Hotel Reviews: The Millennium UN Plaza in New York City, New York

Another trip and another hotel, this time in the city so nice, they named it twice… New York City! My colleagues and I arrived on a Wednesday. On a late flight in, we checked in around midnight thirty. The hotel staff greeted us quite pleasantly. There was only one hiccup in the process, but I don’t imagine this happens to everyone (because this week was also Fashion Week in Manhattan, so the hotel was pretty full), the following day we were told we’d have to switch rooms. Could be an inconvenience, but for making us do this, they gave us passes to the buffet breakfast at the hotel on the main level. Score! With that said, there were a few decent restaurants close to the hotel, including a Sushi Time, a few pizza places and a number of grocery convenience stores. However, the breakfast was a fair and pleasant compromise. Plus, we didn’t even need to ask for any kind of compensation, they simply gave us the breakfast. They also promised a robe in my room, which leads to the next critique.

Robes: No robes! I won’t say this is a deal breaker, but it’s up there close to the top. They may offer robes, but you definitely need to ask at the desk to make sure your room includes them. Neither of the two rooms I stayed in had robes.

The beds, one of the most important features of any hotel, were quite comfortable. I read many reviews of area hotels about the comfort of the beds they offered, so when you go to NYC and beds are important to you, the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel should be at the top of your list.
 The view from the rooms was good. One room’s view was almost completely taken up by the building next door, but the other room had an amazing river of the Hudson (I believe that’s what river it was).
Another important factor in your choice of room is the shower. This shower was quite nice. The water pressure was good (better in the second room I stayed in), and the shower head was the detachable kind (see picture) so that was an added bonus if you’re caring for a small child and need to wash their hair. The water stayed hot for as long as I needed it. There was no bathtub.
Internet was not free in the hotel. You could pay by the hour or by the day, and I believe it was available only in the lobby.

As far as size goes, the first room I was in must of been a suite, because it was very nice and extremely roomy. You’ll notice in the pictures it even had a spiral staircase up to the next level which included the bed, another bathroom (no shower) and another entrance door. The second room was not as big, but still had plenty of room to spread out. Given the choices you’ll have in New York, these rooms were quite big and for the price, were better than 90% of what you’ll find at that size.
To sum up, I was pleased with my stay at The Millennium UN Plaza. Something that should be mentioned is what one of my colleagues informed me of upon our return to Nashville. Throughout the stay in his room, he consistently heard a pitter patter of little feet. I assumed he was going to say he could hear the people in the room above him, but he clarified by saying it was the sound of the four-legged nature. Yes, mice. So that is a major issue. If you are looking at this hotel, be aware this might occur, but my guess is that if you mention it to the front desk they will be more than happy to make you comfortable during your stay.

As always, if you have stayed at this hotel and care to offer some feedback, it’s much appreciated!
 

 

How ‘Bout Now

I want to ride down the highway
barely aware of what’s around us.
So caught up in each other
we may run out of gas,
but isn’t it a blast
to hold hands because we trust
that what we have will last?

I want to wake up in the morning
still smiling from the night before.
When we were shopping at Old Navy.
An unexpected twist,
thank God we didn’t miss
the Thursday in that store.

Tell me have you gave up drinkin’?
because I’ve stopped overthinkin’.
We can work it out.
What’s between the dream and reality
is a ‘yes’.
Well, baby, how ’bout now?

I want to wake up in the morning,
barely aware of what’s around us.
Well, baby, how ’bout now?

Needtobreathe “White Fences” Lyrics

A great new song off Needtobreathe’s “The Reckoning” Album. Here are the lyrics to “White Fences.”
Check out ‘The Reckoning’ on Amazon here!

My heart is numb
The feeling that I get from
The way you shake your voice
And curse this bitter love.

And oh, it’s cold
Living in a fallen home.
We were just kids back then
Too scared to be alone.

You leave me in the dark
Recounting all my sins.
You put words in my mouth
But who is gonna mend
These white fences?

Oh, it’s cold
Living in a fallen home.
We were just kids back then
Too scared to be alone.

Oh, I said oh, the fight.
My legs are unsteadied by
The way you close your eyes
I wish we could hit rewind.

