Vacation #12 - New York : Arlo Nomad (Bilingual)

We are back NYC!

Kami kembali NYC!

Our holiday was nearly done. We only had 2 days more in the States. Oh nooo! We were back in Manhattan, but a slightly different area: we stayed at Arlo Nomad hotel, in the Lower Manhattan area which was nearby New York Penn Station. It was like 15 minutes of walking with 2 suitcases, a big duffel bag and a baby stroller. We booked this hotel before our holiday even got started. It seemed quite popular in the youth generation, especially if you are one of those hipster types.

Liburan kami hampir selesai. Kami hanya punya 2 hari lagi di Amerika. Oh tidak! Kami kembali di Manhattan, tetapi daerah yang sedikit berbeda: kami tinggal di hotel Arlo Nomad, di daerah Lower Manhattan yang dekat dengan Stasiun Penn New York. Sekitar 15 menit berjalan dengan 2 koper, tas ransel besar dan kereta dorong bayi. Kami memesan hotel ini bahkan sebelum liburan kami dimulai. Rasanya cukup populer di kalangan generasi muda, terutama jika kamu termasuk salah satu tipe hipster itu.

The hotel was not a big one, as it was in between skyscrapers, and was not far from the Empire State Building. The hotel sign was not that obvious though. We nearly walked past it. Luckily, Daddy saw a carpet that has Arlo Nomad writing on it. We then stopped to double check, and yep there it was!

Hotel itu tidak besar, seperti di antara gedung pencakar langit, dan tidak jauh dari Empire State Building. Tanda hotelnya tidak terlalu jelas. Kami hampir berjalan melewatinya. Untungnya, Daddy melihat karpet yang bertuliskan Arlo Nomad. Kami kemudian berhenti untuk memeriksa, dan ya itu dia!

Arlo Nomad

11 E 31st St, New York, NY 10016, United States

Star / Bintang: ★★★★

Room / Ruangan: King Bed (City)

Check-in time / Waktu check-in: 3 PM - 3 AM

Check-out time / Waktu check-out: 12 PM*

*You need to pay an extra $50 for one hour late check-out.

*Kamu perlu membayar ekstra $50 untuk keterlambatan check-out satu jam.

When we arrived in the hotel lobby, it was super busy. Maybe because the lobby was also quite small and packed. Beautiful lobby though! The interior design, the Christmas tree, the wooden stairs to the 2nd floor, the small pretty coffee shop, they looked great! We had to wait in the line, Daddy said I could wait on the sofa with Izzy while he was waiting on the line. When it was our turn, I had to join him, since we used my credit card for the payment - they needed my passport and my card.

Ketika kami tiba di lobi hotel, itu sangat sibuk. Mungkin karena lobi juga cukup kecil dan penuh sesak. Tapi lobinya indah! Desain interior, pohon Natal, tangga kayu ke lantai 2, kedai kopi kecil yang cantik, tampak bagus! Kami harus menunggu antrian, Daddy berkata saya bisa menunggu di sofa dengan Izzy sementara dia menunggu di dalam antrian. Ketika tiba giliran kami, saya harus bergabung dengannya, karena kami menggunakan kartu kredit saya untuk pembayaran - mereka membutuhkan paspor dan kartu saya.

Unfortunately, the receptionist informed us that the hotel’s computer system had been down all day, and that was why the service was a bit slow. They had to do everything manually. We were okay, and we waited patiently. The guy who served us went to the back office, he said he will be back shortly. Take your time! We got ‘free-entertainment’ when someone looked unhappy, and was complaining about her room’s view that doesn’t look like what she wanted. I felt her! I had a flash back when we were in Bali. The guy finally came back, and gave us our room access cards. Yay! We thanked him. He said that he tried to give us the perfect room that was as high as possible, as we preferred. The hotel rooms were fully booked by the way. Of course, a peak season, a popular hotel.

Sayangnya, resepsionis memberi tahu kami bahwa sistem komputer hotel telah mati sepanjang hari, dan itulah sebabnya layanannya agak lambat. Mereka harus melakukan semuanya secara manual. Kami baik-baik saja, dan kami menunggu dengan sabar. Orang yang melayani kami pergi ke bagian belakang kantor, dia bilang dia akan segera kembali. Gunakan waktumu! Kami mendapat 'tontonan gratis' ketika seseorang tampak tidak bahagia, dan mengeluh tentang pemandangan kamarnya yang tidak seperti yang ia inginkan. Saya pernah merasakannya! Saya mengingat kilas balik ketika kami berada di Bali. Laki-laki itu akhirnya kembali, dan memberi kami kartu akses kamar kami. Yay! Kami berterima kasih padanya. Dia berkata bahwa dia mencoba memberi kami ruangan sempurna yang setinggi mungkin, seperti yang kami inginkan. Kamar hotel sudah penuh dipesan. Tentu saja, musim puncak, hotel yang populer.

