James F
Hyper Poster
American: "Where are you from?"
Me: "The UK"
American: "Where about?"
Me: "Manchester"
American: "Are you on vacation?"
Me: "yeah"
American: "... When are you going back?"
This was the average interaction I must of had about 3-4 times a day while waiting through cattlepen queue lines. I think it was only by day three when it hit me how far I was from home.
Unlike the mainland Europe trips I had done in the past which were more spontaneous, this trip was planned almost a year in advance.
To be fair, there were elements of my trip that required more planning than usual. I wasn't just going to one place, but several.
On top of all that I wasn't going to be using a rental car, instead I would be relaying on public and private transportation; how did that go? Find out!
--------------
May 22nd
Manchester Airport - Terminal 2
Of the countless flights I have taken from my local airport I have never flown from terminal 2 since it's referb. Most of my flights are usually Ryanair so the cramped and overcrowded terminal 3 is what I have become accustom to. I must say that this terminal is quite the contrast with wide open spaces and plenty of natural light. That doesn't mean it doesn't get busy though as all the restaurants still had queues coming out of the front door. Luckily they moved quickly and I had a table within 5 minutes.
I decided to eat at the Amber Alehouse, which was persistent in reminding it's patrons that they were in Manchester, from it's playlist of mancunian bands to it's "supersonic" mobile ordering app. I found it a little bit corny, but still the Seven Brothers Juicy IPA was top.
Before I had even had chance to finish my second drink it was time to board the plane.
I flew with Aerlingus on a direct flight from Manchester to JFK New York. Virgin Atlantic also offer this service, albeit more expensive.
This A330-300 was going to take me across the North Atlantic with a 7hr and 30 minutes flight time.
I was sat right at the back in economy on a window seat which worked out great as nobody was sat next to me and I had direct access to the toilet without needing to queue.
The flight felt quick, partly due to the in-service entertainment which offered at least 80+ films and plenty of tv shows. After watching two episodes of 'What We Do in the Shadows' and 'Goodfellas' I had a meal, snoozed and then was told we would be landing in an hour.
I arrived into JFK tired and admittedly a little nervous.
I had heard of the recent horror stories about tourists being detained and deported in the US over the past couple of months and with my unconfident arse I was worried about sounding overly nervous despite having nothing to hide.
I shuffled through the immigration queue clutching onto my passport like a nun with a cross.
Finally the time had come. I was about to be called forward and then the officer had closed the booth. For a second I feared that I would be pulled aside for further screening.
Turns out of course, that I had nothing to fear. He came back, I was asked some straight forward questions, my fingerprints were taken, passport stamped and I was on my way.
After arriving in New York it was time to find my accommodation. I was going to be staying in Queens as I would be flying from LaGuardia Airport to Cleveland tomorrow morning.
The accommodation I had booked was an apartment I found on booking.com. I had booked it because it was cheaper than the upscale hotels near the airport, but had better reviews than the cheap hotels in the area.
The only catch was that I would have to share the room with a cat.
I like cats so I had no issue with this and at the time of booking I thought it was cutsy and quirky. Grated by the time I was off the plane I was hoping that this cat would leave me alone, turns out that the cat wouldn't be an issue ...
I had arrived at the address which was a 7 story apartment building which looked sketchy. This didn't worry me too much as I had stayed in some hotels in Europe that had questionable lobby's but had nice rooms.
I entered the number provided by the host to call the apartment, but no one answered. I had also tried calling the host but no answer. I had previously told the host of my estimated arrival time weeks before so I was perplexed why no one was in. Another resident had walked through the building and let me in. I thought I might have some luck knocking on the door. The place looked even more dodgy on the inside. The fluorescent lights were flickering, the place smelt like p*ss and some of the ceiling tiles were missing. I found that there was indeed the accommodation labelled on the door of the apartment so at least it properly wasn't a complete scam. After trying the code, knocking on and getting nowhere with the supposed host I gave up.
At this point I just thought F**k this.
I can't be doing with this after a long haul flight and not having much sleep the night before. Screw the apartment, screw the host and screw the cat.
I messaged that I won't be staying the night and I booked a hotel closer to LaGuadia.
On second thoughts it's not the cat's fault.
