Saturday morning we (Myself and my friend (who does not wish to be named)) arrived at Dublin Airport to fly to Steward International Airport (SWF) in the outskirts of the city!
As a person who has never travelled this long before, I didn’t know what was in store for me, but after doing a bit of prepping and planning, I was able to get through security, get through Pre-clearance and then get on board our Norwegian Airways Boeing 737-MAX 8 for SWF.
The original schedule said that the flight would take about 8 hours, but we were informed that due to there being no headwind, we would arrive about an hour and 5 mins early. All happy days!
On board, the seats were nice, but not exceptional (Think Ryanair seats but comfier) and there was a decent amount of legroom, obviously more would have been better, but this was nice all the same. The food on board was few and far in-between. From sandwiches to a ‘salad’ to a ‘fruit’ salad, there was nothing that could been bought that would have filled you for the flight.
There was a hot meal provided for everyone and of course for people that had special dietary requirements. My friend cannot eat gluten, so she had a special chicken dinner which brocolli and a bit of salad. Friend didn’t like the food as it felt a bit ‘off’. I on the other hand had a ‘beef dinner; which comprised of 2 small slices of roast beef, carrots, broccoli and some form of ‘mash’. A small pesto pasta salad and 2 small “Lily O’Briens” chocolates. I gave the “Salted caramel” on to Friend and she thought it was very nice. I had the “keylime pie” sweet and it brought me wayyy back to my childhood by reminding me of a “Loop the Loop” ice-cream!
Anyway, we were treated a complimentary glass of wine and then followed up by a complimentary cup of coffee. After the meal (Which was approx half way through the flight), we ordered more wine and by the time we got off the plane….we were a bit tipsy lol!
We landed into (what seemed to be) the smallest airport. No thrills, no frills. No customs check (As that was done at Dublin Airport) and as soon as we collected our bags, we left to get a bus journey from SWF to Times Square (41st street & 8th avenue). We left SWF at approx 5:30pm to arrive in Times Square by about 7:30~~ ish.
When we arrived, both of us were absolutely tired and we just wanted to get to our AirBnB. So I requested an Uber. This was all ok until the driver asked us to meet us up the road. My iPhone’s GPS was freaking me out by putting me on all 4 sides of the street and I couldn’t make out what was going on. This was not planned and failed miserably. Cancelled the Uber. Oh well! We were passing the grand terminal and we kept getting asked if we needed taxi’s and eventually we settled to get a taxi by a Indian man. We decided to get a taxi to our AirBnB. Trip took about 25 mins or so.
We arrived in our very beautiful AirBnB in New Jersey. We were tired but we were hungry, so we decided to head to the nearby Burger King. I got a small chicken sandwich and a small chip and Friend decided to get chicken nuggets and chips. We couldn’t finish it….we were full (Was this Weightwatchers telling us no?? 😛 ) At about half 8, we decided to return to our AirBnB to crash for the night!
Overall, today was good. The planning for the taxi to our AirBnB could have been planned better but since we are both new to NYC, we are bound to make mistakes on this trip.
Today, Sunday, we are planning to go to the MetLife stadium and watch the Atlanta Falcons take on the New York Jets in a NFL Football match!