Thursday, April 1, 2010

Trip Report -- Awesome Trip !!!!

I am finally sitting down to write a trip report of our awesome trip to NYC to celebrate my sister%26#39;s 40th birthday (we also took our mom, who is 65, and it was her first trip to NYC). I appreciate everyone%26#39;s input and help -- it undoubtedly made our trip much better!





We arrived on Thursday afternoon. We checked into the Affinia 50. I booked this hotel based on the feedback on this website. It was great! When we checked in we were informed that we had been upgraded to a one bedroom suite -- I didn%26#39;t even have to ask. I%26#39;ve stayed in numerous NYC hotels and I was amazed at the spaciousness of the room (several huge closets, full kitchen, nice bath, etc) . This is definitely the place to stay if you go with a family. The staff was really nice and extra helpful. I would definitely stay at the Affinia 50 again.





Once we got settled, we headed off the Empire State Building. I had bought the tickets in advance off the internet and it saved us about 45 minutes in line. We bougth the audio tour which I loved! I have been to the ESB before, but had not done the audio. I highly recommend it. We were there when the sun set -- it was beautiful!!. Then we grabbed a cab and headed to Cafe Fiorello, which was a recommendation from this forum. The food was great. My mom and sister had the open-faced lasagna which was absolutely delicious! Then we walked accross the street to see the Light in the Piazza. We really enjoyed the music and the costumes. It was a beautiful musical, but not the typical big show you expect on Broadway. So, some people might be disappointed. But we loved it. Then we headed to Times Square and had some late night cheesecake and took in the sights of the square at night. Off to bed for our next big day.





On Friday morning we visited the Statute of LIberty and Ellis Island. We enjoyed the museum at Ellis Island so much that this took a lot longer than we expected. We had lunch reservations at Balthazar in Soho at 1:30, but ended up getting there at 4:30 (we were having so much fun chatting that we didn%26#39;t realize we had boarded the ferry to New Jersey rather then New York. At least we ended up back at the Statute of LIberty and not in New Jersey. lol But it added another hour onto our trip). I learned that it is very hard to get a cab in the ferry area or in the financial district at this time of day on Friday afternoon. We ended up walking all the way to Balthaza -- which is a very, very long walk.





The late lunch at Balthazar was wonderful but very expensive. We shared an appetizer, each had french onion soup and shared a desert, had a glass of wine and it was close to $200. I always love this place, but it is pricey. Then we went back to our hotel and freshened up for the evening. We had dinner reservations at the Garage in the Village so we could hear some good jazz, but because we had such a late lunch we weren%26#39;t hungry. We had our reservations moved to 11:00 and decided to see if we could snag some tickets for Jersey Boys (I know you%26#39;re thinking, there%26#39;s no way. But where there%26#39;s a will, there%26#39;s a way). We left the hotel at 7:00 p.m., but traffic was terrible and we didn%26#39;t show up at the theater until 20 minutes before show time. Even I thought it was pretty hopeless at this point. But I snagged two tickets from a scalper outside for only $20 over face value (six rows from the front on the side) and the box office had 1 single ticket (seven rows from the front on the other side). We were PUMPED!!! The show is everything I had read and expected and more. It was great!!!! We couldn%26#39;t stop talking about it after we left. Then we went to the Garage (recommended on the forum to have good jazz and good food) and had a fabulous dinner with desert and listened to fabulous music for only a few bucks more than our late, late soup and wine lunch at Balthazar.





On Saturday morning we took a cab to the World Trade Center. I first visited the site only a few months after the disaster. It was much different this time. We went to the chapel accross the street which has a memorial exhibit. It was beautiful, touching, emotional, but made you feel so glad that you had come. We then headed to Grand Central Station and had lunch and cheesecake at Junior%26#39;s. This place was also recommended on this forum as having the best cheesecake in NYC. The food and cheesecake were both great! We then headed to see our last show -- WICKED! It far exceeded my expectations! I can%26#39;t wait for my husband and teenage children to see this show. I bought us 3 partial view seats off of E-Bay. I%26#39;ve seen tons of Broadway shows but had not sat in a partial view seat before. I will have to say that for this show I would do it again in a minute. I was on the first row on the end seat. I could not see the back of the stage on the right side and missed the entrance and exits of the characters on that side. But I would much rather give that up to be a few feet from the leading actors when they are singing thier phenomenal solos. You are a few feet from their faces -- it%26#39;s awesome. My mom and sister were on the sixth row in the last two seats so they had a better view of the stage and their view was much better. These seats were cheap, so overall I would recommend them. The show was great and I didn%26#39;t feel like I had missed out by sitting in them. We walked back to our hotel and took in all the sites along the way (including a stop at Saks for some new makeup).





Saturday night was our special night. I had made us reservations at Grammercy Tavern to celebrate my sister%26#39;s 40th Birthday. I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone celebrating a special occassion. Every course was amazing!!!! There is a set price, 3 course menu, but they bring you so many other samplings between courses that you are absolutely STUFFED! The service and the food were first class. At the end of our meal we were presented with a banana nut muffin to take home for breakfast the next day. It was delicious.





We all left the next morning to catch our flights to different parts of the country. It was a perfect trip -- good food, good entertainment, good shopping and great fellowship with the people I love.





Thanks to all for their recommendations and input!



Trip Report -- Awesome Trip !!!!


Wow, sounds so great, I am happy that you got to see Jersey Boys, it is fantastic, same with Wicked.





Great food, shows, hotel and your family, what more can you ask for!!!



Trip Report -- Awesome Trip !!!!


I have to admit, I am a bit curous about one thing. It seems to me that you never took the subway, even when the subway would have been the fastest way to travel (such as on Friday to get from the Battery to Balthazar, or Saturday to get to the WTC.) Did you indeed tend to avoid the subway, and if so do you mind if I ask why?




No consious decision to avoid the subway. I have taken it in NYC before, but am not as familiar with it as the DC subways. It was more a factor of just having fun taking in all the sites and people along the way and being overly optomistic about getting a cab. But you are right, for time sake we should have taken the subway!




Thank you for the report and congrats on having a great time! Thanks for the reviews of everything. Very helpful. Hope you all come back soon and try the subway!




What a great trip report... Very easy to read and enjoy...





How much was the prix fix meal at the gramercy tavern?





love and light...




I wish I could have been with you, your trip sounds just wonderful. How lucky to have managed to get Jersey Boys Tickets?




We have partial view Wicked tickets 4th row end seats, I was worried about the view so your post makes me feel a whole lot more optomistic, thanks.




sounds like you had a great time-Garage sounds good-will have to note it for next time




So glad you enjoyed WICKED and JERSEY BOYS - they are my favorites, too.





Great food, great shows--my kind of trip!




What a fabulous trip! I%26#39;m curious though, how your small Balthazar lunch ended up costing $200... that must have been some very expensive wine!





Your Jersey Boys story reminds me of a friend of mine who never pays attention when I tell her something is sold out. She always seems to just walk up to the box office as they release seats at the last minute. So it was great that your optimism was rewarded too.





Is your Mom just madly in love with New York now?

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