The unplanned hotel near LaGuadia was fine, but it's main asset of location also became it's main issue as it was situated right behind the runway meaning that landing planes were incredibly loud. Fortunately they had stopped by 10pm which at this time I was well and truly shattered and fell right to sleep.
----------------------------------------------------
May 23rd
LaGuardia Airport
The next morning I awoke to a message from American Airlines that they would offer me $300 in travel credit for switching my flight. I had heard that airlines often overbooked flights to account for the income loss on no-shows. Most of the time this goes unnoticed as airlines usually calculate this correctly however on occasion they have made an error and the plane is overbooked and they ask for volunteers for people to take another flight in exchange for travel vouchers, failing this they have to involuntary bump people from the flight. After receiving this message I was worried that the flight was overbooked.
For whatever reason American Airlines do this on most flights, even when the plane is not overbooked. I have read online that it's so the airline can gather information to see who is interested, but it seems unusual to me.
I have to say that LaGuardia is looking sharp after it's refurbishment, definitely one of the better airports I have flown from.
My flight to Cleveland was at 7.55am and was scheduled to be a 1hr and 40 minute flight, unsurprisingly they had accounted for the taxing at LGA. The flight time was only an hour and with LGA being relatively quiet the plane was only taxing for about 10 minutes.
I arrived in Cleveland by 9:30am. The next task on the agenda was getting an Uber all the way to Sandusky. I had researched this before I had found plenty of rides available online as well as finding accounts from people who have also made the same journey.
After booking the journey I was provided with a driver within minutes so I can confirm that it's unlikely to be an issues if you do this yourself.
Arriving in the airport I was greeted with this sign informing me that Superman was created in Cleveland. Although I feel like New York City was more on a inspiration on Metropolis.
The Uber driver was a really friendly middle aged guy who kept asking me if I had seen the musical 'Hair' after mentioning that I was from Manchester, England. I have never heard of it to his disbelief. It was a 50 minute journey to Sandusky so we chatted about several things such as sports (which I know nothing about, but tried my best) and his past as an art teacher.
I arrived at the motel in Sandusky, checked in and dropped by bag off. I then booked an uber to the place I travelled all this way for, Cedar Point.
Me: "The UK"
American: "Where about?"
Me: "Manchester"
American: "Are you on vacation?"
Me: "yeah"
American: "... When are you going back?"
This was the average interaction I must of had about 3-4 times a day while waiting through cattlepen queue lines. I think it was only by day three when it hit me how far I was from home.
Unlike the mainland Europe trips I had done in the past which were more spontaneous, this trip was planned almost a year in advance.
To be fair, there were elements of my trip that required more planning than usual. I wasn't just going to one place, but several.
On top of all that I wasn't going to be using a rental car, instead I would be relaying on public and private transportation; how did that go? Find out!
--------------
May 22nd
Manchester Airport - Terminal 2
Of the countless flights I have taken from my local airport I have never flown from terminal 2 since it's referb. Most of my flights are usually Ryanair so the cramped and overcrowded terminal 3 is what I have become accustom to. I must say that this terminal is quite the contrast with wide open spaces and plenty of natural light. That doesn't mean it doesn't get busy though as all the restaurants still had queues coming out of the front door. Luckily they moved quickly and I had a table within 5 minutes.
I decided to eat at the Amber Alehouse, which was persistent in reminding it's patrons that they were in Manchester, from it's playlist of mancunian bands to it's "supersonic" mobile ordering app. I found it a little bit corny, but still the Seven Brothers Juicy IPA was top.
Before I had even had chance to finish my second drink it was time to board the plane.
I flew with Aerlingus on a direct flight from Manchester to JFK New York. Virgin Atlantic also offer this service, albeit more expensive.
This A330-300 was going to take me across the North Atlantic with a 7hr and 30 minutes flight time.
I was sat right at the back in economy on a window seat which worked out great as nobody was sat next to me and I had direct access to the toilet without needing to queue.
The flight felt quick, partly due to the in-service entertainment which offered at least 80+ films and plenty of tv shows. After watching two episodes of 'What We Do in the Shadows' and 'Goodfellas' I had a meal, snoozed and then was told we would be landing in an hour.
I arrived into JFK tired and admittedly a little nervous.
