We woke up around 6:30am to see the New York City skyline floating by. We grabbed our cameras and headed onto the balcony to get some pictures. It’s much sadder seeing the skyline when you are sailing back then when you are sailing away. We finished our final packing and made our way for one final breakfast buffet. It took us approximately a half an hour from the time our group was called to leave to when we had the luggage back in the car. I am going to look at sailing from New York City in the future. It is a very easy process.
We wanted to see some of New York City before heading home, so we booked a three hour walking tour with Real New York Tours. The tour that we took was the The Half Apple Private Tour – Uptown ($300 USD). Since we got to the parking garage very quickly, we had a little bit of time to explore before the tour. At 11am, we met our guide Greg Barrantess at Paramount Plaza on Broadway and then we began.
We hoofed it for what seemed like all over New York City in the 90+ degree heat. We saw Ed Sullivan Theatre where “Late Night with David Letterman” films, Lincoln Centre, ABC Studios, NBC studios, The Dakota, Central Park, Strawberry Fields, Rockfeller Center, 5th Avenue, Broadway and ended the tour at Times Square. It was so cool seeing all of these places in person that you have seen countless times in TV shows and in movies. I think the place that surprised me the most was Central Park. First how large the place is and secondly how beautiful it is. Greg was such a great wealth of information about the city. He had great stories to tell. We had mentioned to Greg that we wanted to experience authentic New York City pizza so he ended the tour at John’s Pizzeria in the heart of the theatre district where we rewarded ourselves with pepperoni pizza. We walked back to the car through Times Square where we got to meet The Naked Cowboy.
A couple of thoughts about New York City. I did actually drive in New York City and the parts that I drove were no more scarier than driving in Toronto. The other thing is that the city is not scary. I felt safe everywhere we went.
We left New York City around 3:30pm and started the long drive home. We did break up the trip with a stop at Cracker Barrel for dinner before arriving home at 2:30am.
What a great vacation. I think needs to become an annual event … The Maloney Family Cruise.
Did you eat pizza with the same hand you used to touch The Naked Cowboy’s butt? Did you see the Naked Indian too?