Longest Valentines day ever (Adelaide to New York)

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A little summary to provide a brief overview of this up and coming blog. This will be my third overseas trip, and accompanying me will be my daughter on her first trip. The plan is fly to New York City, after a couple of days head up to Boston, MA for a couple of days, then return to New York City for a few days before a 9 night cruise to the Caribbean. After the cruise we have an overnight trip to Washington/Philly, then back to New York where we will then fly home.

The cruise component of the trip was booked way back in September 2011 (so yes, I'm a bit of a forward planner). The entire trip was completely booked and planned by about October 2012, which included all the accommodation, trips and onshore activities. I used http://cruiserepublic.com.au/ to book the cruise. Now as a comparison between them and Phil Hoffmann travel who I used last time, I kind of wish I had used Phil Hoffmann again. It is just in the little details. Yes I didn't have smooth sailing with Phil Hoffman, but at the end of the day, we received in the post our travel details and cruise documents all printed out, presented in a handy document folder which included some luggage tags, a luggage strap (which has been invaluable) and lanyard. The online travel agent, it was basically print everything yourself and hope it all turned out ok. So it did, but the going the extra mile with the fixed agent wins out for if I book again.

Several days before the trip there were alot of domestic issues that provided a bucket load of stress for myself. A week beforehand one of my baby boys was upset and crying and I hated the thought I was leaving him at home. I was getting all panicked over flying and the fear of turbulence and several other things. So basically I was totally highly strung. Three weeks before my trip, I discovered a company called Razor Tours in Samana, now named as RITMO Tours no longer was offering the zipline tour on their website. The communication with them was horrible and in the end with all the back and forth conversation I told them to just forget about it and I ended up booking a similar tour with a different company. Lack of communication on their part really sucked. I was just grateful I double and triple check everything and discovered it when I did, otherwise I would have been left at the dock like an idiot with nothing to do!

The day before leaving I was just in tears the entire day, everything was getting me down and I was suddenly sprung with the fact that my husband wanted me to organise an almost spur of the moment trip for himself to Italy flying out the day I arrived back. I had too much else to worry about and there is no way I wanted to organise his trip for him (when I like doing things so far in advance), because if anything went wrong it would be my fault, and I wasn't willing to take any of the blame. As it was I had to race around and buy him a suitcase the day before I left, which meant my packing day was a mess. I did over pack, I admit. My suitcase weighed a tonne, or actually I think it weighed about 18kg .... and this was before shopping. It did scare me considering when I went away for 5 weeks my bag started out at about 13kg or something from memory and ended up nearly 22kg!

The day of the trip finally arrived. Our flight was to leave at 7am, so it was a 4:30am wake up for myself. I was petrified of getting a migraine as the previous two trips I had migraines for my flights. It was looking good to start off with, however the persistent nausea that had been an ongoing issue for the past 2-3 weeks was raging along strongly, so I was taking antiemetic’s from the moment I woke. My two eldest children were none fussed with seeing us off at the airport, and not sure they would fit with all our luggage in the car either. Alison had packed a few days beforehand, and her bag definitely was the lighter of the two. When I saw she was wearing a tiny dress, I did question her sense, especially as we were heading into winter territory, however she assured me she knew best, so who was I to argue against such wisdom.

I dont know what time we arrived at the airport. The new carpark was open, which was pretty exciting. I had to explain to the husband its to his advantage to drive all the way to level 2, which would provide a straight forward walk across the bridge directly into the departures section. I have to admit, this was the first time in absolute years I had flown with Qantas, so it was all very exciting. I did pay the extra to secure the treasured window seats. Loading up our bags, it was a big ... hmmm seeing how much the bags weighed. Oh and a side note, I remember copping so much slack for the fact I bought an onboard wheeled luggage bag, that could then fit my camera bag inside it. The husband thought I was mental buying a bag to wheel a bag in, but it actually worked out really well for the trip back. Saved me buying a different bag ... we needed it.

