[USA Trip] Day 05/06 - Easter Parade + Blue Box Cafe / Day 01 in Orlando, FL

Hello and welcome to my blog again! Today was my last night in NY, as I was leaving for Orlando to fulfill my Disney’s dreams!

Today, we walked over to the Rockefeller Centre to have our breakfast at the cafe chain, Daily Provisions.

I've always loved the Easter Parade in NY, which is usually held at Fifth Avenue Street. In Singapore, Easter is more of a normal Sunday, as our holiday sentiment is more focused on Good Friday, which is a PH. However, when I was in NY, many New Yorkers prepared themselves for this occasion. Baby and I were so happy to be part of the Easter Bonnet Festival which took place along the legendary Fifth Avenue from 49th-57th streets.

We made our way to the Easter Parade venue after our breakfast, and the area along Fifth Avenue was closed to vehicular traffic. Folks like us could wander around the street admiring various Easter bonnets and Easter outfits.

We saw many colorful and remarkable hand-crafted hats at the annual Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival.

It was a joyous street party where New Yorkers came together in colorful costumes to celebrate Springtime and it was definitely worth a visit.

After a while, we left the parade as it was way too crowded, as we could barely move. We decided to extract ourselves from the crowd and headed to the famous Wall Street where the New York Stock Exchange (world's largest stock exchange) is located.

I took a photo with the 3-ton bronze sculpture of the Charging Bull located in Wall Street, which symbolizes the New York Financial Industry.

In Wall Street, there is a ‘Fearless Girl’ bronze sculpture - a 4-foot high (1.2 m) girl standing in a self-confident pose. It stands facing the iconic New York Stock Exchange Building. The Fearless Girl is a symbol of gender diversity at the workplace.

We took a train to Harlem for lunch, and we settled at Sylvia’s Restaurant which is located in the rich historical village of Harlem.

The food which was served at Sylvia’s Restaurant was delicious, and we enjoyed every bit of it. The damage was pretty decent!

After lunch, we did some grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. Baby bought some of their local groceries that are not perishable within days so that we could bring them back to Singapore to enjoy them.

We headed back to 5th Avenue, as we had a reservation at the Blue Box Café by Daniel Boulud waiting for us. It is on the 6th floor of the iconic Tiffany & Co. flagship store.

The biggest highlight from my trip to New York City was to secure a reservation at the famous Blue Box Café. Having Afternoon tea at Tiffany's has always been on my bucket list, and it finally happened!

The Blue Box Café is a luxury, because everyone loves the iconic Tiffany's blue box. Reservations can only be made via Resy (app or website). Slots only become available 30 calendar days prior your chosen date, every day at midnight. You'll have to book FAST as reservations are gone within seconds.

For the Food + Beverage - I’m going to be brief as there are better places in NYC that offers decent nosh. I opted for the afternoon tea, and it ranked between okay to good. Scones were okay, as they only came out slight warm and the desserts were nice.

I loved my experience at the Blue Box Café. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Would I try to go back? Probably not unless I can get the spot for breakfast. For me, it was an experience to check off my list, and I'm so glad and grateful that I did!

I was impressed by the building which was dressed like a Louis Vuitton luxury luggage trunk.

We headed back to Times Square’s area for shopping at Target. We got some breakfast for us the next day, as we were leaving New York for Orlando.

The next day, we had our breakfast that we picked up from Target the night before, in our hotel room. We checked out from Luma Hotel Times Square at about 10am. We left our main luggage with them as we were coming back to continue our stay with them after our 3 days’ vacation in Orlando.

We took an Uber from Luma Hotel to New York La Guardia Airport (LGA). We took the afternoon flight with Delta to Orlando Airport (MCO). The flying time was almost 3 hours.

We had our lunch at the airport before boarding.

We arrived in Orlando and were greeted by a scorching weather which was a totally different climate from New York. Oh well, we were all set for our Theme Park Adventure!

Upon disembarking from the aircraft, we headed straight to the arrival hall to purchase our round transfer via MEARSconnect. It cost us USD16 per person.

We stayed at the Disney’s Pop Century Resort, which had retro themes from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, to the 90s and larger-than-life versions of retro toys and memorabilia scattered throughout the resort. We stayed at the 60s section which is nearest from the reception and transportation area which could bring us to different theme parks.

Giant Play-Doh, anyone?

Disney’s Pop Century Resort is a value hotel in Walt Disney World, and what I loved most was it's close proximity to the Disney’s Skyliner.

I liked the room at Pop Century as it was made more for functionality than aesthetically.

We checked into our room around 6pm, and once we dropped off our luggage/belongings in the room, we headed out to take the complimentary Disney shuttle bus to Magic Kingdom followed by the Monorail to the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World to have our dinner with the characters!

Baby made reservations online at the Chef Mickey’s Restaurant before our trip. It is an American-style buffet dinner, and the character interactions were excellent.

The dining atmosphere was enjoyable, and the food was pleasantly good!

There were other famous Disney characters such as Goofy, Mickey and Donald, who all came to our table for interacting with us as well as to take photos!

If you’re looking for the character meal with the most fun, look no further than Chef Mickey’s Restaurant!

After our dinner, we headed back to our resort, and I went into the gift shop to see if I could get any interesting merchandises that we could bring home! There were many exclusive merchandise, and I decided to pick them up on my check-out day instead!