We pushed our 2 suitcases, bag, and Izzy in her stroller to the small alley that directed us to the elevators. We had to tap our access card to get it working, and chose our floor. Wait, wait, what floor? 10th floor? You gotta be kidding me! We paid for the King Room (City view) which was not the cheapest. That was not high enough, even our apartment in Jakarta is on the 29th floor, and it’s in the city center too. What makes it special then? We deliberately chose this hotel and its specific room mainly because of the view. My mind was messing, I was like “not again!”. I tried to control my emotions, my disappointment to be exact. Daddy said, let’s just check the room first. Okay.

Kami mendorong 2 koper, tas, dan Izzy di kereta dorongnya ke lorong kecil yang mengarahkan kami ke lift. Kami harus mengetap kartu akses kami untuk membuatnya berfungsi, dan memilih lantai kami. Tunggu, tunggu, lantai berapa? Lantai 10? Kamu pasti bercanda! Kami membayar untuk Kamar King (City view) bukan yang termurah. Itu tidak cukup tinggi, bahkan apartemen kami di Jakarta berada di lantai 29, dan juga di pusat kota. Lalu apa yang membuatnya istimewa? Kami sengaja memilih hotel ini dan kamar spesifiknya terutama karena pemandangan. Pikiran saya berantakan, saya berkata "jangan terjadi lagi!". Saya mencoba mengendalikan emosi saya, kekecewaan saya tepatnya. Kata Daddy, mari kita periksa kamarnya dulu.  Baik.

It was at 3:30 PM. Daddy went back to the reception to make a complaint. You know what, our room was facing an orange water tank and a building construction. That was insane! That was not even a city view - it was a s*** view! We got the buildings’ rear view. We couldn’t accept that. We didn’t mind the small room, but a big window with a huge water tank, nah thank you! That’s too much to be understood.

Saat itu jam 3:30 sore. Daddy kembali ke resepsionis untuk mengajukan keluhan. Kamu tahu, kamar kami menghadap tangki air oranye dan konstruksi bangunan. Itu gila! Itu bahkan bukan pemandangan kota - itu adalah pemandangan jelek! Kami mendapat pemandangan belakang gedung. Kami tidak bisa menerimanya. Kami tidak keberatan dengan kamar kecil itu, tapi sebuah jendela besar dengan tangki air besar, tidak terima kasih! Keterlaluan untuk dipahami.

Daddy said they apologized and tried to get us the correct room. Okay, that was quite a good news. The bad news was we had to wait for another 30 minutes in the wrong room, which we tried not to make messy. They were still preparing our room, since the previous customer paid for a late check-out. Dang it! I will definitely ask for a free late check-out since we had to wait and entered our room late. They ended up giving us an extra one hour late check-out as we expected. Good enough!

Daddy berkata mereka meminta maaf dan mencoba memberi kami kamar yang benar. Oke, itu berita bagus. Berita buruknya adalah kami harus menunggu 30 menit lagi di ruangan yang salah tersebut, yang mana kami mencoba agar tidak membuatnya berantakan. Mereka masih mempersiapkan kamar kami, karena pelanggan sebelumnya membayar untuk keterlambatan check-out. Sial! Saya pasti akan meminta check-out terlambat gratis karena kami harus menunggu dan memasuki kamar kami terlambat. Mereka akhirnya memberi kami ekstra keterlambatan check-out satu jam seperti yang kami harapkan. Cukup baik!

30 minutes passed, the room phone was ringing all of a sudden. A guy was on the line (not the one who served us first, he was replaced by another guy since his shift was over on that day), he informed us that our room on the 18th floor was ready and apologized for making us wait, he would come to us to hand over the access cards. Excellent!

30 menit berlalu, telepon kamar tiba-tiba berdering. Seorang pria sedang berbicara (bukan orang yang melayani kami diawal, ia digantikan oleh orang lain karena shift-nya selesai pada hari itu), ia memberi tahu kami bahwa kamar kami di lantai 18 sudah siap dan meminta maaf karena membuat kami menunggu, dia akan datang kepada kami untuk menyerahkan kartu akses. Mantab!

Review [/5] / Ulasan [/5]:

Exterior and interior design: 4/5

Desain eksterior dan interior: 4/5

Facilities: 4.5/5

Fasilitas: 4.5/5

Toiletries: 4/5

Perlengkapan Mandi: 4/5

Food: N/A

Makanan: N/A

Service: 4.5/5

Servis: 4.5/5

Cleanliness: 4/5

Kebersihan: 4/5

Location: 4.5/5

Lokasi: 4.5/5

Value for money: 4/5

Nilai uang: 4/5

Price per night: 2,905,850

Harga per malam: Rp. 2.905.850.

