Tung Yi Fung

Location: 135-29 37th Ave., Flushing, NY, 11354
Cuisine: Chinese, seafood
Phone: (718) 886-8233
Prices: $15/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 5
Value: 8
Environment: 7

Frequency: All the Time

We went to Tung Yi Fung yet again. I knew were going to go at some point, but didn't realize it would be this soon! Please check out the slideshow and Picasa album for details.


I'm reposting the general info. because I updated the "service" stat. I dropped it to a 5 because they have been consistently rushing us towards the end of the meal. Everything else is still the same.

Lucia Pizza

Location: 136-55 Roosevelt Ave, Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Italian, Pizza
Phone: (718) 445-1313
Prices: $6/person
Credit Cards: Cash only

Food: 9
Service: 8
Value: 8
Environment: 4

Frequency: All the Time

Lucia Pizza is one of the oldest businesses in the downtown Flushing area... possibly the oldest on Roosevelt Avenue. It's a family owned and operated pizza joint and is the only place to get NY style pizza in the area. Ifore ate there a lot while he was studying in NY, so he makes it a point to eat there at least once each time he visits. It's the same as what I do with Jollibee in the Philippines.

The pizza is so good that everyone tends to get impatient when it comes out of the oven and burn their mouths from the hot cheese! Many people stop by after work and get a quick cheese slice that they eat in the restaurant standing up or on diner-style stools.

The service is efficient and everyone is friendly. One great thing about Lucia Pizza is that they don't collect the money until you get your food. That's the right way to do business and more fast food places should follow that.

The environment is the only negative. After all the decades of business, they haven't renovated much. With the money they made, they should've done something or even expanded the place! On the other hand, you can look at it as a classic dining place that represents real NY pizza... a slice of the old NY!

A Day in Queens

It's a little non-traditional, but whenever we have a lot of family members visiting from my mother's side, we end up spending more time in Queens than Manhattan. Today's schedule consisted of dim sum at Gala Manor (all ratings are the same as before), a visit to the US Open, shopping at Queens Center in Elmhurst, snack at Lucia Pizza and dinner at Tung Yi Fung.

After dim sum, Ifore, Edwin and I headed to Arthur Ashe. Even though the US Open wasn't in session, the tennis shop was open for business. Edwin went there last year and got some items from the previous year. He was looking to do the same as well as searching for autographed items by Roger Federer who just won the French Open for the first time and tied Pete Sampras with most majors in history. The store just carried a few leftover items from 2008 and no high-end autographed items (he ended up ordering Online afterwards).


We still had the whole afternoon, so we headed off to Queens Center so Edwin could get some gifts at H&M. It was actually the first time I walked around the renovated mall.

When we got back to Flushing, we went to Lucia's Pizza. It's a stop Ifore has to make each time he visits NY. I'll write up a full review of this place in a separate post. Then we headed off to Old Navy, which had a 50% sale on all men's items! I rarely shop for clothes, but found a lot of $4.25 t-shirts I wanted. I ended up getting 6.

Finally, we went back to my dad's office to meet up with the rest of the family and to wait for Uncle Henry to arrive. Earlier in the day, I was telling Ifore that while he was here, we would probably eat at Tung Yi Fung at least once. I had no idea we were going to end up there tonight for dinner!

Related: US Open, Queens Center Mall

Enchantment on Frommer's

I just posted some of my vacation photos up on Frommers.com. We have many different levels of photos now and I have to think about where I want to upload them. For Key West and Cozumel, I placed them into the official Destination Guides. Since we don't have a photo feature for cruises, I upload the Enchantment of the Seas images to my Community account.

