This morning I picked an early morning flight on United (as much as I despise United) to EWR (Newark, NJ). After arriving at the airport and going through security at Terminal C (Terminal E was closed for some reason) they were looking for volunteers to take the 2:20 PM flight and offered $500 per person voucher. I should have jumped on it, but I wanted to spend more time in the city and the entire point of taking the early flight was to arrive early enough in the afternoon to see some of the city.
My flight was delayed because United didn’t account for enough time for CBP to search the plane after arriving from Bogota. I couldn’t imagine why the CBP would want to search a plane arriving from Bogota, Columbia headed to NYC…
I spent time at the airport waiting at the gate to book the ticket for the Statue of Liberty. I was lucky I did because I was only able to book a ticket for the last full day I was planning to be in the city. I would have been disappointed if I was not able to visit the Statue of Liberty as I have never been there before.
When boarding the aircraft the “Friendly Skies” gate agent yelled at a family with a baby that didn’t have a mask on – the baby was drinking from a bottle at the time. It was very unprofessional and they threatened to pull them from the flight.
When checking in I was able to select premium economy seats. Not very premium, but at least there is some additional leg room. And of course there are 3 seats and 2 outlets. I’m not sure what United was thinking.
The flight was pretty uneventful. I managed to get a free can of Coke and a stroopwafel.
It was a bit of a challenge finding the baggage claim, but once I got my bag I went back upstairs to the AirTrain. The AirTrain connects the terminals at Newark as well as the P4 parking garage and most importantly the train station.
The AirTrain scams $7.75 per person to access the train station. It’s pretty unreasonable, but unfortunately necessary. I bought the train ticket on NJ Transit to Penn Station in Manhattan for $15.25 and it included the fee. That’s right, more than half the cost was just to leave the airport.
Ticket to NY Penn Station including the AirTrain fee The luxurious AirTrain The train station platform serving NJ Transit and Amtrak The dirty NJ Transit train
The NJ Transit train was the slowest train I had ever been on, and it had the dirtiest windows – in fact it was like looking at a Van Gogh painting when you were looking through the windows. It’s a shame too because it would have offered a nice view of the NYC skyline.
After arriving at Penn Station I needed to find my bearings. Eventually I found the subway station that would take me to Union Square where the hotel I was staying at was.
When I exited the subway station at Union Square I was surprised to find a farmer’s market. Luckily I found one of the exits nearby the hotel and it was a very short walk across the square to the hotel.
I booked the W Union Square hotel which is a Marriott brand hotel. Usually the W hotels are quite lively and interesting, but this one was just bland.
Nothing special to see in the hotel room. It looked more like a Fairfield than a W hotel. They did give me breakfast coupons for free “continental” breakfast because I am a Titanium member, but they also charge a $25 destination fee (not to be confused with a resort fee) and you can only use if for access to a museum or the mini bar (no room service available). The credits needed to be used every day.
the overpriced mini bar the view from the room
After arranging my camera I found lunch nearby, a Greek restaraunt called iSouvlaki.
The food was really good, and the french fries were really crispy.
interesting building by Union Square I found on the way to lunch Across from iSouvlaki
I decided to walk along the High Line first as the weather was quite nice and it was nearby. It was a really nice hike with a lot of trees and flowers. It also offered nice views above the street level.It used to be a freight train line and was saved from demolition to create a park.
end of the High Line some of the rail lines were left behind Another interesting park I didn’t get to visit yes, there is a tree growing out of the top The Edge is in the background. It is near the opposite end of the High Line
At the end of the High Line was the Vessel at Hudson Yards, unfortunately it was closed when I arrived.
I decided to take the subway to Brooklyn (which was a good thing I found out later as they suspended service on the weekend) and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge just at sunset.
As I wanted to take full advantage of the nice weather I took the subway to Times Square. I’ve been to Times Square before, but not at night and it was very spectacular. They still had the 2021 ball and by chance I exited the subway at 49th street and they had a stair like seating area to enjoy the view.
2021 ball still up there fountain was covered in acrylic nails
For dinner I found a traditional pie place called “Joe’s Pizza”. They had a location just around the corner from the hotel and it was delicious. I liked the garlic and spinach pizza the best even though I don’t typically eat vegetables.
