TWA Hotel Brings Back Lots of Memories

The first time I was in the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport in New York was when I was 11 years old. After years of taking road trips down south or cross country each year, we were taking our first flight. It was to Florida, and we were leaving out of this modern terminal on a jet plane.

It looked just as I remembered when I arrived at the TWA Hotel in the same spot as the old terminal. I had left the Viana Hotel in Westbury to spend  24 hours here before my flight home to Champaign the next day. 

From the moment I wheeled in on my scooter, I was transformed back into the 70s, with music from that period playing throughout the building, as well as photographs, memorabilia, and even cars. All was in bright colors, predominantly the TWA red.

 

Check-in to the TWA hotel was familiar at the counters previously used to check in to your flight. The ones that were not being used for that were spots for quick service food, forming a bit of a food hall with favorite New York comfort food such as Mister Softee Ice Cream and Feltman’s of Coney Island Hot Dogs.

 

I had a Deluxe Accessible Room, which overlooked an actual runway. It was designed to match the period and the airline, with things like a little amenity bag like you used to get on long flights, and a rotary phone. There was also luxurious robes and a very comfortable king bed.

 

I was really hungry and, even though it was cold and rainy, I headed up to the Rooftop Bar. There was a heated pool there from which you could watch the planes take off. I wasn’t that brave, but I stepped inside the bar and café, where I enjoyed a spiked hot chocolate and a delicious turkey sandwich with cranberry and brie.

 

It was time for me to put my feet up and get a little work done for  a few hours. There were blackout shades, and the rooms were very soundproof so the planes taking off did not disturb me.

My cousin, Marissa, who spent time with me in Chelsea, came to meet me for dinner at Paris Café by Jean Georges. It was far from airport food as we feasted on Shaved Broccoli & Kale Salad, Burrata, Tagliatelle Mushroom Bolognese, and Sesame Crusted Salmon, with carrot cake for  dessert.

 

I slept well in the quiet room with the shades down. In the morning, I met one of my oldest--in how long I’ve known her, not age—friends for breakfast at the Paris Café. Donna and I had gotten our journalism degrees and worked on the college newspaper at CW Post, now known as Long Island University, Post Campus.

 

She is now also a travel writer and we try to see each other at least once a year. We had a long overdue catch up and a delicious meal. I had banana pancakes and scrambled eggs, and Donna had an omelet (you can choose what you want in it, including smoked salmon). The coversation and the food was all great. 

There was time before my flight to explore more. I couldn’t help but smile as I made my way through the 70s, including a Sweet ‘N Glow Salon, Twister Room, displays of flight attendant uniforms through the years, and that famous TWA plane, Connie.

 

I opted to take an Uber to the  American Airlines  terminal as I had luggage, and it wasn’t that close. It was too much for me in the scooter. Most  people can walk and/or take the train that runs through JFK. There is also a direct door from the TWA Hotel to the Jet Blue Terminal.

It was a wonderful trip to New York, visiting family and friends, and discovering unfamiliar places. I thank the ILoveNY team for helping me with the latter and look forward to working with them again.

I was hosted for some of this trip, but views are my own.

Leaving Our Princess Cruise and Back in Seattle

After a week on the Royal Princess, it was time to leave. Sometimes I am anxious to get off a ship—especially in hot weather when my only escape is a too cold ship. This was not the case during our voyage to Alaska.

Everything had gone pretty much according to plan and Princess Cruises had treated us very well.

We had to get up very early to have breakfast and get the last of our carry-on packed up and ready to be off by about 9:00 am. We had decided, instead of rushing to the airport, we’d take an 11:30 pm flight home and explore more of Seattle.

The Hilton Motif had generously agreed to let us spend the day and have dinner before heading to the airport. I had taken advantage of Seattle’s excellent Port Valet program, so we didn’t have to worry about our luggage.

 

Brittany and I went to the dining room for our final breakfast. The food and service were as good as usual, even though it was clear the staff needed to get everything turned around quickly for the arriving passengers on the next cruise.

I also pre-arranged an accessible van to pick us up and take us to the hotel. It was running late so we did have to wait outside for a while, but there was no rush. The Hilton Motif was only a few minutes away from the pier.

The hotel had a modern feel, and we were welcomed and invited to breakfast at their Frolik restaurant. By this time, it had been about four hours since our light meal on the ship, so we gladly accepted. We both had the pancakes with banana puree, and they were delicious.

Hilton Motif is just a couple of blocks from Pike Place Market, and then a short walk from there to the Seattle Aquarium, harbor cruises, the Great Wheel, and Miner’s Landing, a popular spot for restaurants and shops. We decided to start at the market.

We left our carry-on luggage at the hotel and Brittany walked aside me as I rode my scooter. It was a Saturday and it got quite crowded as we approached the market, especially where the original Starbucks was located. It didn’t seem to make sense to wait an hour to get the same cup of coffee we could get at home, so we headed across the pedestrian street to the actual market.

If you’ve never been to Pike Place Market (this was my third time), it can be overwhelming, especially on a crowded day. There is so much to see, and it goes off in various directions. We had more planned for our day, so we just went through the basics.

We purchased some souvenirs and watched them toss the fish at one of the vendors where you can see the freshest seafood you ever imagined. There are also vegetables that look just picked, flowers, arts and crafts, and small businesses selling just about anything you could imagine.

We still had more attractions left on our Seattle CityPass and decided to go to the Seattle Aquarium. It’s actually one of the smaller aquariums I’ve been to, but we saw exhibits on marine life that call Seattle home, including salmon. I was impressed with how many hands-on experiences they had for kids—and adults—to participate in.

