NYC Cruise Day 1

Day 1: New York City

Grant and I initially wanted to sail on the Carnival Vista trans-Atlantic from Barcelona to New York in October of 2016, but the cruise length plus all the travel time to get to Barcelona had us canceling that cruise for the repositioning from New York to Miami a month later. It was a shorter cruise and allowed us to spend a few days in the city being tourists.  Neither one of us had ever been, so we were excited about what was to come.

Grant booked the Staybridge Times Square via Hotels.Com almost a year in advance.  We were to fly in on Sunday and board the ship on Wednesday and two full days seemed like a good amount of time for an Introduction to New York City.

We had a 0600 departure out of LAX and stayed, as usual, at the Marriott Renaissance LAX the night before.  We parked at LAX’s C-Lot which is a mere $12 a night and feels secure enough for our car to sit there for a couple of weeks.  The shuttles are constant in both directions and the lot has become our go-to choice for LAX parking.

It's DARK at 3:30 in the morning!

The Renaissance can be had for about $150 a night, but the single-night parking is a ridiculous $38.  The hotel is only one block from C-Lot so we’ve decided the next time we have an early flight we’re going to park in C-Lot and walk our luggage to the hotel. The rooms are decent and we got an upper floor with a view of the airport.

Marriott Renaissance at LAX. The parking lot you see is C-Lot.

Our flight left on time and we had an uneventful non-stop flight to Newark-Liberty airport.  It was exciting to cross the country then see New York for the first time.  We’re so pedestrian. 

I’d reserved a limo from Dial7, which may or may not have been the best way to go.  It ended up costing us just under $100 with tip. I was under the impression that whatever the trip cost us didn’t include tip, but it did. Then we tipped on top of that. The driver got a VERY nice gift from us at the end of the ride, one we hadn't planned on giving.

Entering New York after going through the Lincoln Tunnel