Senior Class Trips and Educational Tours with Winged Victory USA

WV USA- 2004-2005
New York Field Trip

Click here for a printable PDF of the New York 3-day Spanish/French Itinerary.
Day 1
11:00 AM	Arrive at Rockefeller Center, "the Heart of New York", and meet your trilingual guide at the corner of 49th Street and Rockefeller Plaza. Your guide will take you on a short orientation tour that will begin at the world-famous lower plaza, where one of your classmates can take your picture in front of the gilded statue of Prometheus, and will end at an underground McDonald's where you'll be free for an inexpensive lunch at your own expense.
12:15 PM	After lunch, French students will walk to the French Library (in Rockefeller Center's French Empire Building) where they can buy French books and magazines, T-shirts, posters, music and videos, and other gifts and souvenirs from France. Meanwhile, Spanish students will walk into the lobby of the 70-story General Electric Building for an introduction to the magnificent murals of Spanish artist José María Sert, and your guide will tell you why the Rockefellers commissioned Sert, in 1932, to paint over the original mural painted by Mexican artist Diego Rivera.
12:45 PM	Time-permitting, you will also walk with your guide through the Channel Gardens and across Fifth Avenue, to the 150-year-old Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Though it is located at the center of midtown Manhattan, and is now dwarfed by nearby skyscrapers, it was thought by its parishioners, when construction began before the Civil War, to be too far out in the country.
1:15 PM	Meet the bus and depart for the Hispanic Society of America.
2:00 PM	Arrive at the Hispanic Society of America, a museum and research library founded in 1904 and dedicated to the study of the art, history and literature of the Iberian Peninsula. Bienvenidos a España! Upon arrival, you'll begin your visit in the Spanish Renaissance-style Main Court, where you'll view a significant collection of 14th- to 19th-century Spanish Masters including Goya, Velázquez and El Greco. Before you leave the Hispanic Society, you'll visit the Sorolla Room where your guide will tell you about the costumes, events and activities of all the regions of Spain depicted in the unforgettable murals of Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida.
3:00 PM	Meet the bus and depart for your hotel in the Meadowlands of New Jersey to check-in, freshen up and dress for dinner.
3:45 PM	Arrive at and check-in to your rooms at The Sheraton-Meadowlands, right across the river, in New Jersey! The newly renovated, 21-story Sheraton Meadowlands Hotel and Conference Center is right by the Meadowlands Sports Complex - New Jersey's premier center for sports, entertainment and special events. The 427-room hotel has a large amount of meeting space, including a conference center and the largest ballroom in all of northern New Jersey.
6:00 PM	Reassemble in the lobby, then board your bus and depart for dinner.
7:00 PM	Arrive at Medieval Times and check in for an evening of sorcery, pageantry and horsemanship at Medieval Times.
7:30 PM	Begin your visit at the Spanish castle of Count Don Raimundo II, and take a journey back to 11th Century Spain, in the time of El Cid, where chivalry and knights in shining armor still exist. You will enjoy a dinner (no silverware!) of: garlic Bread, fresh Vegetable Soup, 1/2 Roasted Chicken, Spare Ribs, Herb- Basted Potato, and Pastries of the Castle for dessert. The evening will begin in the Grand Arena where your knight will compete on horseback with five other knights from the various regions of Spain in medieval games of skill and accuracy.
9:30 PM	After the jousting tournament, return to your hotel.
10:00 PM	Overnight Security begins. EVENING OPTION #2: (approx $6 less/person than Medieval Times): Enjoy a visit to Greenwich Village where you'll have dinner at Gonzalez y Gonzalez, a popular Mexican Cantina that is well known for its authentic food and its extensive collection of traditional Mexican folk art. There, upon arrival you'll have a three-course Mexican dinner beginning with sopa de tortilla (corn and onion bisque baked with tortillas and cheese), a fajita platter and dessert. Despues de la cena, transfer to the world famous observatory at New York's famous Empire State Building, a New York City Landmark and a National Historic Landmark, which soars more than a quarter of a mile into the atmosphere above the heart of Manhattan. Located on the 86th floor, 1,050 feet (320 meters) above the city's bustling streets, the Observatory offers panoramic views from within a glass enclosed pavilion and from the surrounding open-air promenade. EVENING OPTION #3: (approx $3 less/person than Medieval Times): Enjoy dinner at San Martin’s, a fine Spanish restaurant on New York's fashionable Upper East Side. Despues de la cena, transfer to the Empire State Building.
Day 2
8:00 AM	Board your bus and depart for breakfast in Washington Heights. You will meet your guide en route on 178th Street (at the corner of Broadway).
9:00 AM	Enjoy a typical Cuban breakfast of panqueques and fried plantain at La Floridita, a modern Cuban restaurant on Broadway.
9:45 AM	Afterwards, depart for the Cloisters, in Fort Tryon Park at the northernmost tip of Manhattan Island.
