New York City

We arrived late Thursday night and as our shuttle descended down the highway on our way to Manhattan, we saw it, the beautiful New York City skyline. This city really doesn't compare to other cities. It's really is the city that never sleeps!

We arrived at our hotel; we were lucky to grab a cheap deal on a very expensive boutique hotel situated smack bang in the middle of everything; 2 blocks from the famous Fifth avenue shopping, 3 blocks from Times Square and Broadway and 6 blocks from the Empire State Building. The only thing that was lacking, was a small piece of grass for Roxy's morning and evening activities. NYC may be a beautiful city, but it is a concrete jungle, and when I asked the hotel reception where the nearest piece of grass was, she laughed at me.

There are many things about NYC that just make it the best city in the world, it's clean, the food is amazing, the entertainment is top notch and eclectic, the architecture is incredible and the people are super friendly! The only let down for us was the low level of accessibility.

The first day we went to the Rockefeller centre, a beautiful place for a nice day of ice skating. We saw many a pro out there practicing with their coaches. Next we were off to meet one of my old school buddies who lives in NYC for lunch, ended up at a restaurant in Little Italy called Pulino's. If ever you get to NYC (it really is hard to find a bad restaurant) but this food will melt in your mouth. After lunch we decided to head back to the hotel to pick up our tickets for the night's performance; however what should have taken us a 20 minute journey, it took us nearly 2 hours as their is only about 6 accessible subway stops and the elevator we needed for our subway was out of service so we had to ride all the way to brooklyn to be able to catch the elevator on the other side of the platform. Anyway we finally got to our stop, Grand Central Station, and it is every bit stunning and chaotic as you imagine!

The evening's performance we went to was Mary Poppins on Broadway. Much to Tim's disgust, I am not the musical theatre lover he wishes I was, so I was the skeptic about how Broadway compares to the likes of the general musical theatre genre. Well I was amazed, I fell in love with the theatre, the sets, the music and the acting. When I took a glimpse at Tim to see if he was enjoying the show, I did see a little tear in his eye.

The next day we decided to walk to the Empire State Building. Due to the wheelchair, we were lucky to be ushered straight through and not have to wait for 60-90 minutes. Up the top of 85 floors, I kept thinking of my mother who would have crawled up in a little ball of fear due to the height. It was a magnificent view. In my opinion, nothing beats the stunning architecture of the Chysler building! As you will able to see the Statue of Liberty looks mighty small from a 1250 foot tall building.

Next we walked to the Flatiron building, then off to Ground Zero. The memorial is very symbolic, some have commented that it is too symbolic; however I don't think 9/11 should be minimized, after the effects (especially psychological) may be somewhat permanent. Here are some photos, so you can judge for yourselves.

Next, thanks to Aunty Kym's tip, we headed off to Century 21 for a window shop, well that was my intention. We walked into a maze of designer bargains and after watching women wrestle one another for bargains, I decided it was too chaotic for me, but not before I left with my $1.50 couture wallet!

Next we took a hop on and off tour bus to Soho and Greenwich village.  Soho is very rustic and we would loved to have spent more time there, however the roads were cobble stoned and the paths were super skinny so it was a bit hard for Tim and Rox to navigate, so we grabbed lunch and then headed back on the bus to see some sights. We passed Wall Street and the financial district, the Marina (if we go back, we will spend some time there, it looked fabulous), Harlem and then back into the city, driving past Waldorf Astoria, Tiffany's and other famous hot spots.

The next day we decided it was time to hit Central Park, it was a gorgeous day so why not! We hopped onto the bus tour again and on our way to the Park we drove past the Guggenheim, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and all the other museums, the Lincoln centre and we stopped at the Cathedral of St. John the divine, took some photos and then headed off to the park. As you will see from the photos, we went in the season where there is not much green on the trees, but even so it was still a beautiful park. It was so big and so busy with lots of nooks and cranies to find a private spot on the lawn or an open space with entertainment. Plenty of walkers, joggers, bike riders and kangaroo hoppers.

