Happy Buddha

Location: 135-37 37th Avenue, Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Chinese, Vegetarian
Hours: DAILY (11am-10pm)
Phone: (718) 358-0079
Website: www.happybuddha.com
Prices: $20/person
Credit Cards: Cash only

Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 7
Environment: 9

Frequency: All the Time

After skipping a month a few of us were able to get together for a June dinner. I actually tried to pull everyone together the week before, but most of us weren't available. This week was a little better with Irene, Ben, Charlotte and Reinhard. I also had Ifore join us. Since this crew was mostly Flushing based, we moved from the usual Woodside/Forest Hills area to downtown Flushing.


I chose Happy Buddha because most of the group hasn't eaten there recently if not at all. It's always fun for new customers because of the way they prepare the foods and make all of the dishes look just like the traditional Chinese ones... but without use of meat or dairy products. I also enjoyed the relaxed environment. I was also thinking of Tung Yi Fung, but the problem is they will try to rush you on bringing out the dishes.

QM vs EN

Queen Mary 2 and Enchantment of the Seas are 2 very different ships, but since they're the only 2 cruises I've been on, I'm going to compare them.


Dining
EN - Enchantment had much better food in both the buffet and the restaurant. QM2 still had good food as far as quality, but their dishes weren't as exotic. Enchantment incorporated a lot of Caribbean and South American flavor.

Entertainment
QM - QM2 wins this category by a long shot. Naturally the sheer size of the ship allows it to offer a lot of venues at once. Enchantment wasn't really that much smaller, but it lacked on variety of entertainment. They basically had 2 shows per day and very little conflicting activities. On QM2 I had a hard time deciding my daily itinerary because there was so much to do. The theater always had something going on as did the planetarium. There were also a variety of classes ranging from oceanography to hands-on art. QM2 is a bit larger, but they had a lot more to do.

Design
TIE - This category is purely taste. QM2 has more of a classic cruise ship look, but in a gigantic scale. Enchantment has a modern style, resembling space ship. Personally, I liked the exterior design of Enchantment better. The pool area looked amazing. QM2 had the better interior though. It looked like the spent a lot of time designing every little alcove. On Enchantment, all of the design seemed to go into the Centrum area.

Fitness
QM - The only thing Enchantment had that QM2 was missing was the rock climbing wall that's on every Royal Caribbean ship. QM2 had the larger gym with more equipment, more special classes (more than a complete day's worth) and a better track. Enchantment's track because unusable at times because it was too narrow. During the day, people would sunbathe on the track... too much traffic.

Service
QM - Service is generally good on every cruise ship, but I would have to give the slight edge to QM2. There was a more personal feel from the staff that served us.

Cabins
QM - Cabins shouldn't really weigh in that much when choosing a cruise, because if a voyage is good enough, you won't be spending much time there, but it's still a category to compare. QM2 was more modern and slightly more spacious. The beds were also more comfortable. On Enchantment, we weren't among the lucky ones to get one of the renovated cabins in the middle 70ft portion of the ship. The cabins were basic and sorely dated.

So overall, I thought Queen Mary 2 was the better experience. I was constantly busy and had way too much to do. There were times on Enchantment of the Seas when I felt like I had too much down time.

Cathy & Lu's Road Trip

I got a call from Cathy yesterday saying that she and her family were on a cross-country road trip and they would be in NYC today (for 3 days). Coincidentally, I had the day off as I always take the day after Father's Day. Lewis was also not working, so we were able to do a little SCAD reunion. Ning was missing though as she was heading out to Singapore.


We just spent the day catching up since it's been about 2 years since we last saw Cathy and over 10 since we last saw Lu.

Enchantment & Florida

There's more! After we got from the cruise, my Dad & I went back to New York, but the rest of the group stayed in Florida for the rest of the week to see Miami & Orlando. Here are the pictures from my parents' camera:

Edwin's Last Day

Today was Edwin and Auntie Aida's last, so we went all over the place to complete the rest of Edwin's goals. He still had to get See's Candy, which is only available at Lord & Taylor outside of it's hometown of San Francisco. And then we had Joe's Shanghai on the list as well. From a time perspective, it made more sense to hit Manhattan on Sunday and then Queens on Monday, but there was a Puerto Rican Day Parade over the weekend that would've made shopping on 5th Avenue very slow. So instead, I planned the visit to Arthur Ashe yesterday and Lord & Taylor today.


We went out early in the morning to hit Lord & Taylor and got there pretty early. We made good time because I immediately knew to location of the See's Candy stand. I bought it there often because it's a favorite of my Dad's. That was the only thing we were interested in, so we were out of there as soon as we got our candy. With a lot of time left before we had to meet up with Emily for lunch, we walked down 5th Avenue.

For the rest of the story, check out the Picasa album.

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