Day 2: Shopping near New York…
This night was difficult we woke up several times because of the jet-lag and probably because of my cold. But in the morning we came out of bed without many problems because today would be shopping day!
We planned to meet Glenn & Gina on Staten Island so at 8:00 we left our hotel walked to Times Square from there we took the Subway 1 towards the Staten Island Ferry. The Staten Island Ferry is a free transit from Manhattan to Staten Island. Danielle found a great spot to make some pictures from the Statue of Liberty.
On the Staten Island side Glenn and Gina would pick us up with their car. First we gave them some gifts from Germany and soon we left for the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, one of the biggest outlet shopping centers in the world.
At about 11 o’clock we arrived and started with getting our free vouchers for extra reductions:
- VIP Coupon book with ‘Show Your Card’ (ANWB/ADAC/AAA)
- Free vouchers with a foreign MasterCard
- Getting a free suitcase when you spend 500$ or more on a MasterCard
- FourSquare check-inns for Specials
After getting an overview on what additional discounts for which shops were available we selects the first shop to visit, the 7 for All Mankind. I found 3 new jeans for about 75€ each which is a real bargain over the prices in the German outlets (180€). From there we went to the Converse where Danielle found a nice pair Converse in Stars and Stripes style.
At Michael Kors and Oakley we were not so lucky, but at Tommy Hilfiger Danielle hat her moment. Moment might be the worn word we stayed in the women part of the store for over 2 hours of shopping! At my side of the store there was not so much choice.
Since shopping makes you hungry we went to the Applebee’s for lunch to continue shopping afterwards. In the afternoon we spender an additional 2 hours of shopping at several stores like The Sunglass Hut, Vilebrequin, Uggs, The disney Store and more.
- 3 dresses
- 3 jeans
- 2 pants
- 1 pair of shoes
- 5 shorts
- 1 swimming pant
- 1 pair of sunglasses
- 2 suitcases
- 1 Polo shirt
And soon it was almost 6 o’clock and we were tired and ready to go back to our hotel. Glenn and Gina dropped us of right in front of our hotel so we didn’t need to travel from Staten Island back with 2 new suitcases full of clothing. After dropping of the suitcases we went to Times Square t check-out the Disney Store but we didn’t found any Tiger stuff for our little nephew but Danielle was lucky and found a new outfit for Duffy the Disney-bear.
Our feet were tired and sine I’m far from fit we went back to the hotel at 8:30.
Columbus day in Disney’s California Adventure…
Today was a national holiday called Columbus Day. Which ment it was going to be crowded in the parks today.
After we woke up we had some breakfast at the hotel we drive towards the parks. We picked up Gina & Glenn at their hotel and it was of to the parking lots. We parked at Goofy and took the train to the Downtown Disney Tram stop. Today it was going to be a full day at California Adventure.
First thing to do was getting Fastpasses for the 9 o’clock World of Color show, because it is such a great show and we want Gina & Glenn to have that great experience.
We had breakfast/lunch at the Pacific Wharf and our first real attraction of the days was the Hollywood Tower of Terror, which had again great airtime! Because we have the Photopass+ we can add all the on-ride photos to the Photopass as well. So the one from the Tower of Terror was the first of this day. Because there was no sign language interpreter at the Aladdin Musical today we did not do this show. We did a lot of big attractions today like Toy Story Midway Mania, Radiator Springs Racers, The Little Mermaid, Soarin’, Monters Inc. California Screamin’ and Mickey’s Fun Wheel which was really scary I think.
And we’ve also watched the Pixar Play Parade.
Today we got a lot of Photopass Pictures for our pass and did also a lot of different attractions. And after having dinner at the Garden Grill Restaurant we were getting ready for World of Color 1,5 hours in advance. But this show is really worth the wait and Sander even bought the glowing Mickey Ears and he is very happy with it.
As soon as the show was done we had a little bit of time left over before the park closed down. So we took Gina’s magical pass and did the Radiator Springs Racers one more time! It still is a cool race and it is even better when it is dark outside. Then we took some pictures from Radiator Springs by night and left the park to go to the parking lot.
We dropped Gina & Glenn of at their hotel and drove back to ours.
Tomorrow is again going to be a busy day for us. In the morning we have a LA-Tour planned which is going to take us to the most important landmarks in LA. In the evening we have tickets for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. So as you can see it is going to be – again – a very long day.