Day 12: 21 May 2017, Sunday

Day 3 of our stay in NYC, and it’s finally time to shop! We had been saving our shopping mostly for this leg of the trip, because of the wonderful outlet shopping malls here in the United States. Before that, we needed to fuel up, so we went to McDonald’s for a reliable breakfast of Sausage Egg & Cheese McGriddles before catching our shuttle bus to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets.

As mentioned in my previous post, we had purchased the New York City Explorer Pass for 5 attractions, and the round-trip bus tour to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets is included as one of the attractions. Note that you will need to make a reservation by phone at (212) 246-0597 at least 48 hours in advance to secure your spot on the shuttle bus.

There are a few pickup locations but the nearest one for us was at ROW NYC hotel, at Eight Avenue & 45^th Street. All tours will return to ROW NYC. Click here for more details about the locations and tour timings. There are three tour timings for the shuttle bus: 8:30am departure / 3:00pm return; 9:30am / 4:00pm and 11:30am / 6:30pm. In order to maximise our day, we chose the earliest departure at 8:30am.

Woodbury Common Premium Outlets is located at 498 Red Apple Court, Central Valley, NY 10917-6619, about 77km away from ROW NYC. The bus ride took about 1 hour 10 minutes so we only arrived at 9:40am. A VIP discount coupon book is included in the tour so we went to the Welcome Center and obtained a “Savings Passport” each. Apparently, it is worth hundreds of dollars in additional savings at selected stores, but we ended up not using any of the coupons at all.

Woodbury Common features 240 stores with the most popular brands, including Nike, Adidas, Asics, The North Face, Levi’s, American Eagle Outfitters, Oakley, Calvin Klein, Armani, Boss, Coach, Polo Ralph Lauren and many more. The brands are quite similar to the premium outlet we visited in Toronto, but with bigger stores and a wider selection of goods. The discounts offered are actually comparable. In fact, the same item may even be cheaper in Canada because of the currency exchange rate. However, as we had saved our shopping for this day, we went all out, but soon found out that there wasn’t enough time to shop!

The drawback about booking the bus tour with the New York City Explorer Pass is that the bus timings are fixed and the time provided is insufficient. For the 8:30am tour timing that we chose, we had to depart Woodbury at 3:00pm. I know it sounds like there should be more than enough time but there really isn’t. The bus ride itself took more than an hour so we only arrived at Woodbury at 9:40am. And you’ll need to set aside some time for lunch too, so effectively, you have less than five hours to shop here. Don’t forget that the shops are spread out over a large area, so you’ll need time to walk to reach your favourite stores.

The New York City Explorer Pass website says that you may be able to change to a different return time based on availability on the day of the tour, but in actual fact, it was not possible. Everyone on our tour wanted a later departure but we were told that the later buses were all full so we had to stick with our 3:00pm departure.

I later found out that there are other companies offering shuttle bus services to Woodbury Common with better timings and more flexibility. For example, Gray Line (click here) offers a Flex Ticket at US$42 per adult, which allows you to choose from 8 departure timings and 13 return timings. Woodbury Shuttle (click here) has an 8am departure and 5:30pm return at US$46 per person (for 2 or more pax). These would have been much better. With at least 7 hours, can shop comfortably in peace without having to rush from store to store.

I did a fair of shopping but was limited by the time we had. I ended up buying a pair of Asics trail running shoes and socks, Tiger Onitsuka sneakers, Levi’s jeans, Calvin Klein apparel, Oakley sunglasses, The North Face tees and jacket, and that’s about it, really. For the record, the sales tax in New York is 8.875%, and there is no tax on clothes or footwear below US$110. But if any of the items exceed US$110, ALL the items will be taxed, so you should pay for the item exceeding US$110 separately. Clothes do not include accessories like sunglasses or bags. They refer to apparel that can be worn.

At 3:00pm, everyone boarded the shuttle bus with arms full of shopping bags but with an underwhelming sense of achievement. For some, it might have been damage control, because if they had a few more hours to shop, they could have bought the whole store!

The return journey took longer because there was a bit of traffic jam. On the way back, we passed by a massive food fair on a closed street and the bus guide told us that the annual Ninth Avenue International Food Festival was taking place. For more info, click here. He told us that the food was cheap and good, and encouraged us to go visit if we can. After we alighted at ROW NYC at about 4:30pm, we quickly went back to our hotel to drop our shopping bags before heading out again, because the food festival would be ending at 6pm.