10:00 AM	Arrive at the Cloisters: a 12th century European monastery built with stone from churches throughout France and Spain. (The Cloisters' hilltop location, in a park overlooking the Hudson River, is said to be the closest approximation of a European setting anywhere in North America.) Your visit will begin in the Cuxa Cloister, a muchphotographed courtyard, reconstructed from a monastery in the north-eastern Pyrenees that had, at various times, been in both France and Spain as the border moved back and forth during periods of hostilities between the two countries. Among other things, you will visit the Fuentidueña Chapel, which had been painstakingly dismantled, stone by stone, in the Spanish village of Fuentidueña, and reconstructed at the Cloisters as a permanent loan from the government of Spain. Lastly, do not miss the magnificent Unicorn Tapestries. After your tour, you'll have a few minutes to browse in the museum's gift shop.
11:30 AM	Meet the bus and depart for lunch.
12:00 PM	Upon arrival at the IBM Building, you will walk through the IBM Atrium and into the beautiful lobby of Trump Tower. There, you can have lunch At your own expense in the lower level, or you can easily walk to McDonald's on 57th Street. After lunch, you’ll be free to explore Fifth Avenue.
1:30 PM	Transfer to "The Met".
2:00 PM	Arrive at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Your visit will begin with a short orientation in the 16th century Velez Blanco Patio, then you will view the works of the French and Spanish Masters from the Met's collection of 3,000 European paintings. Following your viewing of the magnificent works of Goya, El Greco and Velázquez, as well as Cézanne, Renoir, Toulouse- Lautrec and Monet, your group will be free for an hour to view some of the icons in the American Wing, including George Washington Crossing the Delaware, and a number of other very familiar works by Grant Wood, Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe.In short, there will be something here to inspire every member of the group.
4:00 PM	Meet the bus and transfer to dinner.
4:45 PM	Upon arrival in the Theatre District, you’ll begin an evening of French culture with dinner at Pigalle, a warm, beautifully lit casual French restaurant in the heart of New York’s Theater District. (this restaurant requires groups be seated by 5:15pm)
6:00 PM	After dinner, your group will depart on a short walking tour of the Theatre District, which will end in Times Square.
7:15 PM	Walk into the center of Times Square, where you will stop briefly for a group photograph at 7:15pm, then walk back to the 75,000 square foot Virgin Megastore, the largest record and entertainment store in the world. While you’re there, you will certainly want to visit the Latin Music and French Music sections, with a vast selection of Spanish & French music.
8:30 PM	Meet the bus on 45th Street, in front of the Planet Hollywood gift shop, and transfer back to your hotel.
9:30 PM	Overnight Security begins. EVENING OPTION #2: (price dependent upon show cost) After your walking tour of the Theatre District you will make your way to an 8:00pm performance of one of the following French-themed Broadway musical productions: The Phantom of the Opera, the tragic story about a disfigured recluse who lives unseen in the catacombs of the Paris Opera House, and his obsessive love for a beautiful young soprano who performs there; or Beauty and the Beast, Disney Theatrical Productions' adaptation of the beloved French folk tale about how an ugly exterior can hide a beautiful soul (and vice versa).
Day 3
7:00 AM	Check out of your rooms, place your bags on the bus and depart for Manhattan. You will meet your guide en route, at the corner of 10th Avenue and 42nd Street.
7:40 AM	Your guide and group leader will pick up your French breakfast at the Jon Vie Pastry Bakery on 6th Avenue! This bakery prides itself in it's French, Italian and German pastries. You will each enjoy a pre-ordered: fluffy, buttery French croissant (you can even get chocolate drizzled on top if desired!), and choice of: water, OJ, or apple juice.
8:00 AM	You will then begin a New York City sightseeing tour while eating breakfast, en route to Battery Park.
8:45 AM	Arrive at Battery Park, the birthplace of New York City, in Lower Manhattan. At 9:15am, board the Circle Line ferry for a short ride to Liberty Island, where you will have about 20 minutes to take photographs of the 300-foot-high Statue of Liberty. It's copper skin is hung on a central tower designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who is somewhat better known for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. At 10:00am, re-board the ferry to Ellis Island. There, you'll visit the magnificently restored immigration depot through which seventeen million people passed between 1892 and 1954, during the greatest wave of migration the world has ever known. At 11:45am, after your Ellis Island visit, you'll board the Circle Line ferry for the last time, and return to Battery Park, during which you'll get quite a magnificent view of Lower Manhattan.
12:15 PM	Meet the bus and depart to South Street Seaport.
12:30 PM	Upon arrival at the historic Seaport (the heart of the 19th century port of New York) you will have an inexpensive lunch at your own expense and then be free for 1/2 hour for souvenirshopping and picture-taking at one of New York City's most popular attractions.
2:00 PM	Meet the bus and begin your journey home, exhausted yet forever enriched.
Your trip also includes:
A customized, keepsake DVD for each student and group leader, made from photographs taken with a camera that we will loan you for your trip. The images are downloaded, set to music, and then mailed back to you on a DVD to enjoy for years to come! A comprehensive Travel Protection Plan, underwritten by Stonebridge Casualty Insurance Company and administered by Trip Mate, Inc. is included in the price of the trip. This Plan provides benefits such as Pre-Departure Trip Cancellation, Medical Expense Emergency Assistance, Travel Delay, Baggage and Baggage Delay. A Travel Insurance Certificate will be provided to your child’s teacher for each child on the trip. Liability Insurance - WINGED VICTORY USA carries $2,000,000 in Professional Liability and Errors and Omissions insurance.