24 Hours in NYC with Kids (Plus Review of Hyatt Place New York Midtown-South)

This is the next installment in a series of posts on my recent trip to Europe. See introduction: Back from another  family reunion: galloping through Europe and driving my husband crazy

Adding a NYC stopover wasn’t originally something I planned to do. Going to Europe with kids is hectic enough, and my husband isn’t a fan of complicated itineraries. However, my daughter has been asking me to go to NYC for some time, with the idea of visiting museums and Nintendo store.

Since I was looking to use up my stash of Avianca miles, redeeming them on a flight from JFK was the easiest way to do it. So I figured this was a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. My husband was hesitant, but in the end agreed. He has a hard time saying No to our daughter, but it came in handy in this particular case.

We could only spare one night for the city, so I had to talk myself out of planning too much. I’ve decided to focus on a few things that my daughter specifically requested. But first, we had to get to NYC from Florida.

Our Jet Blue flight from Sarasota to JFK

I was excited when I saw that a nonstop flight from small Sarasota airport (closest to our home) to JFK would only cost me 7,500 points per person. This was a terrific deal, and the departure time was ideal. We were supposed to get to JFK around 2 PM, leaving us a few hours to explore the city. If you are familiar with Jet Blue, you know where this is going. Yup, our flight was delayed by 1.5 hours. Not a huge thing, but very typical.

This is something Jet Blue needs to resolve if it wants to compete with big US carriers. I’m actually a fan of the airline, but I estimate that 8 out of 10 of our  flights on Jet Blue in the last few years have been delayed. That being said, legroom in regular Jet Blue economy is decent, an important detail for tall people like my husband. And overall, every employee  we have interacted with was pleasant. Last but not least, United wanted 18k miles per person for Sarasota-Newark flight, making Jet Blue seem like a bargain.

Will I fly on Jet Blue again? Absolutely. I still have 230k points I need to burn and hope to use those for our flights to/from west coast. But it’s probably not the airline to book if you need to get to an important event and don’t have a lot of leeway. I figured since we were flying to NYC the night before our flight to Brussels, it would be sufficient. And it was.

Btw, all things being equal, you definitely want to fly to LaGuardia airport, which is much closer to Manhattan. It took us one hour in traffic and $100 (including tip)  to get to our hotel via Lyft from JFK during rush hour. I didn’t really have an option, as Jet Blue only flies from Sarasota to JFK, but it’s an FYI for those of you not familiar with NYC airports.

Review of our hotel

I’m not opposed to splurging, but decided to save our Hyatt points and book Hyatt Place New York Midtown- South rather than Park Hyatt New York most in our hobby would pick.

 

Location in midtown Manhattan was very convenient

The former cost me 20k Hyatt points per night and gave us a relatively large room (by NYC standards) with two queen beds and a queen sofa sleeper:

It was cosy, but we only needed to stay there overnight, and I don’t really have extra Hyatt points to throw around.  There is some noise at night, but it’s not terrible (again, by NYC standards).

 

Thanks to my Discoverist status via Hyatt credit card, we were upgraded to a room with the view of the Empire State building. I didn’t even have to ask. I checked and this room goes for $600 per night, which seems insane to me. But that’s New York for you!

So, paying just 20k Hyatt points is a terrific deal, to say the least. Another perk of being a Discoverist: guaranteed 2 PM checkout at non-resort Hyatt properties. This was a major benefit on this trip, since our flight from JFK was set to leave at 6 PM the following day.

Breakfast was typical Hyatt Place fare: nothing special, but good enough. Coffee was decent.

The dining area was completely packed, but we were allowed to eat in the lobby. And of course, there is always an option to go to your room.

The hotel has a rooftop terrace with amazing views of the city:

This would be a cool spot to open a bottle of wine in the evening, but we didn’t have  the time

All in all, I consider this hotel a terrific points value for NYC as long as you don’t have a “Park Hyatt or bust” mentality. If you are a lowly Discoverist, you get a solid deal for your points, including late checkout and a possible upgrade. And of course, breakfast is complimentary for everyone, no need to be a Globalist.

Is it a memorable property with a breakfast you will dream about years later? Not really. But if you just need a convenient NYC hotel that you will mostly use for sleeping and showering, it’s a great option. The fact that you can legally fit six people in one room is a rarity in this city. Although to be clear, it will be very tight. But for our family of four it was more than adequate. I would not hesitate to book it again.