My dad was at the airport. Its kind of a tradition that he comes down to see us off, which was lovely. I guess my love affair of airports was thrust upon me as a child watching my dad fly out and arrive so many times. Its the hugs, smiles and tears that happen in this one place that just draws you to it. I will forever remember a young couple who obviously where in love one was staying, one departing, and it was almost heart wrenching ... my other favourite thing is watching the excitement on peoples faces when their loved ones arrive.

We made it through the first of many security checks. All up I only had one pat down (for the whole trip), so I was very happy. It was an odd sensation instead of turning left in the airport heading down to my frequently visited Cibos (or as frequently as I attended the airport), it was a right turn to the qantas planes. Very special indeed. First thing Alison does is ask her dad for money to buy some lollies, and can't remember if she bought a One Direction book or not. I swear I am praying that band get married and split up, they were the thorn in my side all trip!

It didn't take too long before they started requesting we board the plane. Now I wasn't exactly too eager to jump on. Alison however wanted to get moving. She was actually a touch excited, and when we started going down the galley towards the plane, the questions and everything else kept rolling out of her mouth. Taking our seats it all continued, and I suddenly wondered how I was going to cope such a long long flight with all this chatter. It was like she had suddenly transformed into my youngest child! I have to admit I always love the taking off part. We were taking off towards the water, so headed up and over the southern suburbs of Adelaide. Honestly there is something so magical seeing your city from the air. This first flight was a two hour one. Before long they came along with breakfast for us to eat. I took the non Hot version of breakfast. This included Cornflakes with pineapple (who in their right mind would eat that????), a muffin, orange juice and milk for the cereal. I ate it all bar the cereal which remained in its container. Alison made a big deal out of the tiny little stirring spoon on the tray and stashed it away in her bag. I'm sure we are going to bring home a whole pile of "stuff" if she keeps this up!

I did warn Alison that the landing in Sydney could be a touch bumpy at times. She was non fussed about it all. She also was too busy either sleeping or listening to her itouch to be bothered seeing Sydney from the air .... um why did she get the window seat then?

Sydney airport, as far as airports go, is a pretty cool one. Both the domestic and International Airports have a variety of shops and it all looks classy and farely new. Getting off the plane we had to follow the signs towards the International transit bus. Alison ran off to the toilet before boarding the bus, and it was actually a very short wait and before we knew it, we were boarded and making our way weaving around airplane hangers and other exciting things towards the big planes. I did make the mistake when I got off the plane of lining up in the International Line for no good reason, as apparently we could just automatically make our way through Customs to the Inner Sanctum of shoppery and duty free goodness.

As soon as we had cleared security yet again, we entered shoppers heaven, and Alison again wants to buy everything right then and there. Um we are away for something like 26 days girly, slow right on down. After having a quick look through everything, I discovered they had some massage chairs as well as a power point to charge my phone. As yet another aside, I have had an Iphone 4 for nearly 2 years and due to upgrade to a new phone. About a month ago, my power on and off button no longer works. So with this in mind, I have to keep my phone at all times with a charge in it, because if the power runs out, I can't turn the phone back on. I needed a fully charged phone before heading onto the plane, to make sure I was safe. Or at least that will be my excuse to sit on and enjoy a 4 minute massage, between that and the fact those chairs are way more comfortable than the standard looking chairs in the airport.

When we boarded the plane, I couldn't help but notice its going to be a tight squeeze for the 13 hour flight. We were on QF107 Sydney to Los Angeles, and then the follow up flight from LA to JFK. There were so many people boarding, and as always you have to pass by the Premium Economy. My daughter asked, "can't we sit in one of those ones?" ... I wish! It was also a full flight, so no spreading out 😞 The plane was due to leave at 11:25am Sydney time. As we started pulling out of the station and making our way to the runway, and announcement came over that there was a medical emergency and we had to head back in. Eventually we were informed a passenger fainted and was being medically assessed, and then being "kicked" off the plane. Now this passenger was sitting up stairs in the business class seats. Try sitting in Economy for 45 minutes waiting to actually take off. I felt like i was going to faint by the end of it. The cabin was way too hot. We eventually got up and into the air, once they had removed her luggage and all.

For our meal, Alison chose some Chicken Salad thing, which came with a fruit salad and the most amazing cookies and cream mousse, I had a Beef Moosh thing, that came with a side salad, I also received the Cookies and Cream mousse as well as a baby "boost" chocolate bar. It probably wasn't as nice as some of the airplane food I've had in the past. Later on they gave us a hot chocolate with marshmallow, and for supper there was a roasted red pepper & sun blushed tomato pizza sub. The flight wasn't too bad, but I wasn't able to sleep much. Alison however was able to get some sleep. The movies that were being shown weren't the most exciting either, so was a dull sort of flight. When breakfast came around, I chose the cold option of Muesli, muffin, fruit salad, juice and milk. Alison went for the hot option and received Some type of egg thing, with spinach, hash browns, muffin, fruit salad and juice. When we were coming into land in what was morning for LA, I was just excited to see the Hollywood sign 😊 The size of LA looked massive. It just went on for miles and miles. It was on touchdown that Alison with no warning had all her stomach contents leave her stomach and go all over her dress. I then was gagging as I try to bag up the chunks of it. We were in a bit of a bother, and decided we couldn't sit there, and I told her to get up to the toilet to try to clean up and take the smell away from other passengers. The flight attendant was initially upset with us, but we were only ferrying to the gate, and when he saw why we were getting up, he was fine with it. Alison was getting upset because she couldn't clean it all off. The flight attendant was lovely and offered to go and get some of the business class PJ's so she could wear them instead, saying they just looked like a track suit anyway. Talk about a score for her!

It was confusing when we got off the plane, we weren't catching the same plane to New York even though it was the same flight number. We had to pick up our bags and go through customs as this was the first stop into the United States, and on leaving the area we were given directions to where we were to catch the next plane. It was just before leaving that area we left our bags again to walk around to where we were then to catch the new flight. Unfortunately the directions were confusing as all hell and we wandered around outside and ended up in the wrong terminal. People in that terminal couldn't help us as apparently our tickets were wrong, because they had Sydney to New York, and they dont have planes that do that. It was a case of turning around to walk back to where we came from and then discover we had to kind of stay in the same building but just go up some lifts and walk over and through some other gates to find our gate. Even that ended up being confusing so I found the Qantas desk, they printed out new tickets for us and directed us exactly where we had to once again go through security to find our plane. There was enough time to do another phone charging before once again jumping on a plane.

The plane was a newer looking plane, we even got power points to charge our electricals! Even better still this time it was lovely, the plane was nearly empty! Talk about a complete score. I made Alison jump in the row of three behind me so we had a row to ourselves. The pilot made announcements informing us when we were going over the Grand Canyon and encouraged those sitting on the right hand side of the plane to wander over to the left to look out the windows. We were lucky enough to already be sitting on the left, however Alison slept through the whole show, much to the horror of those Right hand passengers trying to find a window to look out. I couldn't believe how massive it all looked. Definitely a place I want to see in my bucket list, that being said, after this trip, not sure I am wanting to jump on a plane in a hurry. This flight "only" being a 5 hour flight, it wasn't so bad. I think I managed to dose off for a short time, but definitely didn't sleep properly for the entire flying experience. Arriving in New York still seems exciting for me. Flying over the city and seeing central park is just amazing. I'm sure it would be so much prettier in the Spring time to take away from how dull the actual city looks. It has this kind of brown glow to it all. Seeing the JFK airport also exciting. I'm not sure why the airport name impresses me so much. I guess because of its size. However for its size and the fact that it has so many terminals waiting for planes and its shopping, you are so much better off landing and flying out of Hong Kong. Which to me is still my favourite Airport. That being said, it does look nicer than the really old hospital feel I got from Heathrow all those years ago.

I do love the whole waiting for luggage on the carousel part of these trips. Its a whole different world and a dog eats dog one as everyone eagerly awaits their bags. We made it out of this sanctum and on the outside, I got out my coat and winter clothes to protect myself for the outside, Alison, who knew better than me, didn't worry about it, then we made our way out to the Taxi line. There was a reasonable line, however it was clearly very well. We did freeze to death, and Alison was blowing out white smoke from her mouth. The Taxi ride into the City and our First hotel, which was the Fairfield Inn & Suites Manhattan Fifth Avenue didn't take too long. It was funny walking into the hotel and they seemed busy. One person staying in the hotel interupted the staff to find out where the all important Ice Machine was. I guess to them it didn't matter that the staff member was on the telephone, their needs way more important! We patiently waited our turn, received our key and headed up to the room. Now having booked all the hotels months in advance, I had known that some were separate beds, and others were shared beds. This was one occassion where we had to share a bed. The room was tiny, but comfortable. There was an odd looking coffee machine that we used once, however I guess Americans aren't that big on putting milk in their coffee, because there just wasn't much provided. A coffee machine was available for guest use at all times on the ground level, and we frequented this taking handfuls of the milk to get the right balance. They also had flavoured milks which was a nice touch.

Due to the fact that we had arrived to the hotel and it was only just early evening, I decided it would be good to go for a walk over to Times Square just to show Alison one of the most famous sites in America, and keep ourselves awake a bit, so that we could start adjusting to the new Time zone. Alison opted to keep the PJ's on for the walk. I thought this was pretty funny. I wouldn't be seen dead walking around in PJ's but as the flight attendant had stated, they could pass off for Track suit pants. I do love the lights and the whole feel of Times Square. Its a portion of city that appears to never sleep. I showed Alison the M&M's world, to which she wanted to buy everything, we then walked into the Toys R Us and she wanted to jump on the Ferris Wheel, and we had a look around the Disney shop. We didn't spend too much time there, but enough to walk and feel refreshed but eager to hit a proper bed and sleep.

I guess the last thing that was of any note for the day (being the worlds longest day!), we had just finished watching whatever rubbish was on TV and turned out the lights to go to sleep. It was at this time that our neighbours in the room opposite us (our feet end), decided to get frisky. It took all of two seconds to work out what was going on, I think I turned to my daughter, she turned to me and be both did the OMG face then burst into laughter. It was a very awkard laughter. Now if we could hear them "going" at it, i'm sure they could have heard our laughing and could toned it down alot. However not to be put off by it all it just seemed to keep going and going. I had to run off to the toilet before I wet myself, my daughter hid under the pillow and told me to let her know when she could come out. We proceeded to turn on the TV a bit louder and tested the waters 45 minutes later when we finally got to sleep.

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Photos

New York Trip (3 of 40)
My babies watching the activity at our plane

New York Trip (4 of 40)
Alison was funny. She would not stop talking or figiting asking what everything was. Thought "omg its going to be a long long flight!"

New York Trip (5 of 40)
Looking back over Adelaide. First flight Adelaide to Sydney

New York Trip (7 of 40)
First time in a very long time that I've had a "serviced" flight within Australia. Not sure about cornflakes with pineapple however!

New York Trip (8 of 40)
Doing the taxi from Domestic to International through Sydney airport. Was amazing seeing these huge planes in the hangers

New York Trip (9 of 40)
All our planes weren't in complete view. Not the best for trying to photo journal people!

New York Trip (10 of 40)
Have to laugh, the angle makes it look like we are taking off

New York Trip (12 of 40)
We were delayed over forty minutes in a very hot plane. We initally started out to the runway, but one of the passengers upstairs fainted, so they removed her and her luggage from the plane. She was even sitting in Business Class ..... The cabin was way too hot and made for a very sickening wait

New York Trip (13 of 40)
View from our window at Sydney Airport

New York Trip (14 of 40)
On Landing at LA. Alison Vomited all over herself with no warning. The flight attendant was up in arms at us, because I got her up and into the toilet, but when he saw what was going on he was sweet and got her some business class PJ's to change into for the rest of the flight.

New York Trip (15 of 40)
Our new Plane to JFK

New York Trip (16 of 40)
Rocking out the Free PJ's

New York Trip (18 of 40)
Definitely a nicer and newer plane.

New York Trip (19 of 40)
Being empty, everyone spread out. Alison sat behind me, and we were both able to stretch out over 3 seats. Perfect!

New York Trip (20 of 40)
Near the middle of those hills sits the Immortal "Hollywood" sign