One of the top items on my bucket list was watching the ball drop at Time Square, New York City, on New Years Eve, and, thanks to the fiancé, I was able to cross it off! At first he was not thrilled at all: he had done it once and had no desire to be in that freezing crowd again for 15 hours straight and no way to pee. I started researching Time Square restaurants and parties so we would at least have some warmth and a bathroom while we waited, but even the ones at the Olive Garden were completely booked. I then came across a party at the Novotel called Supernova, that had a good view of the ball, so this way we wouldn’t even have to deal the the crowds – the party seemed pretty exclusive. The fiancé was still not excited since the party came with a huge price tag, but his eyes lit when he found out that instead of paying to be part of the party, he could just book a room at the Novotel for the same price and still be able to get the party view of the ball drop. I said it was totally fine with me if he wanted to stay at the hotel, but that it was the end of November and he would never be able to get a room – after all, I had already called more modest hotels in the vicinity and they would always laugh at me when I asked if they had a room for the 2015/16 New Years Eve. Well, the fiancé tried and boom! We had a hotel booked for NYE in NYC; apparently it was the last room available.
We took a train from Philadelphia to NYC the morning of the 31st and arrived at Time Square around noon, just as they were starting to close the streets. People were gathering for the ball drop already, and we had to fight the crowd a little bit in order to get to our hotel. When we got there, our room wasn’t ready yet, so we waited at their balcony, where the NYE party would be and took a bunch of pictures. The view was so good, we couldn’t believe it! Then we got to our hotel room and another surprise: we had a view of Broadway and Time Square! We could watch the ball drop from the comfort of our room if we wanted to. We could even hear the performers sing! How did we get so lucky??? No idea! We had booked the hotel room only one month before and hadn’t even requested a view! Plus, the room had really nice amenities that included champagne and huge chocolate covered strawberries.
We got all dressed up and went to the street to see the festivities, but it wasn’t even 6 o’clock and the crowds were super massive. We had a bracelet from our hotel that allowed us to move around, but decided not to go far since there were lines to get to each street block, and cops were searching everyone. We grabbed some food and went back upstairs to enjoy it with some more champagne we bought. The room was so nice that we considered just watching it all from our window… but we decided to add to the experience by at least going to the hotel balcony. Luckily, it was one of the warmest NYE in NYC, so we were totally fine standing on the balcony while waiting for midnight.
The ball finally started to drop and we started the countdown with the rest of Time Square. 3-2-1… and a midnight kiss! It was an unbelievable moment and so worth it! I am so lucky to have had the best ball drop experience! We didn’t have to deal with a big crowd, we were never cold, there was no need to arrive hours early, we could drink all the champagne we had brought and pee whenever we wanted, and we had a direct view of the ball. The hotel even had a hot dog cart serving food to the guests at midnight. Getting a room at the Novotel and watching the ball drop at the Supernova party balcony is definitely the way to do it!
The next couple of days we enjoyed NYC and the mild weather: I walked and jogged thru Central Park and researched a few wedding venues, just in case 😉 We had a really nice dinner at Gallaghers Steakhouse (with the fiancé ordering very carefully due to his allergies) and enjoyed an amazing Broadway show: “Kinky Boots” with Wayne Brady. The hotel was the perfect location and we walked everywhere – a visit to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree was magical. What an incredible way to end 2015, a year full of crossed-off bucket list items! Here’s to 2016 and more dreams coming true!
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