The Phantom of the Opera, the longest running show on Broadway at 35 years was scheduled to close in February. Tryg and I saw Phantom in 2016 on his NYC graduation trip, and Mark and I saw it on a trip to NYC in 2018. Tryg and Katie had seen it in town at some point and I can remember during the middle school years, Katie telling me Phantom was her favorite book......take away is we all wanted to see it before it closed in NYC.
December 8 - Rockefeller Center
The bonus of going to NYC in December is the Christmas decorations!!! Once we arrived at out hotel Thursday night and grabbed a quick dinner at a deli, we headed to Rockefeller Center. ALL the trees were lit up along the way, and many buildings had spectacular decorations, but the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center was incredible!!!
December 9 - Central Park, 5th Avenue, Times Square, Phantom
Mark and I are on a bridge in Central Park, not too far off of Fifth Avenue.
We walked through the park to THE MET and sat on the steps like true New Yorkers. We wandered around inside the museum a while, but focused most of our time on the Musical Instrument Galleries.
Katie and I walking down NY street. I don't think it is 5th Avenue, but you get the idea of how everything was decorated.
Times Square- just like it is in the pictures! So many people, noises....so much energy!. We saw the ball that drops on New Years- it was already in place....waiting for 2023!
Phantom! Mark is helping out with a selfie....
35 years at the Majestic Theater! So much history! A lot of the people who designed the production...are no longer alive.
Our seats gave us a good view of the chandelier dropping.
Trygve met the sound guy, who worked sound when Phantom opened in 1988, and returned to work Phantom until it closes.
December 10 - Empire State Building, Bryant Park, John's Pizza, Beetlejuice
The Empire State Building. If you look to the right at the top of the photo, you can see the Statue of Liberty.
The brown rectangle towards the top of the photo is Central Park.
We were inspired to pose by the celeb pictures along our winding route we took to the elevators. We had 9:00 am tickets and I didn't think we would need the VIP "cut the line" tickets- but we kind of did. With tickets the line was almost a block long and, to be honest, it moved very fast, but we could have skipped that line and the security line if we had the VIP tickets. Would have saved us 45 minutes...next time.
Mark and I had fun imagining Sully landing on the Hudson River.
We went to Johns of Times Square for lunch. We like the pizza and it is in the heart of broadway. But what we really like is the building which was originally a church. It still has a lot of the architecture of the church including a stained glass ceiling made of 8 parts...kind of like a pizza.....maybe it was fate.
Beetlejuice did not disappoint. Alex Brightman was STILL playing Beetlejuice and Elizabeth Teeter was new since the pandemic as Lydia. They had great chemistry, sort of avuncular/ kid sister- like. Also one of the other patrons complimented Mark on his Gerry Garcia jacket!!
December 11 - Radio City, Rockettes, Carnegie Diner, LGA
Trygve and Katie doing a selfie before we went to see the Rockets Christmas Spectacular...
We squeezed the 9:00 am show in on Sunday. The show was SOMETHING. It began with Santa landing in NYC and the audience wearing 3 D glasses. I thought it was fun that we had been to the iconic NYC sites Santa flew over: Empire State, Broadway, Public Library with Lions(Patience and Fortitude), skating rink. My favorite numbers were the ones with the 36 Rockettes tap dancing. I learned after, their tap shoes have custom sole//heel with a built in microphones- which explains why I could hear the taps so clearly.
We finished our New York whirlwind with a late lunch at Carnegie Diner & Cafe. This was my favorite eating place of the trip. It was near Carnegie Hall (obviously)and some of the tables were sort of double parked. The atmosphere felt REAL- like this was a place real New Yorkers might frequent. Tryg's hamburger bun was made of grilled Mac and Cheese...interesting. Also they had iced coffee drinks and a lot of desserts (including a coconut cupcake). Would recommend reservations - we made ours the night before.
Laguardia, we all were entertained that our girl was held up at security. It wasn't so long ago that I would have jumped up to be sure everything was OK, but now I smiled, Mark gloated that it wasn't him and Trygve smirked as he snapped a photo(and promptly texted it to her parents). Our little girl is all grown up....
Our New York Adventure is coming to an end. Trygve is such a fun person to do Broadway with- he knows interesting things about the performances and made sure we had good tickets. This was Katie's first trip to NYC, it was eye opening to see the city through her very observant eyes. And Mark just enjoyed it all. As a mom, it was gratifying to see how happy my boy is, and how these newlyweds take care of each other.
Times Square Notes For Next Time
Really best to plan ahead and have restaurant reservations
Overall the corner delis were overpriced and was under whelming
Pazza Notte - Italian, doesn't take the reservations, LOUD, but good
Wagamma - Asian sort of fast food, we made reservations hour before, Marks's favorite
Johns Pizza - doesn't take reservations, plan to get there early and w-a-i-t,
Carnegie Diner- make reservations, American/breakfast all day
Pick A Bagel - very good bagels and creams cheese- next time be bold and try tofu cream cheese
Sheraton Times Square - hotel great location for Broadway and Central Park- rooms ready for a redo. Coffee in room but no refrigerator or mw. Restaurants/Coffee Shops/Front Desk always long lines. Lobby always filled with people(not sure they were actual guests of hotel). Elevators weird. Good/ huge workout room(no sauna). If we stay there again get the concierge level so we don't have to deal with crowds in lobby and lack of access to easy breakfast food.
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