I had heard of the recent horror stories about tourists being detained and deported in the US over the past couple of months and with my unconfident arse I was worried about sounding overly nervous despite having nothing to hide.
I shuffled through the immigration queue clutching onto my passport like a nun with a cross.
Finally the time had come. I was about to be called forward and then the officer had closed the booth. For a second I feared that I would be pulled aside for further screening.
Turns out of course, that I had nothing to fear. He came back, I was asked some straight forward questions, my fingerprints were taken, passport stamped and I was on my way.
After arriving in New York it was time to find my accommodation. I was going to be staying in Queens as I would be flying from LaGuardia Airport to Cleveland tomorrow morning.
The accommodation I had booked was an apartment I found on booking.com. I had booked it because it was cheaper than the upscale hotels near the airport, but had better reviews than the cheap hotels in the area.
The only catch was that I would have to share the room with a cat.
I like cats so I had no issue with this and at the time of booking I thought it was cutsy and quirky. Grated by the time I was off the plane I was hoping that this cat would leave me alone, turns out that the cat wouldn't be an issue ...
I had arrived at the address which was a 7 story apartment building which looked sketchy. This didn't worry me too much as I had stayed in some hotels in Europe that had questionable lobby's but had nice rooms.
I entered the number provided by the host to call the apartment, but no one answered. I had also tried calling the host but no answer. I had previously told the host of my estimated arrival time weeks before so I was perplexed why no one was in. Another resident had walked through the building and let me in. I thought I might have some luck knocking on the door. The place looked even more dodgy on the inside. The fluorescent lights were flickering, the place smelt like p*ss and some of the ceiling tiles were missing. I found that there was indeed the accommodation labelled on the door of the apartment so at least it properly wasn't a complete scam. After trying the code, knocking on and getting nowhere with the supposed host I gave up.
At this point I just thought F**k this.
I can't be doing with this after a long haul flight and not having much sleep the night before. Screw the apartment, screw the host and screw the cat.
I messaged that I won't be staying the night and I booked a hotel closer to LaGuadia.
On second thoughts it's not the cat's fault.
The unplanned hotel near LaGuadia was fine, but it's main asset of location also became it's main issue as it was situated right behind the runway meaning that landing planes were incredibly loud. Fortunately they had stopped by 10pm which at this time I was well and truly shattered and fell right to sleep.
----------------------------------------------------
May 23rd
LaGuardia Airport
The next morning I awoke to a message from American Airlines that they would offer me $300 in travel credit for switching my flight. I had heard that airlines often overbooked flights to account for the income loss on no-shows. Most of the time this goes unnoticed as airlines usually calculate this correctly however on occasion they have made an error and the plane is overbooked and they ask for volunteers for people to take another flight in exchange for travel vouchers, failing this they have to involuntary bump people from the flight. After receiving this message I was worried that the flight was overbooked.
For whatever reason American Airlines do this on most flights, even when the plane is not overbooked. I have read online that it's so the airline can gather information to see who is interested, but it seems unusual to me.
I have to say that LaGuardia is looking sharp after it's refurbishment, definitely one of the better airports I have flown from.
My flight to Cleveland was at 7.55am and was scheduled to be a 1hr and 40 minute flight, unsurprisingly they had accounted for the taxing at LGA. The flight time was only an hour and with LGA being relatively quiet the plane was only taxing for about 10 minutes.
I arrived in Cleveland by 9:30am. The next task on the agenda was getting an Uber all the way to Sandusky. I had researched this before I had found plenty of rides available online as well as finding accounts from people who have also made the same journey.
After booking the journey I was provided with a driver within minutes so I can confirm that it's unlikely to be an issues if you do this yourself.
Arriving in the airport I was greeted with this sign informing me that Superman was created in Cleveland. Although I feel like New York City was more on a inspiration on Metropolis.
The Uber driver was a really friendly middle aged guy who kept asking me if I had seen the musical 'Hair' after mentioning that I was from Manchester, England. I have never heard of it to his disbelief. It was a 50 minute journey to Sandusky so we chatted about several things such as sports (which I know nothing about, but tried my best) and his past as an art teacher.
I arrived at the motel in Sandusky, checked in and dropped by bag off. I then booked an uber to the place I travelled all this way for, Cedar Point.
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