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New Orleans has an air of the macabre about it. It could be the city of the dead graveyards, the voodoo rituals and rights in the city’s parks. Maybe it’s the gaunt faces of hungover bachelorettes climbing gingerly into their minivans early in the morning. With Halloween just three days away we got spooky with the Ghost City Tours for their Ghosts of New Orleans tour for a dose of terror.
Philadephia, in USA’s Pennsylvania, is chock full of history and is famous worldwide for its cheesesteaks. Turns out there is so much to do in Philadelphia! Somehow, we had never hopped on a bus from our many visits to New York to explore. With a friend’s wedding a short drive away in Maryland, we decided to see what we were missing and spent two nights at Apple Hostels of Philadelphia.
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Flying from London to the USA, there are so many airlines to choose from. We have travelled with British Airways a couple of times, and with Virgin Atlantic Airways an awful lot. But after a recent work trip, I finally got to write a complete Delta One review of their business class offering. It is a first class and business class fusion (a little like the three cabin configuration on Virgin Atlantic). This is my full London to Salt Lake City International Delta One review.
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Are you a dark tourist? What is dark tourism? Here at Flying Fluskey we most certainly are dark tourists! That is why we are sharing (what we think are) the best dark tourism places around the world. But first:
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You have read the travel magazines and the blogs, seen the TV shows, and thousands upon thousands of Instagram photos, but there are still some places out there that you don’t really know. You may think you know them, I bet you’ve heard about them many times but here are nine cities that may surprise you.
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Spending New Year’s Eve at Epcot may not seem the most obvious way to spend New Year’s Eve but it is a serious contender for one of the best ways to kick your new year off with a bang. New Years Eve at Walt Disney World had been on our bucket list for years. If NYE at EPCOT is on yours, then read on!
New Year’s Eve 2017/18 was set to be a good one. I had miraculously managed to get five days off and so I was ready to jump on a plane and celebrate away from London.
Originally we were meant to be going to visit a friend in Carcassonne, France but her plans changed and so we were in need of a new idea.
We very quickly settled on a trip to Florida, USA with a couple of friends. They had family in Orlando and so we could celebrate there and meet them. We looked at all the NYE offerings in town and the theme parks and decided that Disney World would be the destination. They really know how to put on a great fireworks display!
When you think of Disney World, I bet the first image that springs to mind is the castle. It’s the same for me, but I know there is much more to see. We had been warned that Magic Kingdom, the park that houses said castle, would reach capacity early and so to guarantee entry we would need to get there early, and stay there. Mr Fluskey and I have been to Disneyland Paris and Disney in Tokyo, and so we wanted to do something a little different. Epcot was throwing its own NYE party with fireworks, DJs and even grown up drinks! Plus, it had the added bonus of being the only park of its kind. You won’t find another Epcot elsewhere as it is a little bit special. So it was decided; New Year’s Eve at Epcot it was!
Let’s start with the name; Epcot. This stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow.
Walt Disney, not just a creator of cartoons and theme parks, had a plan to create a city. In fact, he only built a Disneyland in Florida to secure funding for his greatest venture. EPCOT was due to be home to 20,000 residents. It would be an experimental and futurist city, always testing and implementing the newest technologies. It was designed in a radial design with public buildings in the centre, and residential properties on the outside. Pedestrians could walk freely as roads were to be built underground and monorails for public transport would be above ground level.
When Disney passed away in 1966 Epcot was still just a blueprint. The company didn’t want to proceed with it as a city without his creative guidance and so work began to create a theme park instead.
Epcot is a park of two halves, which reflects the battle between the imagineer’s ideas; Future World and World Showcase. Future World is all about technology and its advancement, whilst the World Showcase houses 11 themed areas reflecting 11 countries. You will find themed food, drinks and shops.
After an incredibly long day on which we flew from London to Miami, and then drove up to Orlando, we were exhausted. Our day started rather late and so we arrived at the park about two hours after we meant to. Queues weren’t too bad and we got our tickets in just two minutes.
Approaching Epcot is very exciting, as the first thing you’ll see is the park’s icon; the Spaceship Earth geosphere.
No doubt you’ll stop for a picture on the way in and then I would advise you to go straight through to the FastPass areas to the right and left of the main plaza. Here you can pick your FastPass times for a couple of rides. This allows you to join a shorter queue at the assigned time. Arriving late, there was nothing left. Whoops!
