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Thursday: NYC, Acela, Residence Inn
Jun. 20th, 2019 11:00 pmToday, T. had his last day of school. It was early release and he got home around 11 a.m. No babysitter, because today we drove to Rte 128 station and took the Acela to Penn Station in NYC. We paid extra and got first class tickets. As near as I can tell, other than the obvious on the website differences such as price and refund policies and so forth, the main difference in first class is seat size, meals, drinks and snacks included. The meal is about what you probably expect from when airplanes included meals (it is not as good as a first or business class meal on a plane now, at least not on Delta or JetBlue Mint).
Our previous Acela trip took place in 2006 or 2007, and we had coach tickets. We went to Newark on that trip and took a taxi to West Orange to visit extended family. R. got trapped on the car behind incoming passengers and I had to ask the train to wait so he could extricate himself. This was a much, much more pleasant experience, because there are a lot fewer passengers in the car so less competition to get on and off. Also, for whatever reason, it seemed like we had more time to board and debark at stations, which could have been a result of Penn vs. Newark. *shrug*
When we arrived at Penn Station, we found a bathroom, attempted to figure out where we could stash luggage on departure day (wound up with brochures for commercial locker space elsewhere) and got out of the maze of twisty passages and onto a subway train. We got out where we had planned to get out (yay!) despite some confusion, and walked the remaining fraction of a mile to the Residence Inn we had reservations at. They did not have the rooms we had reserved. Boooo! But they did knock some money off the rate of the room they had for me, so, you know, whatever. It worked out. Views from the 50th floor were amazing. Also amazing, how much of a sort of kitchen they wedged into the room. Not sure it is a win; the fridge compressor was kind of noisy, altho nothing compared to the room AC cycling on and off. NYC! Never quiet. But you do not go to NYC for quiet.
Our previous Acela trip took place in 2006 or 2007, and we had coach tickets. We went to Newark on that trip and took a taxi to West Orange to visit extended family. R. got trapped on the car behind incoming passengers and I had to ask the train to wait so he could extricate himself. This was a much, much more pleasant experience, because there are a lot fewer passengers in the car so less competition to get on and off. Also, for whatever reason, it seemed like we had more time to board and debark at stations, which could have been a result of Penn vs. Newark. *shrug*
When we arrived at Penn Station, we found a bathroom, attempted to figure out where we could stash luggage on departure day (wound up with brochures for commercial locker space elsewhere) and got out of the maze of twisty passages and onto a subway train. We got out where we had planned to get out (yay!) despite some confusion, and walked the remaining fraction of a mile to the Residence Inn we had reservations at. They did not have the rooms we had reserved. Boooo! But they did knock some money off the rate of the room they had for me, so, you know, whatever. It worked out. Views from the 50th floor were amazing. Also amazing, how much of a sort of kitchen they wedged into the room. Not sure it is a win; the fridge compressor was kind of noisy, altho nothing compared to the room AC cycling on and off. NYC! Never quiet. But you do not go to NYC for quiet.