One World Observatory, 9/11 Memorial and Come From Away (Show 5) Fri. 29 Sep

Today the weather has started to change and we had our first day below 20 degrees, we've been having temperatures in the high 20s pretty much for most of the trip so it was a real surprise to have to wear jeans and a jacket. We headed downtown to the World Trade Centre site as we had tickets for the One World Observatory which has been built near to where the World Trade Centre towers once stood. We went to the observation deck which is on levels 100 to 102 and the views were amazing. We chose today as the forecast was the best all week and we weren't disappointed. 

Jersey City across the Hudson River 

The Statue of Liberty

One World Trade Center

9/11 Memorial where the World Trade Centre Tower once stood

Twisted metal beams from the World Trade Centre

Most of the Memorial doesn't allow photographs or video and the whole experience is sombre. 

Tonight we saw our 5th Broadway show - Come From Away, which coincidentally was conceived on the 10th anniversary of September 11th 2001. The show was fantastic. 

A great way to end our second last day in New York. 

New York, NY wanderings and Show 4 of 7 Thu. 28 Sep

Today was a slow start but we headed downtown to 14th street to walk the Highline to 34th street. We then wandered around New York City and looked at some famous locations. 

Views from Highline

New York public library

Grand Central station

Show 4 of 7 - 'A Bronx Tale' such a surprise. We enjoyed the show. 

Broadway shows 2 & 3 of 7 Wed. 27 Sep

Today was a relaxing day as we have 2 shows. We did a run this morning after a sleep in and then a bit of retail therapy. 

Show # 2 - Hamilton (Richard Rogers Theatre)

We had amazing seats in the front of the mezzanine

We've been wanting to see this show for a long time after hearing the cast recording and instantly falling in love with the whole concept of a hip-hop musical about Alexander Hamilton. The book, songs and music are sensational and we both agree that this has to be one of the best musicals we've ever seen. It's like nothing we've seen before. 

Show # 3 - Hello, Dolly! (Shubert Theatre)

We had great seats in the orchestra tonight. Bette Midler was sublime as Dolly Levi and the show was well done, great sets, costumes and an amazing cast. 

Statue of Liberty and Broadway show 1 of 7 Tue. 26 Sep

Today we ventured down to Battery Park and took the ferry across to Liberty Is. to take a closer look at the Statue of Liberty and we had pedestal tickets, I wasn't quick enough to get us Crown tickets. 

The 3 deck ferry that transports you to/from Liberty Is.

Standing in front of the Status of Liberty on Liberty Is.

Panaramic view of New Jersey and Manhattan from the statue pedestal

Tonight will be the first of 7 Broadway shows that we'll see this week, we kick it off with Anastasia. The show was absolutely wonderful, the cast were fabulous including our very own Carolyn O'Connor. The set was amazing with the LED screens and I've not seen three revolves before which allowed sets to be changed extremely fast. The following shows are going to have a hard act to follow. 

Outside the Broadhurst theatre

Inside the Broadhurst theatre

The Broadhurst theatre for Anastasia

New York, NY Mon. 25 Sep

Today was our first full day in New York and we did some pampering and some exploring. The morning was spent having a relaxing massage that we had originally intended to do on our cruise which we ended up cancelling so we found a place in New York, not far from our hotel and we had a 60 minute deep tissue massage. Next stop was a haircut for us both and then we grabbed some lunch and ate it in Central Park. 

Central Park - lunch with a view and so quiet

A selfie in the park

A ride on the subway

Orlando MCO to New York, NY (LGA) Sun. 24 Sep

Apologies for the delay in getting this blog posted. We had a big day on Sunday with an early start at 6am with a plan to depart our hotel at around 8am for our flights to New York via Washington (Reagan DCA airport). 

Our bags are packed. It was a miracle that we got our bags closed before heading to the airport

Passing through Orlando was very busy with people everywhere. Once we passed through security it was smooth sailing. We waited for our flight in the small Admirals Club lounge. 