You leave me in the dark
Recounting all my sins.
You put words in my mouth
But who is gonna mend
These white fences?

My heart is numb
The feeling that I get from
The way you shake your voice
And curse this bitter love.

And, oh, the fight.
My hands are unsteadied by
The way you close your eyes
I wish we could hit rewind.

You leave me in the dark
Recounting all my sins.
You put words in my mouth
But who is gonna mend
These white fences?

Oh, it’s cold
Living in a fallen home.
We were just kids back then
Too scared to be alone.

Oh, the fight.
My legs are unsteadied by
The way you close your eyes
I wish we could hit rewind.

White fences.

Here are the lyrics in video form.

The Best Love Song: Reasons #6 and #7

I was in my car the other day and my iPod shuffled to “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” a song that, if you’re over the age of 30, will undoubtedly remind you of Robin Hood. And no, not the Russell Crowe movie from 2010. Nineteen years earlier Sherwood Forest was host to Bryan Adams performing the best love song of all time.

Type in “the best love song of all time” in the Yahoo! search tool bar and you’ll get a wide spectrum of results*, everything from “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton to “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers to “Best Love Song” by T-Pain. No doubt two of those are amazing and one has a clever song title. And I can assure you T-Pain’s stab at creating a timeless classic falls t-painfully short. See what I did there?
“(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” has at least 27 elements that make it the best love song of all time.
Reason #6: the lyrics. Can you put together an argument that these lyrics are not the most romantic? “My eyes… search you. Tell me… you know it’s true. Look… there… take… it all. I… want… everything. There’s… love… and… there’s… time. You can’t… help. I can’t… die.”

No further explanation needed.

Reason #7: the guitar riffs in this song are dripping with emotion. Check out the music video below, when it gets to 2:27 exactly, you’ll hear a subtle rarrt rarrt. Sorta like a rerhh rhrr but with a dash of ert ert. Emotional stuff.
So in conclusion, Bryan Adams and his band, along with his buddies Robin of Locksley, Maid Marian of Dubois, Azeem, Will Scarlet and the Sheriff of Nottingham have clearly raised the bar so high, no song will ever surpass it as the greatest love song of all time, especially because of reasons #6 and #7.


*Type in the worst love song of all time and I hope you’ll find “I’m Too Sexy”… let’s try it… standby… yep!

Degree of Injury: Funny or Not Funny?

A topic among some friends at work is the question, to what degree of injury does something funny become unfunny?

The topic began with the discussion of the female reporter covering the Grammy Awards. Immediately after the news desk tossed to her, she bumbled her words, saying nothing that made sense, not even speaking words at all. If you haven’t seen it, here’s a clip:

I seem to be in the minority in thinking that when something is life-altering, it’s not funny. Another example I brought up to defend my stance is a guy riding a bicycle into a tree. I think it’s hilarious, as would most people I assume. Even the folks in this discussion agree it’s funny. But let’s say the guy became paralyzed from the neck down? Then is it still funny? A resounding ‘no.’ So think back to the reporter who fumbled her words… funny? Admittedly, I laughed when I saw it. After discovering the reason, though, I no longer think it’s funny. She suffers from a rare form of migraine headache. To me, that’s a life-altering circumstance. I’m sure she’s still embarrassed by the whole on-air flap, and it’s not right or encouraging to her for me to laugh at her suffering. I bet we’ve all had a fair share of embarrassing or life-altering events, would you want someone laughing at you for those things? Here’s one of my embarrassing moments.

A colleague brought up the show, ‘America’s Funniest Videos,’ asking me, “Do you think they check with the people in each video to make sure the embarrassed party wasn’t paralyzed or life was not somehow altered by what happened in the video?” First, I don’t think they have the time to check, and my guess is they wouldn’t air the clip if they knew the person ended up paralyzed, or an animal died, or something with a negative result happened. Furthermore, would anyone even submit a clip to ‘Home Videos’ if the person in the video died, was paralyzed, dismembered or experienced a negative life-altering event? No.

My colleague also brought up Saturday Night Live. They often use people’s misfortunes, faults, physical traits as the focus of jokes in their performances. What do you think? Is there a line in which something potentially funny becomes unfunny? If so, where’s the line? Anyway, here are some funny clips: