times Square to soak up more of the crazy atmosphere:

We brought cash so that our kids could have photos with a few characters in Times Square. Some of the characters are downright creepy-looking. We saw an Olaf that didn't look too bad, and I asked for a photo with the kids. Right before I snapped the picture, three of his friends jumped in and demanded to be paid as well. This was our most expensive photo ever!

So we learned our lesson for the next one. I asked Batman if we could have a photo with just him, and he obliged. Several of his friends tried to rush into the picture, but he waived them off.

It was only about 4:30 p.m. at this time and we thought about having dinner in the city, but we were all so exhausted. We didn't really walk a lot, but we were standing so much. So we took the subway back to Queens, ate at Applebee's around the corner, and splashed in the rooftop pool.

We got the kids in bed by 9:00 p.m. and I was hoping for a better night's sleep.

Up next: The Statue of Liberty and the Intrepid Air and Space Museum.

On My Mind: Southwest Airlines Family Boarding

I'm still in the middle of blogging about our recent trip to New York City, but something has been on my mind.

For those that fly Southwest Airlines, you probably know that Southwest does not have assigned seats. When you check in for your flight 24 hours in advance, you are assigned a boarding number, and when you board you may choose any available seat. If you want a better chance of boarding the plane earlier and getting a potentially better seat, you can buy EarlyBird check-in, which automatically checks you in 36 hours in advance.

Southwest allows families with children 4 and under to board during Family Boarding time, which is between Groups A and B. By the time families board, there are usually 60 passengers already on board from the A boarding group and many times there are additional passengers that were already on board from the connecting flight. My family has used Family Boarding for the past several years, and we've never had an issue finding seats together near the back of the plane.

This summer, Southwest tested different age limits for Family Boarding, including up to ages 6, 8 and 11. I read about it in several articles and blogs, like this one. The challenge with limiting the kids to ages 4 and under is that no parent would want their 5- or 6-year old sitting next to a stranger out of sight. And probably no stranger wants to sit next to a young child. A child older than age 4 probably still needs help finding the bathroom on the plane, opening snacks, putting on an oxygen mask in the event of an emergency, etc. Flight attendants frequently ask people to switch seats to accommodate a family sitting together, but that takes time and delays take-off. When I flew on Southwest by myself earlier this year, I happily moved my seat three times to accommodate families. A kind flight attendant offered me a free drink for my trouble.

My youngest child turned 5 years old four days before our trip. Since the official Southwest Family Boarding policy states that we are no longer eligible, we checked in for our trip exactly 24 hours in advance. Because we purchased our tickets using points, each of us had a different reservation number to key in, and we wound up with boarding numbers in the mid-B group.

When boarding started, the gate attendant announced that Family Boarding was for ages 5 and under (not 4 and under). So we happily boarded at that time and sat in rows at the back of the plane.

For our return trip, we tried to do online check-in 24 hours ahead of time. But unfortunately, Southwest experienced a big systems glitch that day and we couldn't check in. By the time we were able to check in later that evening, we were in the C boarding group.

We decided to board with Family Boarding again, and here is what happened: nothing. The family ahead of us had two kids, the youngest appeared to be about 7. The two families behind us also had older kids that appeared to be 8 or 9. We proceeded to the back of the plane as usual.

In a few months, we will be flying on Southwest to go on a cruise. We won't have access to a computer or the internet 24 hours before our flight home, so we will have to get our boarding numbers at the airport a few hours before our flight or pay the extra $12.50 per person for the EarlyBird check-in before our trip ($125 round-trip for my family). I decided to email Southwest to ask if they will be changing the eligible ages for Family Boarding based on the summer test, or if not, do I need to pay the extra money to guarantee a seat with my daughter (and probably my 7-year-old son as well).

At first I got the standard automatic response that someone would review my email and respond within 48 hours. But then, to my surprise, Southwest actually called me at home.

I learned that the official Family Boarding policy is still for kids ages 4 and under, BUT the gate agents do not "card" any kids. Hint hint. And regardless of when we board, a flight attendant will work to relocate passengers so that kids are not separated from parents.

Based on that information, I plan to utilize Family Boarding for the next 1 or 2 years while my youngest still requires parent supervision and as long as Southwest seems to be unofficially supportive of it. But I'm curious what other families with 5-6-year-olds do? Would you allow your child that age to sit by himself/herself? Do you pay the extra money for EarlyBird check-in for peace of mind? Or will you use Family Boarding? Have you ever moved your seat to accommodate a family?