We looked at the waiting time for Test Track, but it was about 2.5 hours, so we decided to do it later in the day….this turned out to be a mistake as the queue only got longer from then on and we never made it on. Ah well, there’s always next time.
Instead, our first ride was Mission: Space. The Disney app listed the waiting time at 140 minutes but happily it was only about 80.
This is a simulator ride that lets you experience some crazy G-force. I really enjoyed it but all the safety announcements (seemingly a common theme in American theme parks) freaked my friend out a bit. She started to worry that it would break her in half. We reassured her, and boarded.
I loved the feeling that the ride invoked. The capsules are spun and the video screens in front of you make you feel like you are going through a rocket launch. It leaves your legs a little wobbly, and Mr Fluskey felt a bit sick…but he is RUBBISH at spinning rides.
We decided to stroll through the World Showcase to find some food. We needed to eat to keep ourselves going for new year’s eve at Epcot. First things first, we found a place selling cocktails that had no line. This was located in China, and the cocktails were delicious! We then went on the hunt for gluten-free food in Epcot.
Our original plan was to eat in China. We thought there would be plenty of gluten-free options, but the person at the front of the restaurant told us, unfortunately, that was not the case. Time to find a plan B. We sat and searched the internet for some sort of blog post, finally finding a great list of options.
Whilst we were in China, we decided to pop into the building we sat outside of. We were lucky enough to just catch the final five minutes of an acrobatics show. What a fabulous piece of luck.
After some aimless wandering, we found a German stand with food that everyone could eat. We ordered some sausages and sauerkraut, and stood around a small table to eat.
Sadly, we couldn’t quite be bothered to find a dessert to go with it. If only I had done some research before we left the UK. If you are feeling more organised than me, check out this guide to an inside scoop to Disneyland’s best desserts.
Here in the German area, we found a nice shop selling wine, Christmas ornaments (including this mysterious pickle tree) and other “German” things.
As we were almost half way around the lake, we decided to keep going. It was startling addictive to hop from place to place, popping into shops and the odd bar.
In “Venice“, we found a bar selling Italian wine, Prosecco and Limoncello, and we found a sweet, sparkling rose. We got a flute each and slipped it slowly in the sunshine.
Now, feeling a little jolly, we came across a larger stage that was throwing a little party. The DJ had everyone up and dancing with a fun dance game, and full of bubbles, we joined in too.
We probably spent a little too long larking about in the world showcase considering we were only going to grab lunch. It took us another two hours to seek out the delights of Japan, Morocco, France, Canada and the rest. Oh how happily we laughed at the UK’s showing; the bastard child of Mary Poppins, Robin Hood and Mohammed Al Fayed.
Back to Future World for another ride. We picked the Spaceship Earth, the ride inside the giant geodesic sphere (the golf ball).
The best thing about these tamer rides, as opposed to the huge rides in Universal for example, is that you can keep your bag with you. This meant we could use our phones. I know what you’re thinking, and no, we weren’t all on Facebook. In the our first long queue we played a cool space themed game that had us screaming nonsensical instructions at each other. In this queue we played “Heads Up”. We howled with laughter and the time flew!
The ride itself was very cute. At the beginning, they snap a picture of you, and thinking it was just going to be on a photo sales screen at the end, we pulled stupid faces. We should have done our research.
You then travel in your carriage through a series of animatronic tableaus while Dame Judy Dench narrates. The ride then emerges into a huge dome (oh, that’s why they need the giant ball), epic music swells to a glorious crescendo and you can sit back and enjoy the Disney movie-style magic.
As you descend “back down to earth”, you are asked a series of questions. Again, cynical me thought it was just market research, but we tapped through it anyway. After competing these questions, you are shown a cool little video dictated by your answers and starring YOU. So fun!
NYE Evening
Back to the Chinese cocktail spot for another drink. The soft base of the drinks and the alcohol are added to the cups separately. “Stir before you drink”. “Stir, stir, stir”, we were instructed several times by the cheerful server. One of our party didn’t pay attention and ended up with a straw suck full of pure spirit, eurgh!
With our drinks in hand, we began the wandering anew. The World Showcase was definitely busier than it had been as more people entered Epcot from the other Disney parks. We were just wasting time really, waiting for the sun to go down.