For Lunch we dined at the boat house, which many friends recommended to us and rightly so. You do tend to wait some time for a table but it is worth it for the view, food and ambience! After lunch we strolled to strawberry fields, a memorial dedicated to John Lennon (near where he was shot). We then decided to make our way to the Central Park Zoo; however the park is so large we didn't quite make it in time before it closed.

We then caught the bus back to Times Square where we decided it was time for cocktail hour and then we headed on to our comedy show for the evening. We decided to do one musical theatre and one comedy show and we spotted that Eddie Murphy's brother Charlie was performing so we thought we would give it a go. The club was called Carolines, a famous comedy club on Broadway. The three warm up acts were very good and funny, and Charlie, well he looked, sounded and moved exactly like Eddie but lacked Eddie's comedic flare. Still a fun night!

There was so much more to do in NYC, but we ran out of time. Tim says "no worries, all things to put on the To Do List for our next visit." SO I guess this means we are going back!

All Star Movies Disney Resort & Downtown Disney

We arrived in Orlando Florida, hearing those screeching Nanny Fine accents that Florida Women are so well known for, yet dismissed it through our excitement that the weather was warm, the land filled with Palm trees (which always makes it feel warmer) and on our way to Disney. We didn't even have to pick up our luggage as the staff at Disney do all of that for you. For me (Mel) this is sweet music to my ears as it isn't easy to juggle 2 suitcases and push Tim in the chair. The Disney Magical Express was our chariot and it awaited. On board we looked outside the windows with anticipation to see some of the familiar icons of the parks, but icons we did not see. 30 minutes later overhead we passed under a massive banner welcoming us to 'World of Walt Disney' and another 15 minutes later we arrived at our hotel. We knew that the place was big but we seriously miscalculated the extravagance of this magical land.

We get to the hotel, only to discover sadly that Tim's hoist did not fit under the bed. This was going to be a bit of a problem. It is always hit or miss with hotels when we travel. We decided to call the front desk and just see if they possibly had another room that was more suitable to Tim's needs. Our request was met with, "don't worry Mr. McCallum we will look into it for you and let you know, why don't you go and have a magical evening out and leave us to fix the problem." Of course we were surprised by this response, even though lovely almost seemed misunderstood at how urgent this need was going to be. However we did as suggested and explored Downtown Disney.

Downtown Disney was a busy little hotspot for everyone, families, couples, children and young ones out for a party night. It had lots of little charming boutiques, a giant leggo store and of course the biggest Disney store in the whole world. Many restaurants to choose from, street performers and to Tim's delight, La Nouba (His favourite Cirque du Soliel show).

We headed back to the hotel with skeptical minds as to how they possible could have fixed the issue, or even if they had tried. We got back and to our amazement, while we were away, they built a new bed base for the bed with correct measurements to fit the hoist under. What service this was, amazing. We called them to thank them as ask them where we could find a grocery store to buy some dog food for Roxy, well within minutes we had a staff member at our door with kibble in her hand that she has gone and bought for us from the grocery store. Have you ever known service like this for a 'budget' hotel, even in a 5 star hotel, I have never experienced service as good as this. Check out our towel animals we found each day they came to clean our room.

We have include some of the fun characters that we ran into at the hotel. Every night that returned home, usually around 10-11pm at night we would find tons of kids in the pool. I could not believe how much energy these kids and parents had after a full day at the parks and then to swim all night as well. Disney world really is a child's Vegas!

Here is a clip of the journey from our hotel room door, through the resort and finishing at the bus stop where we caught the 'Magical Expresses' to the theme parks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s-R89hTNY8

LEGO Sculptures

These were all so Lego sculptures of dogs. So lifelike in fact that Roxy still gave them the traditional sniff from behind too. It was very funny when a little girl came up to pat these pretend dogs after we took this photo and she got the biggest fright when Roxy moved.