This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
You can’t choice your relatives…A week in deepest NJ was more than enough, lets just say that come Friday our planned 3 nights in Times Square, sans mini & the rest of the clan, was a welcome relief. However a trip out to the Crayola factory on the Pennsylvanian border and a horse riding opportunity had kept mini more than entertained. We departed with a sigh of relief returning the Hertz SUV back to EWR and train into Penn station. Manhattan was busy- weekend foot traffic heavily infected with worldwide tourists. The Westin, although in an area we’d not initially planned to stay was a great deal, and with all the “grand/great” weekend, Point bonuses, 3-4-2 offers..a good few thousand points gained..
We were having a “time-out” break, had done all the tourist things on previous trips so it was a case of mooching, aka yours truly hanging about like a spare part in shoe and handbag shops etc, although to be fair I appear to of come back with numerous items of clothing from certain stores…Distraction techniques had failed and before long walking out of Tiffanys with two blue boxes…
damn! However managed to avoid the Malono shop this time..
I hate musicals, all Jazz hands and over acting, must be the forced upbringing saturated with Gilbert and Sullivan productions, although Mrs had noticed that a play was on she’d fancied seeing, o.k. happy to give that a go. Hook line and sinker again, said play featuring Keiffer Sutherland, Jason Patric (the eldest brother out of the Lost Boys)and “Mr Big” from sex in the city (straight over the top of my head?), ah.. so not just a cultural experience then madam..
To be fair “That Championship Season” at the Jacob, was excellent, for me to commend is unusual, but very good/ controversial topics/good humour, and worth hunting out as only on to mid May I believe.
Other highlight includes a great meal at 44 & X – given its proximity to Times Square area, worth hunting out if in area, although strongly suggest booking- VERY popular with NY’ers, will return if in the area
. Post meal we walk back past the Jacob theatre where Mrs got a meet and personal photo with “Keiffer” plus others, I type this a week later and not a day goes by without this being brought up, again & again…
Mini and “family” came in for the day on Sunday, Mini enjoying again the “Big” piano in Schwartz’s and the Ferris wheel in Toys’R’us. Still at 5 she’s a little young to appreciate the City properly.We eventually return to NJ for the last few days, and before long the tank of the Buick Enclave is loaded up with the cases and EWR bound..40 mins later lined up at the drop-off channel at Hertz. “check-in” guy asked if we were flying and were one family group and as such leave you bags in the car and we’ll run you round to the terminal entrance so didn’t need to do the whole airtrain transfer thing…Fantastic, major thumbs up to Hertz for this added value service saved us a lot of hassle ..
Check-in was empty, UC called us over from the PE line and got the bags offloaded, very pleasant young lady and a credit to VS in her manner.Snr was in PE with us this time so bagged a 2+2 near the front (can't remember numbers).. Right now time to relax…before heading through…oh dear Leeds Bradford has more to offer than EWR, one crappy news agent, two cramped bars and that’s it!
The VS lounge entrance was walked passed a couple of times which in this instance was sorely missed…All priority pass offerings are in gate areas not used by VS… Horrendous , decided to head through, Security was steady, mini’s pot of unique Crayola crayons being singled out for secondary checks much to her amusement, although TSA agent did show glimpses of a personality. Airside even worse, but we’d expected that, so settled in and read, ipadded and generally milled, until the dreaded call of a near hour delay announced, due to delayed incoming Tinkerbelle.. 
Boarding eventually called, for young families/assistance. UC and PE were then called and by this time the Y line was bottle necking between the gate seating area. A steady line formed for the PE/UC, however one foursome group of males, in UC seemed to believe that they didn’t need to be with everyone else and pushed through to the front- 
at which point VS gate person spun them round and told them to join the already queuing UC passengers…very amusing. 
On boarding the gate area appeared to become overwhelmed by a large Hasidic party, each member of which started walking up and down each cabin insisting on the attention of the CC, numerous semi heated “debates” about seating assignments and by looking at the CC’s reactions, CC were getting annoyed
. Eventually things stared to settle, one of the group tried to get a single chap behind us to move, to which he got a sharp response, and throughout the flight CC were continually being pulled away to resolve “issues”, with said group.. The flight was uneventful, although given the hours delay, flight time was a very short 6 hours, due to strong tailwind.. Vport at last ! managed to watch 127 hours, avoid during mealtime..! a bit of kip gained and mini in usual form quiet as a mouse and slept throughout
( interesting given the constant grief being inflicted on CC by the others…). Landing and immigration smooth, bags some of the first off, including the loose booster seat in a VS bag, LHR arrivals, welcome to the UK- what a dump.. 
We had some time to kill in arrivals, so plumbed for the Maple Leaf Arrivals under Priory Pass, excellent, lovely staff, small and quite- nice showers, decent breakfast offerings and a pleasant unwind time, will definitely use again.
Hex and taxi back to KGX, and before long whisking through the Lincolnshire & Yorkshire countryside back to Sunny Leeds.
Subject to price, a direct from MAN will be the option next time for NYC, as hassle factor plays a big part, especially if offered Odyssey onboard (I might have well flown CO).
NH
NH, Hobbit Land.
...though I do fully empathise...
