World Travel with Bob

Saturday, June 13, 2026

New York City - June 2026

We've been planning a trip to New York since the end of 2025. Our plan was to spend three nights at the Hyatt Centric Times Square and see two shows, "Maybe Happy Ending" and Sting's "The Last Ship." The Last Ship was first presented on Broadway in 2014 and we enjoyed this show but it wasn't as commercially successful as needed for a long runtime (it ended after about 100 shows). The Last Ship was reworked for 2026 for a special limited run at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center.

Thunderstorms and Flying

Our flight from Northern California to La Guardia (LGA) took all day. We started from San Francisco (SFO) at 10:30am and, with a very delayed connection at O'Hare, we arrived at LGA around 12:15am, the following day. When we left LGA to return to SFO, we had similar weather interruptions - but not quite as bad. Leaving New York at 8:30am, we were scheduled to arrive at our final destination airport at 2:30 pm (PDT). Our returning flight in Chicago (from LGA) was delayed by almost two hours and we sat 70 minutes on the tarmac waiting for the weather to clear. We finally arrived at our doorstep at 6pm. In all of our travels, we never experienced so many weather delays. At least with carry-on luggage we didn't have to worry about luggage that missed a connecting flight. We may reconsider planning future east coast flights during May through July, typically thunderstorm season.

Maybe Happy Ending

This show won several 2025 Tony awards, Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Performance by an Actor (Darren Criss), Best Scenic Design of a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical. Originally a South Korean musical in 2015, the show opened on Broadway in 2024.

The story focuses on two robot human assistants in the 2060s. It explores relationships, sharing memories with loved ones and the ultimate pain of loss. We really enjoyed this show and might seek tickets to a local traveling tour,

Source: Playbill.com

The Last Ship

This story and score was inspired by Sting's childhood and experience wth the shipbuilding industry. It examines his relationship with his father, the local community and the collapse of the Wallsend shipbuilding industry. We noted significant changes from the version of the show we watched in 2014. We're still not sure if we thought the 2026 version was an improvement - it certainly was substantially changed in both storyline and included songs.

Source: Metopera.org

Theater District Dining

With only a short visit and show schedules, there wasn't much time to explore different restaurants. During past visits, we had dinner at Amarone Restaurant. We included dinner at Amarone on this trip, as well. The Mediterranean Branzino and Fettuccini Al Fungi were both delicious main courses. Amarone wasn't very busy and we had our choice of any table. However, we were dining at typical theater showtime and there was a Knicks-Spurs Final game in the evening.

We also had lunch at Pera Mediterranean Brasserie. We met my wife's niece at Pera and shared a selection of mezes for our meal. All were delicious. Note that I checked for a dress policy before lunch and Pera reportedly prefers a "smart casual dress code" - so put away your cargo shorts if you're dining here.

Thursday, June 4, 2026

New Luggage for 2026 - June 2026

We've been traveling with Away luggage for a few years. I typically use an Away Medium Flex and my wife has used an Away Carry-on Flex. Being about six-feet tall, I find it is a challenge to fit everything in a carry-on for any international trip over 2-3 weeks. At least once, when we combined a long cruise with a shorter land trip, we were able to use carry-on pieces for land travel and temporarily store our medium sized luggage.

My "Medium Flex" has worked well for several three to five week international trips - especially those with varying temperature ranges. However, opening the clam-shell designed luggage takes almost 2/3 of the bottom half of a king-sized bed and doesn't really fit on a common hotel luggage rack.

Away recently released a new style luggage design with a top-opening lid, referred to as its "Topside" collection. This new design also includes a wheel lock - which prevents roll-away luggage on inclines. With a 100 day return option, I decided to place an order for the Topside Medium Trunk.

I've included a few photos comparing my original Away Medium Flex to the Away Topside Medium Trunk. The latter does have a bit more capacity than the former. My first impression is that the interior or the Topside is rather cavernous. We use packing cubes and these will be needed to keep the larger packing area organized and easier to unpack. The locking wheels are an added bonus and will keep this luggage from sliding down our driveway.

My wife found the top-lid opening and wheel brake as value-added components. She ordered an Away Topside Bigger Carry-on Flex and it should arrive in about a week. Both Topside pieces will be olive green.

Many travelers prefer to only use carry-on luggage. This is a safer approach, but I've only experienced one lost bag (never found) over at least 30 international trips. When airlines were having published issues controlling checked luggage, we shipped a large piece from the US to our Greece hotel using Luggage Forward. We traveled on our flights to Greece with only a carry-on and small backpack. Shipping our luggage was worry-free but not inexpensive.

Statistics indicate a 0.63% risk of an airline delaying or mishandling your checked luggage. A smaller percent of this figure represents lost and never found luggage. Tight layovers, last minute plane changes and large international airport hubs can often result in delayed luggage. We do add AirTags to our checked and carry-on luggage but I'm not sure how much this helps. Travel insurance may be a better alternative (and maintaining an inventory of the items in your checked luggage!).