NYC Trip Report Part 1: Intro and Getting There

NYC Trip Report:

Music Video
Hotel Review
Amex Centurion Lounge Review

Part 1: Intro and Getting There

Our whirlwind 3-night trip to New York City was conceived just five months ago in May. I am a long-term planner by nature, so this was really a last-minute trip in comparison.

We flew on Southwest Airlines using miles for three of us. Brian and I each have a Southwest companion pass right now, so two of our kids did not require miles or cash. We spent 45,090 miles for the round-trip flights and paid $56 in taxes. As a comparison, the trip would have cost us 125,000 American Airlines miles. We used a total of 36,000 Hyatt points for 3 nights. The cash price of our Southwest flights plus Hyatt hotel would have been $1934.56.

Overall, our trip was a success. And I base that on the fact that nobody got sick or lost. The weather was clear and gorgeous, as it was sunny and in the 60s in the afternoons. We did have a major bathroom emergency and some transportation hiccups which made us all a little testy, but hopefully we can look back on those someday and laugh.

One thing that really stood out to me is this: There must be hardly any kids that visit Manhattan, and we really attracted attention with three kids. An Asian tourist took a photo of our kids. It was just weird to have our kids be practically the only kids everywhere we went. And we were there on a weekend (for many a 3-day weekend with Columbus Day) when a lot of schools have Fall break. Brian and I noticed the lack of kids when we were there last year, but we figured it was because school had just started the week before. On all of our subway trips, we only saw one other kid (a baby). In Toys 'R Us and the Disney store in Times Square, it was mostly adults looking around. Out of all the places we went, the Intrepid Air and Space Museum had the most kids, but even then they were few and far between. It was just so different than the places we frequent locally and on other trips that are packed with kids.

Friday, October 9, 2015:

We picked up our older kids from school and immediately headed to Dallas Love Field airport. We had enough time after security to eat an early dinner at Chick Fil A and play at the airport play center:

We are trying to teach our kids how to navigate airports, so we made our oldest son tell us where we should go:

Our kids were so excited for this trip!

The excitement dwindled as delays started to be announced. First a 10-minute delay, then an hour.

Apparently New York City had some thunderstorms earlier in the afternoon, and the flights coming into LGA were backed up. We were told not to leave the gate area in case the flight was cleared to leave sooner. We usually have a rule that our kids can't open up their backpacks until we are on the plane, but we had to bend the rule in this circumstance. Our flight left ~90 minutes late.

Airplane selfies:

(Note: We always separate our two boys into separate rows. It's so much more peaceful that way.)

We had a gorgeous view of the sunset after take-off.

My daughter slept for the last hour of the flight. Yay!

When we were close to landing, we had a great view of Manhattan (but it was hard to capture with a photo since it was so dark). Tip: When flying from Dallas to LGA, sit in the left side of the plane (as you face forward) for a great view of the city.

After we landed, we just had to claim one bag and call our hotel for pick-up.

It was almost midnight, and my youngest was so tired.

We got to bed around 12:30 a.m. (See hotel photos here). We had planned to sleep in before heading to Times Square the next morning (planned is the key word here).

Next up: Times Square and Rockefeller Center

Amex Centurion Lounge at LGA (With Kids!)

One of the hidden perks about obtaining miles and points credit cards is that some of them come with free airport lounge access. On our Hawaii trip last March, I had the opportunity to enter a lounge in the Las Vegas airport during an overnight layover, but since it wasn't close to our terminal and we were running short on time we decided to skip it. However, on our recent trip to New York City, I had the chance to experience a different lounge.

The American Express Centurion Lounge is free to Platinum Amex cardholders (other Amex cardholders can pay a $50 fee per visit). There are only six of them in U.S. airports, but LaGuardia happens to have one of them. And the lounge policy states that I could bring my spouse and children under age 18 in with me for free.

When we arrived at the airport for our trip back home, I decided that if the lounge was near our gate and we had extra time, we would check it out. We made it through security by 9:30 a.m. (for a 12:15 p.m. flight) and we had plenty of time to spare. Except we discovered that the Amex lounge was actually outside security and we would have to exit and re-enter security before our flight. I didn't really want the hassle of doing that, but as we proceeded further in Terminal B we noticed that it was very small and had no available chairs. So we turned around and headed to the lounge.

The lounge is located on an upper floor between Terminal B and Terminal C. At the check-in desk, the staff was very pleasant, but my husband and I noticed 2 guests in the lounge that did not appear happy we were bringing three kids in with us.