- Key West Slideshow

- Cozumel Slideshow

- Enchantment User Gallery

Enchantment of the Seas TOC

This post is a table of contents of all entries related to the Enchantment of the Seas trip to Key West & Cozumel. I wrote many of these within the past week, but posted them based on the original dates of occurrence:

- Enchantment Prologue
- Packing for Enchantment
- Boarding
- Dinner
- Welcome Show
- Burgers & Ice Cream
- Key West
- The Blond Giraffe
- Cozumel
- Buccanos Bar & Grill
- Enchantment Staff Dance
- At Sea
- The Wall
- Enchanting Weather
- Enchantment of the Seas

Enchantment of the Seas

We had one final meal at Windjammer on the last day of the cruise. Everyone got up early for breakfast because some of us were set for the express checkout so we could catch our planes. My Dad, Auntie Susan & I had to head back for work. The rest of the group is going to Miami & will fly out of Orlando to return to NY.


On this trip, unlike QM2, I enjoyed the stops more than the day at sea. There was a lot to do at the 2 stops and not as much on the ship itself. QM2 had more variety on board, but boring stops.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the trip overall. I think this is going to be a regular thing as long as enough family members from the Philippines can coordinate on days off. And for some of us that are busy during the Summer, the cruise has to be a relatively short one (4-7 days). Until next time!

Enchanting Weather

A couple of days before this trip, I was trying to decide what to pack. One of the things I was undecided about was the footwear. I had a pair of Pumas that I usually bring on vacations, but was hesitant this time because the forecast was showers & thunderstorms for the entire trip... in all 3 locations! My Pumas have never touched rain before. I figured I already had them for years and it's a special occasion, so I decided to bring them. My other pair of shoes wouldn't have been good enough for the gym and track.

Guess what? No rain for the entire trip! We arrived in Florida to nice sunny weather. Key West was perfect... not a cloud in sight. Supposedly it started raining after the ship left. When we got to Cozumel, the weather still held up. At about 1pm, the sky started filling with clouds, but nothing came down and the sun came back. The day at sea also did not see a drop of rain. It was supposed to rain also on the day I returned to New York. It did, but stopped long enough for the plane to land and for me to get home. Then we had that massive thunderstorm overnight. So my Pumas are still perfect! It makes me wonder... did we get lucky or was it the shoes that magically killed the rain?

The Wall

Today was the only day I didn't have a conflict with the rock climbing wall's hours. So Ifore and I made it there at 3pm for a short, but strenuous workout. The rules said that we weren't supposed to climb without lessons and neither of us has done this before, but the staff said it was easy... gave us a few pointers and let us go for it.


I thought it was fun. I rushed a bit and slipped once, but eventually made it to the top. Ifore made it up pretty quickly (see video). The wall was located on deck 10, so if one were to look at us from outside of the ship, it would've looked dangerous. But once I started climbing, I was concentrating so much on which grips to reach for that I forgot all about how high I was.

At Sea

After a schedule intense couple of days, today was more relaxing... a full day at sea for the journey back to Fort Lauderdale. Today, I got a chance to do all of the things I wanted to, but conflicted with the port arrival schedule. I woke up and followed the usual gym/jogging routine. Then I met up with the rest if the group for breakfast at Windjammer. Edwin & I ate quickly so we could head back to the cabins to watch the French Open Final between Roger Federer & Robin Soderling. Federer made history by tying Sampras with 14 grand slams and finally completed his career grand slam. Aside from that, he made short work of his opponent in straight sets. That gave us more time to do other things!


For lunch, my dad tried to get the whole group, as the 12 of us never had a meal together. My parents have always tried this with each group cruise they go on. It was pretty close to working... 11 of 12 of us made it. We went for our first sitdown lunch at My Fair Lady, which was renamed Royal Brasserie Thirty. We found that the lunch offerings were better than any of the dinners we had previously. There were soup specials and dessert specials.

Enchantment Staff Dance

We almost had the full group on the 3rd night for dinner at My Fair Lady. Ifore & Edwin joined us, making that 11 out of 12 of us. It was the most exciting dinner so far because the staff did a dance at the end. After we got our desserts, a little bit of music came out of the speakers. I thought it was a mistake, but shortly after, there was an announcement that the staff would do a dance.


Thanks to our waiter, Rommel and bread/water server, Edgar!