New Year’s Eve at Epcot has not one, but two fireworks displays. The first one takes place at 18:00 and is the usual display. IllumiNations; Reflections of Earth is a multimedia show and is put on every night. The floating globe and fireworks take place on the lagoon so a spot anywhere along the edge of the lake gives you a great view.
As soon as the fireworks finished, we noticed that a huge swath of families with young children started to make their way out of the park.
We had five and a half hours until the next fireworks show, so we broke away from our pitch on the lagoon fence in search of more entertainment.
We settled on The Seas with Nemo & Friends ride. Luckily, just outside was a bar with no queue and cheap bubbles. The glass of sparkling wine really cheered up the queuing. To be fair, the queue was just 45 minutes and the evening chill was starting to nip at our fingers so an indoor attraction seemed like a good plan. The ride was definitely for young children and so it was a little dull.
The ride may have been dull, but we loved the aquarium on the other side of it. Highlights included the little clown fish (Nemo himself) and some amazing colour-changing cuttlefish.
(Now I am no videogapher, and this was meant to just be for me, but I wanted to share this with you.) The display finished and was met with a few seconds of utterly stunned silence before we all realised it was over. A huge cheer went up and New Year’s eve at Epcot mirth erupted. The music from the Italian raver burst back into life, and everyone started to scatter back into their favourite areas.
We were suffering with terrible jet lag, and so started to walk back to the car park, passing more parties on the way.
Rosie xx
After a long day’s sight-seeing in New York, you will need to relax. Your feet will need a rest, your dry throat will need refreshing and your neck will need a break from the constant upwards gazing. If you are over 21, and carrying photo ID, the best way to chill out is to grab a drink at one of these fabulous bars in New York.
The best thing about New York, is the walking (stick with me here). Walking from sight to sight, you pound out mile after mile and this means, you can indulge in sweet treats relatively guilt free. (If you don’t have a sweet tooth, check out The Best Savoury Eats in New York). Where should you go for New York’s best sugar-laden goodies? Here are some of our favourites:
New York is a haven for foodies. In this post I am going to share some of my favourite spots for savoury goodies. Some of these are so good for tingling your umami taste buds, they have named themselves after them! If you have a sweet tooth, check out Sweet Treats you Must Try in New York. Are you ready for the most delicious and the best savoury eats in New York?
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Taking to the tracks is such a joy. I know that we are Flying Fluskeys, and flying also makes me a happy girl, but there is something special about a train journey. (I don’t mean my morning commute). People say romantic, honestly, I’m not sure I could call it that, but it is kinda special. Here are some of my absolute favourite train journeys.
Have you ever been on a cruise? I am going to be honest, we haven’t.
That is, unless you count a two day boat trip around Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, and the odd boaty border crossing. It has just never appealed. I can see the joys of travelling the Nile in Egypt or the Norwegian fjords for myself, and I can see that island hopping is convenient, especially for those with reduced mobility. However, I do find myself wondering if you miss out on so much when you stop for a few hours and then move on, and I know that many cruise ports fall victim to the ten minute curse!
Join us as we explored the city that never sleeps, basing ourself in Times Square.
After working the summer of 2007 as an ice-cream girl at Hamleys toy shop, I needed a holiday. Karl and I had a week booked off but hadn’t decided where we should go. We sat on my bed on the Friday afternoon and worked our way through the last minute deals on all the websites that we could think of. I don’t recall how I found it, but I came across a Virgin Atlantic flight to New York that was just £219 return. I had visited New York three times before and I decided it was high time I went back.
I spent the rest of the day trying to convince Karl that he did, in fact, want to go to New York. Despite his protestations of beaches and heat, we booked and left for the USA on the Monday morning.
Our first night in New York was spent in the rather uninspiring Econo Lodge in Ozone Park. It was a motel with a reinforced glass shield between the intensely disinterested receptionist and us. The room smelt suspiciously damp and the TV was distinctly 1990s.
At least the pizza place across the road was open, and provided us with an enormous Hawaiian pizza with full pineapple rings on. Delicious!
The next day, we arrived at the nearest Subway stop with no change for the ticket machine. Luckily a nice, but rather rebellious guy, held the gate open for us with a cheery “Welcome to New York!” and we got our first ride for free.