The lounge basically has three areas--the first sitting area:

The dining room:

And the living room area, which is a hallway in between the two rooms. We choose to chill out in this area with the sofas and TVs.

My kids were actually very quiet and well-behaved (shocking!). They were just happy to have some room to spread out, plug in their electronics and chill. The lounge had a breakfast buffet out, but we were still full from our hotel breakfast.

A while later, some cookies were placed in the first lounge.

So the main benefits of the lounge are a complimentary food buffet, full service bar, TVs, WiFi, and a lot of space to spread out.

Shortly before 11, we left the lounge so that we had enough time to get through security again before our flight. And then our waiting area in the crowded terminal was this:

I will admit that I felt really relaxed and pampered after our short morning at the lounge. Aside from the initial glares from a few guests, bringing our kids into the lounge was no big deal. (We only saw one other child in the lounge, a much younger baby).

If you frequently visit LGA, Miami, DFW, Seattle, San Francisco or Las Vegas, then the Amex Platinum lounge perk is a great thing to have. Unfortunately, I will probably not get the chance to use this perk again before I cancel my card next year because we mostly fly out of Dallas Love Field airport on my Southwest points.

Airport lounges are a common thing when I read most miles and points blogs, since the writers are often single adults with no kids who fly first class all the time. But for my family, the lounge was a welcome luxury for our coach travel with kids. I am grateful we had the chance to experience the lounge.

Hotel Review: Hyatt Place Flushing/LaGuardia Airport, New York

Last weekend, my family of 5 traveled to New York City on a quick "miles and points" getaway. I could not find a hotel in Manhattan for a reasonable amount of hotel points that would allow 5 of us to stay in one room, so I booked the Hyatt Place in Flushing (Queens) near LaGuardia Airport. It cost 12,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points a night (or it would have cost around $230 in cash per night). This is a bargain compared to the hotels in Manhattan that start at ~$600 a night for a room that fits 5.

This hotel just opened last year. It's located in Queens' original Chinatown.

Image from asianfusion-mag.com

When we arrived at LaGuardia Airport, I called the Hyatt Place for a free shuttle to the hotel. It arrived in ~10 minutes.

We ran into a major traffic jam leaving the airport, so the ride to the hotel took closer to 30 minutes. Check-in went quickly, and we headed up to our room that had 2 queen-size beds and a sofa bed.

Our room was on the 7th floor, and we could not hear any airport noise and hardly any street noise. When we looked outside our window to the left, we could see Manhattan.

Our view of Manhattan in the morning:

The hotel offers a free breakfast buffet that is standard at all Hyatt Place hotels. In addition to the standard breakfast fare of eggs, sausage, oatmeal, cereal, fruit, yogurt, toast, etc, the buffet also has an Asian food section. The breakfast seating area spans across two levels.

One of the coolest things about this hotel is the rooftop pool and lounge area. We went up to look on our first morning.

The pool is enclosed and heated and has a view of the city. (After two long days on our feet, we really wished the hotel had a hot tub!)

The hotel is located very close to a few baseball stadiums. This is the view from the window near the elevator.

The hotel is located just a 5-minute walk from the subway station (the 7 line) that goes directly to Times Square. It's about a 40-minute train ride. Easy peasy.

In addition to the numerous Asian restaurants nearby, there is also a shopping center 5 minutes away with an Applebees restaurant and a Subway restaurant. A McDonald's and Burger King are located right by the subway station. Plenty of food options nearby for picky kids.

During our stay we had a minor housekeeping issue. The housekeeping staff took away all the sheets and blankets from our beds, and they were still gone when we came back from Manhattan. When we returned from dinner, the two queen beds were put back together, but the blanket was missing from the sofa bed. We called down to the front desk to get another blanket. After 30 minutes went by, we called again for the blanket. It never came. I didn't want to keep calling because my kids were really tired and wanted to sleep. I turned up the temperature in the room and hoped for the best. Of course, my son who was sleeping on the sofa bed woke up in the middle of the night complaining of being cold. All of our towels were wet, so I covered him in his jacket and a small hand towel. Needless to say, I was up for 2 hours in the middle of the night and was grumpy the next morning.

I talked to the front desk staff about it in the morning. They were not sure what happened, but they sent a blanket up right away and gave me some hotel points and free drinks for our inconvenience. I really wasn't expecting anything except a new blanket, so I was really impressed with the customer service there.

The hotel's free airport shuttle runs back to the airport once every hour, so we reserved our time slot the evening before our flight.

