COSMOS TOUR – Part 1 – My Amazing Experience in New York …

WOW … I am speechless …. I am back from the most incredible FREE (us hardworking agents we are offered these from time to time) Cosmos Tour with the best Tour Guide … Good Olde Babs and the organizers from Cosmos Anna and Vicki. I am extremely grateful to my company cruise.co.uk and feel so lucky to have been a part of this.

I am going to share this with you in 3 parts as I have so many pictures I want to show you and I want to try and take you long with me on the most unforgettable journey I have just returned from:

Thursday 23rd March – My Itinerary was awaiting me ….. NEW YORK AND HISTORIC PENNSYLVANIA – 5 NIGHTS –

As a group we were to meet at Heathrow for 8:30.  17  of us in total from all different walks of agents, we are all so used to travelling on these trips where you meet everyone for the first time all together, but of course it can still be quite daunting, HOWEVER, this group were the most amazing, fun and easy going fantastic people I have ever met and we hit it off straight away … (Think this does always make it easier for the tour guides / organizers of course)

After enjoying a drink at the airport, we met our Tour Guide Barbara (On a standard Cosmos Tour the Guide would be waiting to greet you at the hotel) and we were taken to our accommodation for the next 2 nights – Skyline Hotel

This evening we were to enjoy dinner at the Heartlands Brewery, so Barbara decided a tour of Times Square along the way would be perfect (We had to fit in as much as possible) This is literally the heart of Manhattan … Did you know the minimum wage in NY is £2.13 per hour so the staff rely on their tips as part of their salary ….

After dinner, as we only had 2 nights in New York I wanted to make the most of the Big Apple as possible so this evening myself and one of the girls visited Top of the Rock …. I can now see why some prefer going up this to the Empire State as the view is incredible … I would highly recommend this at night time as it is so quiet so you can really get up close and personal with the view down below, the latest entry is at 11pm. (This was at 10:30pm) and it costs $34 each.

Friday 24th March – This was a day of sights …. We began with a city tour with no one other than Danny Devito himself … in disguise ….. HONESTLY, he sounded like and looked just like him, his knowledge was just oozing from him continuously.  The tour took us through the streets of New York from the Lincoln Center which is home to New York Ballet, Trump Tower, to The Plaza Hotel used in the film Home Alone and to also view the Empire State Building from the center of New York to finally the famous Grand Central Terminal (which in New York is a landmark but if this was in the UK would be classed as a listed building)  ….

As part of the tour we were taken down to view the 9/11 memorial and this was very surreal, moving and heart wrenching to say the least, to just be there in that area.  The memorial consists of beautiful water fountains surrounded by the names of everyone that was sadly taken on that day, where a rose or a US flag is appointed to their name on the day of what would have been their birthday each year. There is also a museum now, which we later on this day came back to a few of us to visit and felt like this was our way of paying respect. This was extremely heart breaking and overwhelming.

After this packed morning we then embarked on a Harbor cruise for an hour and a half, this has 4 stops including Manhattan, World Trade Center, Brooklyn Bridge and another pier in between (we visited Statue of Liberty but this was not a stop, so this can be used as a hop off and hop on tour if you wish ….

After this we had our own free time where we visited the 9/11 museum (costing only $24 each and all proceeds of course are used to continuously maintain the area) and we joined everyone for dinner this evening at Hooters and then again after we visited the Empire State (we had spent all afternoon in the museum, longer than we had planned but there is so much to see and you want to see it all and take it all in out of respect) It was soo windy, it was like a hurricane had all of a sudden hit us …

Saturday 25th March – This was an immense day and one I will never forget ….. After a hearty breakfast, I started off with a morning jog with one of the other girls and Anna one of the Cosmos Reps from the hotel to CENTRAL PARK (Takes about 20 minutes) if you are happy to have a walk I would recommend this hotel, if not one closer in the more central area of Manhattan would be more suitable ….  We then continued this run around Central Park, joining in with all the American joggers and this was by far one of the biggest highlights for me … WHAT A WAY TO BEGIN MY MORNING..

To finish off our last few hours in New York, 3 of us decided to take a horse drawn carriage around Central Park and visit a few of the shops on the famous Fifth Avenue …

When in New York I would highly recommend making the most of every minute you have, this city has so much to offer and even after visiting 11 years prior to this stay, the city will always remain one of my favorites in the world ….

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR PART 2 OF MY AMAZING JOURNEY  … LANCASTER, THE AMISH WAY OF LIFE AND THE BATTLEFIELDS OF GETTYSBURG …