The Sights
We had to hit all the big tourist spots on our trip so we found ourselves running through Times Square, managing to get halfway across a very blustery Brooklyn Bridge and wandering around Central Park. We spent time in a lot of toy shops.
Working in Hamleys had obviously rubbed off on me. I wowed the magician who was demonstrating the Marvin’s Magic drawing board and Karl played with Lego for an awkwardly long time (or Legos as they are known Stateside).
At the Empire State Building, the second lift that takes you up to the observation deck, was broken. We had to puff our way up the last few floors to the 86th and the stunning views.
We got the audio tour as I’d never had the chance on previous visits. We picked our narrator, I think he was called Tony, who pointed things out in the most wonderful Brooklyn accent. Karl likes to spend rather a long time up tall buildings, which I find a little boring after a while. So at least I had something to listen to.
We visited Ground Zero, which was an excavated hole in ground. You could see the Subway train tracks running along one wall. It was really interesting to see the changes from the first time I had visited. The area was buzzing once again, but then it was almost exactly six years on.
Nearby, in Battery Park we saw a bronze sculputre, The Sphere, which had been standing in front of the World Trade Center and survived barely damaged. I’m not sure I’ll ever really get to grips with just how huge these towers were.
These were the heady days of $2 to £1 and so even though we were poor-ish students, we were living it up. Abercrombie and Fitch polo shirts for £14 a pop, if you insist. A pair of Levis for £20, yes please! A pair of Calvin Klein boxers for £10, you betcha! It also meant we could eat in some wonderfully overpriced tourist hotspots. I particularly enjoyed Bubba Gump Shrimp Co in Times Square. Not for the food mind you, the prawns were greasy and a touch overdone, but for the brilliantly tacky theme. We now have one of these in London but it seemed such a novelty. To get the wait staff’s attention you flip the sign on your table from “Run, Forrest, Run” to “Stop Forrest, Stop”. There was a bench to sit on and take photos and merchandise galore.
Karl was 21 and I was only 20, so when we ordered a couple of cocktails, (and after I did some excellent “Oh no, I left my ID in the hotel safe!” acting) the waitress informed us that unfortunately, she could only bring one cocktail to the table. Karl seemed suitably smug and so I ordered the frozen lemon children’s drink that came in my very own flashing souvenir glass. Suck on that Karl! (hang on, I meant just a sip).
We stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn, Times Square on 8th Avenue. It was clearly a business hotel but the rooms were huge, for New York hotels, and the last minute price we found was excellent. It is very well located, near Time Square and Port Authority.
I had wanted to stay next to Times Square, partly to be in the centre of action, and partly because I knew it well after having stayed there with college twice. Being so close to all the theatres of Times Square, we managed to see three shows during the week by applying for rush tickets.
We got up in the morning, queued for tickets and went for a large, leisurely breakfast in Times Square when we had secured them. We watched Legally Blonde (especially fab as this was the film I’d watched 3 times on the way home from New York on my first visit). On the fourth day, we saw Blue Man Group, and we went to see a show that has become one of our all time favourites, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It’s a fantastic musical, intimate, intricate and very funny. We sat on school benches on the front row and I gazed up at the performers completely enthralled. I bought the music book, which I still have, and got the cast to sign it. I was in musical geek heaven.
During our last night, we woke up to a strange noise. A rusting was coming from somewhere in our room. Karl quickly deducted that it must be a rodent. We were staying next to a laundry room and there is the old adage about never being more than this or that many meters from a rat in most big cities. In a state of undress we jumped about, trying to flush it out. We thought it was running between our shopping bags, but when we got up the courage to move them, the creature was nowhere to be seen. Silence resumed and we got back into bed unnerved but we slept nonetheless.
In the morning, I decided to treat myself to the Gu brownie that I’d saved from the flight over. It had been nibbled, wrapper and all. We took it downstairs to show the receptionist. He couldn’t understand why we hadn’t come down the night before. “It was 3:00 am and we were naked!” we cried in despair. As a goodwill gesture, they gave us a $40 voucher for the restaurant. There may have been rodents in the laundry room but this was a free meal, and there probably weren’t any in the kitchen, right!? We gratefully accepted. I had a steak and a cheesecake and then it was time to come home.
Somehow that week, we didn’t argue, our first real test as a travelling pair had gone rather well. This one, I decided, may be a keeper.
Rosie xx