(+) It’s very close to the Empire State Building, free flow drinks at the bar from 5:30 to 7 PM, nice public work area on the second floor, roof-top view is excellent, staff (whilst busy) were accommodating. 

(-) Breakfast selection wasn’t good, room was compact, whole hotel was compact, shower door wasn’t maintained, bottled water had gone bad, rooms with views are hit-and-miss.

(+) Hotel ini sangat dekat dengan Empire State Building, minuman mengalir gratis di bar mulai pukul 5:30 hingga 19:00, area kerja umum yang bagus di lantai dua, pemandangan atap sangat bagus, staf (sementara sibuk) dapat mengakomodasi.

(-) Pilihan sarapannya tidak baik, kamar padat, seluruh hotel padat, pintu kamar mandi tidak terawat, air di botol sudah buruk, kamar dengan pemandangan bagus tidak konsisten.

The last picture above was taken by a stoned girl who kindly offered us to take our pictures. She smoked weed with her boyfriend, judging by the strong smell. I was like “yes please, and take the Empire State Building as our background”, She said “okay, will do!” - she did not. She cropped the building. Lol. Oh well, she tried, she was stoned. At least it was nice of her to offer. Although our selfies were better. It’s the second building in the left by the way. 

Foto terakhir di atas diambil oleh seorang gadis yang sedang teler dengan ramah menawari kami untuk mengambil foto kami. Dia merokok ganja dengan pacarnya, tercium dari aromanya yang kuat. Saya berkata "ya tolong, dan ambil Empire State Building sebagai latar belakang kami", Dia berkata "oke, baik!" - dia tidak melakukannya. Dia memotong bangunan itu. Haha. Oh well, dia mencoba, dia sedang teler. Setidaknya dia baik telah menawarkan. Meskipun swafoto kami lebih baik. Ngomong-ngomong gedungnya gedung kedua di sebelah kiri.

I forgot to mention that they gave us 2 vouchers of complimentary drinks to apologize for the inconvenience caused. Daddy chose 2 cans of beer which was a good choice. The beer was so tasty, and we’d never had it before. I tasted a little bit, only a sip, since Mommy is still breastfeeding Izzy, and it was good!

Saya lupa menyebutkan bahwa mereka memberi kami 2 voucher minuman gratis untuk meminta maaf atas ketidaknyamanan yang ditimbulkan. Daddy memilih 2 kaleng bir yang mana itu merupakan pilihan yang baik. Birnya begitu enak, dan kami belum pernah minum sebelumnya. Saya mencicipi sedikit, hanya seteguk, karena Mommy masih menyusui Izzy, dan birnya enak!

We woke up on the next day realizing that our holiday was almost over, one day to go. *sad face* We were a bit hungry as it was breakfast time! Daddy ended up buying Shake Shack for us (again). It was exactly the same menu as our Shake Shack last time (and came to $23), apart from the drink, we ordered just a Vanilla flavor this time which we kinda regretted. The Vanilla Oreo one was better. We actually wanted to have breakfast at the hotel restaurant, but Daddy went down to check their menu selection, since it’s quite pricey. I mean for $24 per person, the selection was not big enough. We didn’t want to eat and feel ripped off. Fair enough, right?

Kami bangun pada hari berikutnya menyadari bahwa liburan kami hampir berakhir, satu hari lagi. *Wajah sedih* Kami agak lapar karena sudah waktunya sarapan! Daddy akhirnya membeli Shake Shack untuk kami (lagi). Persis menu yang sama dengan Shake Shack kami terakhir kali (harganya $23), kecuali minumannya, kami memesan hanya rasa Vanilla kali ini yang mana kami agak menyesal. Vanilla Oreo lebih baik. Kami sebenarnya ingin sarapan di restoran hotel, tetapi Daddy turun untuk memeriksa pilihan menu mereka, karena cukup mahal. Maksud saya untuk $24 per orang, pilihan menunya tidak cukup besar. Kami tidak ingin makan dan merasa ditipu. Cukup adil, bukan?

On our last evening in New York, we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary, it was like an early celebration since our anniversary is actually on January 7. We flew back to Jakarta a day before. Cheers for many more holidays to come, together. Love you Daddy! Always have, always will! So long NYC! x

Pada malam terakhir kami di New York, kami merayakan ulang tahun pernikahan kami yang ketiga, rasanya seperti perayaan lebih awal karena peringatan hari jadi pernikahan kami sebenarnya adalah tanggal 7 Januari. Kami terbang kembali ke Jakarta sehari sebelumnya. Tos untuk lebih banyak liburan yang akan datang, bersama. Kami cinta kamu Daddy! Selalu miliki, selalu akan! Sampai jumpa NYC! x