If you are looking to accumulate Hyatt points, the best way to do so is via transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards. A combination of cards to consider for that purpose: Chase Ink Business Cards (Nancy’s referral link) + Chase Freedom Flex or Chase Freedom Unlimited (Leana’s referral links)

Another NYC bargain for families is Club Wyndham Midtown 45 where you can get a 1-bedroom condo for only 15k Wyndham points per night. But award availability is spotty, and two-night minimum stay is required.

What we did around NYC

We got to our room around 5 pm and the first thing on my agenda was dinner at Dim Sum Palace, located within walking distance from our hotel. That’s a place that makes me want to go back to NYC, no question about it. I’m salivating just thinking about it.

 

Lots of vegetarian options, like these spicy mushroom buns I absolutely loved:

So good

My daughter wanted to try Peking duck:

Two thumbs up, waaaay up.

After dinner my husband took a short nap, and afterwards we ordered an Uber to go to lower Manhattan with the goal of catching Staten Island ferry  My daughter really wanted to see the statue of Liberty, and this option costs nothing. I had low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised. We caught the ferry right after sunset, and the views were stunning.

The boat actually got closer to the statue than I expected.

Since we were there on Saturday, we were mostly surround by other tourists. Make sure to get to the right side of the boat for best views.

There are many cruises offered in the evening, and most of them get close to the Statue of Liberty. However, I truly think that Staten Island Ferry is good enough and have no regrets saving our money. YMMV

After our “cruise” my husband and I have decided to save money by taking subway to our hotel instead of Uber. Well… Somehow we got on the wrong line (my bad) and ended up getting off at the station located 1.5 miles from our hotel. And it was raining. So, we got an Uber. We had a good laugh at our miserable attempt to do as New Yorkers do. All part of the adventure, right? We got to our room at 10:30 pm, exhausted from the full day of activities. But we got decent-ish sleep that night, so there is that.

The next morning the boys wanted to relax in the room while me and my daughter went to the The Met Originally she wanted to visit MoMa, but changed her mind at the last minute. Sounds good to me, as I consider The Met to be the best museum in the US, bar none.

Since I signed up for free 6-month Cultivist trial courtesy of my Capital One Venture X card before June 22nd, our admission was free. That saved us $47 on tickets, nothing to sneeze at. Sadly, that deal is now dead, but hopefully some of you got a chance to take advantage of it when I mentioned this promo on the blog in April.

My daughter is a museum lover just like me, so we had a great time exploring The Met for a few hours.

Highly recommended and worth a trip to NYC just to visit this museum. The Egyptian section is incredible, but there is truly something for everyone here.

My daughter loved the American section, which doesn’t seem to get a lot of love. We were the only people there.

I made arrangements to meet my husband and son at the Nintendo NYC store, so my daughter and I took an Uber there from The Met (the ride took only 8 minutes or so). While not my cup of tea, this stop was a must for our kids.

The store seemed smaller than the  one we visited in Osaka, but my children didn’t care.

After spending one hour and obscene amount of money on junk, we grabbed a quick lunch at a Starbucks across the street and ordered an Uber back to our hotel. Our adventure in NYC was over, but exciting  adventure in Europe was about to start.

Final thoughts

While our time in NYC was certainly hectic, I don’t have any regrets, and neither does the rest of my family. We had a great time: grabbed some authentic/delicious Chinese food, took a free cruise and saw the Statue of Liberty up close (ish), visited a world-class museum and shopped at the Nintendo store. We can’t do any of those things in Florida, except maybe Chinese food, but even  that  would require a drive to a big city like Orlando.

If you are planning to fly to Europe from Midwest or South, having a stopover in NYC shouldn’t add that much in a way of mileage cost or flying time. Obviously, it will add stress, and Uber costs quite a bit if you are flying  to/from JFK. Hotels also aren’t cheap, though using points can take a sting out of it. Many programs, like Virgin Atlantic and Air France Flying Blue, have very reasonable costs on economy flights from JFK to Europe, so it could be a 2 for 1 deal if you are flying from Florida, for example.

Normally, I would add Avianca to that list, but it looks like they have devalued their program in the last couple of days. Our flight from JFK to Brussels now costs 35k miles per person in economy instead of 22k miles I paid last year. Looks like I burned my stash just in time.

Fortunately, NYC still has many bargains when it comes to flying to Europe, whether you are paying miles or cash. Adding a one or two-night stopover can be an exciting opportunity to see the city that never sleeps.