Sheraton Hotel, Lincoln Harbour to the East River Band Shell

The Sheraton Hotel
 The poshest hotel we'll be staying in on our tour and also the hotel with the most problems, which have all been resolved now, but not without a bit of pushing.  The pool at the hotel is currently out of action due to renovations and as compensation the hotel promised us a goody bag in our rooms, a free movie and free wifi internet access in our rooms (which normally costs $9.95/day).  Everything was as it should've been except the wifi hadn't been set up for our use and the staff didn't know anything about it.  Then there were issues over the rooms we'd been allocated, some couples had been given two single beds instead of doubles and we needed some rooms with three beds in, which again they failed to provide and someone had to spend the night on a camp bed.  Breakfast was the final issue.  The hotel had us sitting away from the other guests in our own private room, but they laid on a much reduced spread to what was in the main dining room.  However, by Sunday morning everything had been put right and we could begin to enjoy our stay in New Jersey.


Saturday 6th August 2011

Good Morning New York City! Breakfast in our own dining area just off the main dining room: scrambled eggs, fried potato, a few cereals, croissants, pastries, tea, coffee and juice (all this still not being as much as what was available to other guests).  After breakfast we had a quick briefing to go over the music we'd be playing that afternoon (The running order had to be changed as we couldn't get any rehearsal time at the hotel).  From breakfast it was free time.  A quick chance to have a look around the area surrounding the hotel.  There are a good number of restaurants, a deli and amazing views of the Manhatten Skyline.  By 2pm free time was over and we were all loaded up on the coach to go and find the East River Band Shell, which proved a tougher job than expected.  We came one on one with the New York City grid/one way system and then the problem of our coach and van not being allowed down one of New York's main roads, FDR Drive, which we needed to go down to get to the Band Shell.

We eventually found somewhere to park the coach and the van managed to get inside the park.  After unloading all our equipment and getting set up we eventually started our 3.30pm performance at about 4.30pm.  Due to the strong winds we set up on the ground in front of the band shell instead of on it; the shape of the band shell made sitting in it  like being in a wind tunnel.  It was also nice to be joined by one of Porstmouth's (UK) bass players, who happened to be on holiday in New York, plus another holidaying Porstmouth player and family helped to make up the 50 or so in the audience.

We finished our performance at about 5.30pm, got our equipment loaded up and headed off through New York again back to New Jersey where the rest of the day was free to do with a we pleased.  It was in fact the start of two whole days of free time.