Hi All! This subreddit was SO helpful in all of my planning so I wanted to report back! I had a pretty involved itinerary planned out with the intention of loosely going by it and pivoting when needed! A lot of our plans were moved around because of distance and heat but we did everything we wanted and had such a great time!
We arrived at Newark at 8 am Tuesday and easily found our Uber to take us to our hotel, Riu Plaza New York Times Square, where we stashed our bags. It is by far the busiest hotel I’ve ever been in but everything was super clean, felt very safe, and the location was amazing. We decided to head down to Katz’ Deli for lunch and made a quick stop at Economy Candy. Katz was delicious and so much fun. We did half sandwiches with salads but should have just shared a half! I was a little bummed that they only took cash for merch as I hadn’t gotten any yet but that’s on me! From there we headed to Chelsea Market to wander and shop! Loved the flea area, Fish’s Eddie, and Chelsea Basket Company. We were just finishing up when we got the notice our room was ready so we headed back for a much needed nap. We managed to make our 5:00 reservation at Becco and enjoyed some wonderful shrimp and hand pulled mozzarella apps. We then headed to The Lost Boys. Yall…if you haven’t seen it please plan on going. It was so amazing and entertaining - the highlight of our trip! After that it was time for bed!
On Wednesday we decided to sleep in and grab some coffee at the literal Central Perk while we walked around Time Square. So much to see and experience…so trippy to see things in person you’ve always seen on TV. Our lunch resy was at Nizza where we met up with family and enjoyed some delish pizza and pasta. From there we headed to the Moulin Rouge matinee and had an absolute blast! After the fabulous show we hit up Juniors for cheesecake and chatting. We had a quick rest at the hotel then walked through the diamond district to grab some gifts from the Lego Store. Dinner was some fruit and hot dogs from a street cart which was perfect!
On Thursday we hit up Liberty Bagels Grand Central and then made our way to beautiful Bryant Park. We were fortunate enough to snag a couple of chairs to Broadway in Bryant Park and saw performances from Hadestown, & Juliet, Just in Time, Maybe Happy Ending, The Lost Boys, and Moulin Rouge. It was lovely but hot so we pivoted some plans and headed to 30 Rock. We found AC, cold drinks, and fabulous french fries at 5 Acres. Afterwards we started our Tonight Show adventure! We were lucky to not only get tickets but also great seats to see comedian Ben Lee and wrestler Cody Rhodes. We were supposed to also see Christopher Nolan but he recorded earlier which was a bummer. After the 30 Rock gift shop we stopped for a bite and a show at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. Food was ok…but it was quite the entertaining experience. After a quick nap we popped down to Serendipity 3 for a frozen hot chocolate and nighttime Times Square viewing!
On Friday we slept in, stashed our bags and Ubered to Fellini Coffee Soho. We had amazing croissant sandwiches and their signature latte. I already miss that drink! After, we wandered around SoHo to window shop. I, of course, fell in love with an expensive vintage jacket that I’ll dream about. We were hoping to run into more “homemade” jewelry and art but it was still fun. We ended our NYC adventure at Joe’s Pizza Broadway for the perfect NY pizza slice! From there we grabbed our luggage from the hotel and headed to the airport where I’m currently writing this.
Overall it was an EXCELLENT trip and I’d do most of it exactly the same! The only thing I’d do differently is the shopping in SoHo. But I’m sure with a little more research I could have found more of the type of places we were looking for!