Waiting for our first flight of the day MCO to DCA

Cruising at 39,000 ft on our Airbus A319-112 AAL1890 MCO-DCA

ERJ-175LR DCA-LGA AAL4755 @ LGA (New York)

Both of our flights were fun and we enjoyed our flight experiences with American Airlines. It took us about an hour to travel into Manhattan from the airport and that's considering LGA is the closest airport. We settled into our hotel and then went out exploring in the city that never sleeps. It's great to be back in the big apple. 

The view from our room, our room overlooks Times Square

Disney Springs / Orlando, FL Sat. 23 Sep

Our final day in Orlando and we've had a relaxing day. We did some exercise this morning before breakfast and then we packed up all of our stuff so that we can get it all up to New York tomorrow, it took us until midday to rearrange our stuff into our bags as we've purchased a lot already. Once we had our bags packed we decided to head out and get some lunch so we wandered down to Disney Springs. We actually found a section that we hadn't explored before and we came across The House of Blues, we liked the menu so we decided to eat there. 

Balloon flight from Disney Springs

House of Blues restaurant 

House of Blues theming. The water tower can be seen from the balcony of our hotel 

We've had an amazing stay at the Holiday Inn Disney Springs and all of the staff have been amazing. We've had 17 days in Orlando and 12 nights at the Holiday Inn and it's going to be sad to leave tomorrow, but we're very excited about seeing New York and all of our shows that we have booked. 

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, FL Fri. 22 Sep

We had an early start today to make our way to Cape Canaveral to visit the Kennedy Space Center which opens at 9am. It has only just reopened after sustaining some damage due to Hurricane Irma

NASA / Kenedy Space Center entry

Vehicle Assembly Building - the flag alone is 21 stories

Atlantis space shuttle 

Atlantis experience at Kennedy Space Center

We had a great day exploring the centre and seeing the past explorations and hearing about what is planned for the future of space travel and exploration. Since the challenger missions were finished in 2011 these are now being run by private enterprises to maintain the international space station ISS project. 

Walt Disney World (part 6) Epcot Thu. 21 Sep

Today we headed back to Epcot to enjoy our final day at Walt Disney World. We had a great day of exploring the park in its entirety and we managed to ride most of the rides and enjoy some for the second time. Today the Fastpass certainly came in handy as the park seemed very busy. We had lunch at San Angel Inn (Mexico) and for dinner we enjoyed some of the food offererings from the Food and Wine festival. 

Fun with the Disney Photographers

Japan with Spaceship Earth in the background 

France in the background 

China

Spaceship Earth at dusk

We stayed to watch Illuminations at 9pm and then made our way back to our hotel. 

Day of relaxing Wed. 20 Sep

This blog post won't take very long. We had a nice sleep in after partying with MIckey and friends last night. After breakfast we headed over to Kissinmee to do some shopping and whilst there we decided to have lunch at Olive Garden. The afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool and the evening we went for a walk across to Disney Springs, it was such a perfect evening to be out and about. We have a few big days to come before we head up to New York on the weekend. 

Donald and Daisy at Disney Springs

Walt Disney World (part 5) Halloween party with Micky & Friends Tue. 19 Sep

Another big day in the Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney World. We had a nice long sleep in to begin the day and then followed that by a 7 km run, it was our first opportunity to do some excercise since leaving home. We then headed over to the Orlando Premium Outlet shops and had some retail therapy. The prices didn't seem that much different from some of our DFO stores at home and then when you do the conversion to AUD it wasn't that much of a saving but we managed to get some good bargains nonetheless. 

After a quick lunch we headed to Magic Kingdom park to go on some rides that we hadn't done before and also to get ready for the party this evening with Micky and his friends. 

No trip would be complete without doing 'It's a small World' and I still can't get that song out of my head. 

Haunted Mansion is another favourite ride that's a must do

Getting ready to party and go Trick or Treating in Magic Kingdom we had tickets to Mickey's not so spooky Halloween party

Cinderella's castle at night complete with ghoulish additions for Halloween 

Mickey's "Boo-To-You" Halloween parade at 11:15pm

We had a great afternoon / evening going to all of the treat locations to collect candy and riding some rides at night, we then got into position to watch the fireworks 10:15, Hocus Pocus Villain spectacular 10:45 and the then the parade. It was a late night and we left the park at midnight. 

Our candy stash