If you have a family of 4 or less, you will probably find it more convenient to stay in Manhattan. But if you have a family of 5 or 6, the Hyatt Place Flushing/LaGuardia Airport is a great choice in terms of comfort, space and price. The 40-minute subway ride is really easy to do, but it does become cumbersome after a long day walking around Manhattan, and it makes it difficult to go back to your room to change for an evening show.

I'm glad we could stay at this hotel on points for free on this trip to New York City, and I would stay here again on a future trip.

What's In Our Wallet, Part 2

Earlier this year, I wrote about What's In Our Wallet, which at the time was a card we applied for in January that got us 100,000 American Airline miles. I normally stick to writing about trips we take instead of specific credit cards that help us earn miles and points for our trips, but I am often asked what credit cards we are currently using for miles. (Note: We do not carry balances on our credit cards and mostly use cards with no annual fee for the first year).

So...here are some of the new credit cards currently in our wallet for this year that we use as tools to help us earn free travel:

*  Chase Sapphire Preferred--My husband got this card in the Spring. The annual fee is waived the first year, and after meeting the minimum spending requirement of $4000 over 3 months, he earned over 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (40,000 bonus, +5000 for adding an authorized user plus over 5000 points on spending in the first few months). Chase Ultimate Rewards points are so valuable because they can be used for cash back (1 cent per point), or they can be transferred to travel partners like Hyatt, Southwest and United.

We ended up transferring his points to Hyatt, and combined with some existing Ultimate Rewards points I already had, we had enough to book a Hyatt resort mini-vacation next year that has a cash price of ~$1600. (The Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card and other Chase cards are now harder to get if you apply for and change credit cards frequently--see this blog post for details).

Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort

*  American Express Premier Rewards Gold--Based on advice from a few bloggers about checking out credit card offers on the CardMatch tool, we discovered that my husband (not me, can you tell who has the bigger income??) had an offer from American Express for the Premier Rewards Gold card. The offer included a bonus of 50,000 Amex Membership Rewards points after spending only $1,000 in 3 months. (Note: the normal bonus is 25,000 points). The card's annual fee is waived for the first year. The card gives a $100 airline credit each calendar year, so based on the timing of getting this card in the middle of the year, we will be able to get a $100 airline credit in 2015 and another $100 airline credit in early 2016 before cancelling the card (to avoid the annual fee in the second year).

What can we do with Amex Membership Rewards points? We can use them to offset travel expenses or transfer to airline partners. We chose to transfer the points to British Airways. Sounds odd, right? Well, British Airways is a partner of American Airlines, which has a hub in Dallas. We can fly on American Airlines flights using British Airways Avios and in many cases use fewer points than if we used American Airlines miles. British Airways has a distance-based award chart. We can fly to Denver on an American Airlines flight for 4500 British Airways Avios miles one-way (vs. 12,500 American Airlines miles). Or to Cancun our Puerto Vallarta for 7500 miles each way (vs. 17,500 American Airlines miles). We are tentatively planning to use the points to fly to Mexico next Fall. The tricky part is finding award seats for a family of 5!

Future cards:

*  Citi ThankYou Premier--My husband and I both plan on applying for the Citi ThankYou Premier card before the end of this year. It offers 50,000 ThankYou points after spending $3000 in 3 months. The annual fee is waived for the first year. We can combine our points together (100,000 bonus plus 6000 for the minimum spending) and get 1.25 cents per point for travel booked through Citi. That's $1325 that we could use toward an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. ¡Que bueno!

This looks lovely.

Cards from last year that we've kept:

*  Barclaycard Arrival Plus--We use this card when we're not working on spending towards a bonus on a new credit card. It gives 2% back on all purchases that can be used as statement credits for travel.

*  Chase Ink Plus--This business card gives 5% Ultimate Rewards points on internet and cell phone bills as well as purchases from office supply stores (like Staples and OfficeMax). Since this is my second year with this card, the annual fee of $95 came up this summer. I called Chase to inquire about any retention offers for me to keep this card, and I was offered 10,000 points (which basically offsets the $95 fee). I'm glad I called!

I earn a lot of points on this card by buying gift cards at Staples. I buy gift cards that I use during normal monthly spending (supplies/groceries on Amazon, pet food at Petco, etc.) We will transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt for hotel stays over Spring Break.

So that's the scoop.

For more information on points and miles, see Miles For Family, Mommy Points, Million Mile Secrets, Points With A Crew, The Points Guy...