After the aquarium, we decided to have lunch a block away at Miner’s Landing. To be honest, we were so hungry and ready to get out of the heat, we didn’t pay much attention to where we ate, but Wing Dome turned out to be very good. It was nice to be on the water with the breeze too.

We did some more shopping for gifts before heading back to the hotel. We were both really tired and I thought I might be coming up with a flare from a long week of activity. There was time to rest before our dinner.

Frolik Kitchen at Hilton Motif is on the rooftop. It is indoor and outdoor. We started with cocktails inside and then went outside to have dinner.

The menu was impressive, and we had plenty of time to enjoy it because our 11:30 pm flight had already been delayed until 12:30 am. We started with one of the biggest hot soft pretzels I’d ever seen. The Tavern Pretzel also came with a beer cheese fondue. I decided I’d better take most of it to go if I was going to eat any dinner.

 

I had a cranberry brie sandwich with homemade chips and Brittany went with the seafood pasta. We both loved our dishes. The dessert menu sounded great, but we weren’t hungry for more. We knew we had a long night and took a bread pudding and warm chocolate chip cookie sundae to go. Mine only made it about 15 minutes before I decided I couldn’t wait to eat it!

We got changed into comfortable clothes for our red-eye flight and waited for the accessible van to pick us up. We were understandably exhausted, but we also didn’t feel great. By the time we got to the airport, sick was a more accurate term.*

We managed to rest on the plane and get out of the airport for our two-hour ride home. As exhausted as I was, it was well worth the experience Brittany and I had over the previous nine days. She was hooked on cruising after her first time.

I want to thank Princess for all of their hospitality. I hope to be back on board with them in the near future.

 

 

I was hosted on this trip, but opinions are my own. 

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*It turned out we both had Covid. I got right on Paxlovid since I am immunocompromised and recovered in a few weeks, without major complications.

Visiting Seattle Before Going Aboard My First Princess Cruise

Brittany and I had traveled to a lot of places, but we were getting ready for our most exciting adventure ever. We were heading on a cruise to Alaska.

This was to be Brittany’s first cruise and my first trip to the 49^th state – which actually was the 50^th state I would be visiting, therefore completing the United States. It was the most planned trip I ever took. I put a lot of time into every detail. The fact that I was traveling in a mobility scooter made it a little more challenging, but everyone I spoke to in advance was very helpful.

The cruise we had chosen was roundtrip from Seattle, Washington. I had been to Seattle three times before and it was a city I really loved. I didn’t want to just have it be a jumping point to get on the ship, especially since Brittany had never been there.

I worked with the Visit Seattle team to plan out a trip that would have us see a lot, without a lot of transportation, both before and after the cruise.

I usually fly out of Champaign, but we needed a late evening flight, so we had to go to Chicago O’Hare, about two and a half hours away. We had a friend drive us and everything went smoothly to get on our American Airlines flight. I was even able to get us an upgrade to Main Cabin Extra. I hadn’t flown in that in a while and it was really nice to have the extra room on an almost five-hour flight.

It was nearly midnight by the time we arrived at the Homewood Suites Downtown and we were both exhausted. We dropped our bags and went right to sleep.

Since there was a two-hour time difference from the Midwest, we ended up waking up early. We enjoyed the hot breakfast at the hotel and decided to head out for sightseeing. CityPASS had given us a code for the pass that would give us tickets to five popular Seattle spots.

I divided the places we wanted to go to between the ones that were easier to get to from the Homewood and the ones that would be closer to the place we would be after the cruise, the Hilton Motif. It was an easy walk (for Brittany, and scooter for me) to our first stop, Chihuly Museum and Gardens. 

Even though it was a Saturday, we had gotten an early start, and nothing seemed crowded. We showed our pass and went right into the museum.

I didn’t know a lot about Dale Chihuly beyond the beautiful art he created with glass before this. I had just seen a few pieces among the museums around the world that had them. I knew the Chihuly Museum and Gardens featured a selection of only the Washington artist’s works.

Everything there could only be described as breathtaking. As we went from room to room, my mouth was constantly saying “wow” and Brittany, who dabbles in art herself, was wide-eyed at every creation. I am not sure if I was more impressed with how the glass pieces were created, or how perfect the color combinations were.

The gardens were just as spectacular, especially with the view of the Space Needle in the background. That would be our next stop.

I’m not sure how, in all my trips to Seattle, I had never made it to the Space Needle. It was easy to take the elevator to the top in the wheelchair. It was just a separate elevator that we needed to get on going down.

The view of the city, ocean, mountains was certainly different from the Chicago observation deck.

We could even see our cruise ship from there. Many people were taking selfies in different positions. It certainly helped that it has the world’s first revolving glass floor.

The top of the Space Needle also has a wine bar and a coffee bar. The latter sounded really good, but we were running tight on time and really wanted to go to the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP). I’m glad we did because it quickly became one of my favorite museums in the country.

MoPOP is focused on entertainment, especially music. The place is huge, and you could easily spend more than a day here, especially since it’s filled with videos to watch and music to listen to. 

The music is from everywhere, but there are exhibits highlighting local bands and performers, such as Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Foo Fighters. I also spent some time browsing the Hip Hop exhibit and looking at the pile of famous guitar.

The television and movies represented in the exhibits Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction, Roleplaying, Scared to Death, and Fantasy included artifacts from Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Harry Potter, the Wizard of Oz, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller

We were hungry, but were saving lunch for the ship, so we just had a snack at the museum’s Culture Kitchen before we headed back to the Homewood Downtown. We packed up our carry ons for easy boarding. We were soon heading to Pier 91 to board the Royal Princess on a voyage to Alaska. 

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I was hosted on this trip, but opinions are my own.