For the Food Festival, Ninth Avenue was closed from 42^nd to 57^th Street, with stalls lining both sides of the road, stretching as far as the eye could see. It was really massive. Besides food stalls, there were also other vendors selling things like homemade CD mixtapes of disco songs, handphone accessories, handicrafts and T-shirts. Like a giant pasar malam. It was crowded but the street was wide enough to accommodate the crowd. The weather was sunny and warm, and the carnival-like atmosphere was very enjoyable. From the 45^th Street, we walked north towards 57^th Street.

Since it was a food festival, we decided to try some of the more interesting items. The first one we tried was the funnel cake, which was just fried flour with a generous helping of fine sugar powder sprinkled over it, like a doughnut. We then tried fried ice-cream, which was a ball of frozen green tea ice-cream coated with batter before being deep fried. Needless to say, both were super sinful since they were all deep fried and topped with sugar.

When we left at 6pm, many of the stalls were packing up already but there were still many people milling around. As it was still early, I decided that we should make the most of the good weather today to visit the Empire State Building, instead of leaving it for tomorrow. Earlier, I had checked the weather forecast for the next few days and it wasn’t too promising. Since it’s all about the view, you should take definitely advantage of good weather to visit.

From the 56^th Street at Ninth Avenue, we walked for about 2km to the Empire State Building (ESB) at 34^th Street. The observatory entrance is at 350 Fifth Avenue. The lobby of ESB is very beautiful and grand. After taking an escalator to the second level, we went through airport-style security checks and queued for a while to get our tickets. It wasn’t super crowded at the time and it took about 35 minutes before we entered the lift to the observation deck on the 86^th floor.

Before this, I was contemplating between ESB and Top of the Rock (at Rockefeller Center). Both buildings are skyscrapers offering superb views of the New York City skyline. The observation deck of ESB is higher than Top of the Rock’s, but at that height (over 300m above ground), it doesn’t make much difference. Both buildings are located in Midtown, about 1.5km apart, so the views are actually pretty similar. Rockefeller Center building is located further north so it offers a better view of Central Park, whereas from ESB, the view of Central Park is mostly blocked.

Additionally, one of Top of the Rock’s advantage is that it offers a view that ESB does not have – the view of ESB itself! The ESB is one of NYC’s most iconic and recognisable buildings, but you can’t get to enjoy it if you’re on ESB itself. Therefore, somewhat ironically, the best view of NYC’s crown jewel can be found at its competitor, Top of the Rock. In spite of this, I decided to visit the ESB instead of Top of the Rock simply because it is more iconic.

The Empire State Building has 102 floors and it stands at a height of 443.2m tall, including its antenna. When it was completed in 1931, it was the tallest building in the world until it was overtaken by the World Trade Center’s North Tower in 1970. In popular culture, the ESB was immortalised in the classic 1933 film King Kong, where the giant ape scaled to the top of the building with actress Fay Wray in its grasp. That remains one of cinema’s most iconic scenes.

 

Indeed, the view from the observation deck of ESB is astounding, so much better compared to the view from CN Tower in Toronto. In fact, I think this is the best view from any skyscraper in the world. Manhattan is incredibly dense, with hundreds of tall buildings packed into a tiny island. From here, you can clearly see the grid system in play, with most of the roads running parallel and perpendicular to each other, with the exception of Broadway. The most amazing thing is that in the middle of it all, there is a large swathe of greenery occupied by Central Park. Simply breathtaking.

We spent about 20 minutes at the observation deck admiring the view from all four directions, snapping photos at every angle. I would say a trip up the ESB is a must for anyone visiting NYC. Touristy, yes, but an unmissable experience. There are too many nice shots, so here are some of my favourites:

For dinner, we finally decided to give Shake Shack (click here) a try. All my friends raved about it and said that you can’t leave New York without trying it at least once. We went to the outlet at Herald Square, 1333 Broadway, less than 10 minutes’ walk from ESB. There was a queue but it wasn’t super long so it was still ok. We queued for about 5 minutes to place our orders and waited another 10 minutes for our food.

We ordered a Shake Stack burger, ‘Shroom Burger, Shack-cago Dog, BBQ bacon cheese fries, Fifty/Fifty iced lemonade tea and of course, a peanut butter shake. The bill came up to US$36.81 (S$51.50) altogether, which is quite pricey for fast food.

Shake Shack is famous for their milk shakes so you definitely have to try one. The peanut butter shake was very thick and sweet. The burger was good but super, super sinful. You could get a heart attack eating all this stuff! I felt like I needed to go for a run just to burn off the calories.

After dinner, we went back to Times Square and back to our hotel. We had a lot more to pack after all that shopping earlier today. Two more sleeps in NYC before we fly home!