Very Merry D23 Holidaze Dec 2009 TR - 7 magical park days! updt 7/1

[dawnbu40]

Sounds like a great night! That theater looks beautiful!

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

WOW! GREAT seats! Glad the transition from funeral to party time went (fairly) well!

 

[MyMuse]

Sounds like a great night! That theater looks beautiful!

It really is gorgeous. I think the staff thought "what on earth is she doing taking pics of the theatre?" LOL!!

WOW! GREAT seats! Glad the transition from funeral to party time went (fairly) well!

It was quite the surprise, let me tell you. I was all , then .

The transition went ok, I went slower than I thought after the funeral. I guess I just needed to process the tears & grief. In doing so, I was able to enjoy my night (/weekend) out with my friends, who totally & completely understood.

 

[MyMuse]

I just checked my Alamo rates and a new coupon came out for $30 coupon! I had a $20 coupon previously, and I was able to modify my existing reservation to save myself another $12 on my car rental!!

Whooo!!! I think Cris is in action again.

It went from $182 to $170 for an 11 day rental.

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

That Cris! She is going to be living through you this entire trip... I see LOTS of pixie dust coming your way!!!

 

[MyMuse]

I meant to post more but yesterday was exhausting!

I got up super early to bring my car to mechanic at 7am, he was done by 9am, hightailed it to work by 9:30am (making 2 pit stops at post offices who were not yet open! argh! ), work went a little crazy (which is good), worked through lunch, left 30 min early to go to doctor's appt, get into doctor, then run out of doctor's office to meet my sis to babysit CJ by 6:30pm, babysit, stayed a little late to talk with sis, left, stopped for gas and THEN, my peoples, finally got home at 11pm.

So, I went straight to bed.

I will try to post more today.

 

[MyMuse]

Funny at the Doctor's:

He looks through eyes, ears, throat and nose. Stands straight up, looks at me and says "Your nose is completely inflamed. Just how are you breathing?"

I'm thinking, waaaiiiittt. Isn't HE the doctor? I'm standing here, breathing perfectly normally. He doesn't believe me.

Just can't make this stuff up.

 

[MyMuse]

Ok, so we leave off a high off the first night of our three night concert whirlwind...

We made plans with Mary's friend Sherri to share our room the next night. It's absolutely not a problem, but we forewarn her it's not a huge room and we do plan to have an afternoon of fun.

So, we take the subway back to our hotel and finally get to sleep around 1am? Something like that.

*Slumber here*

We start waking around 8:30am and get ourselves to breakfast in the hotel. It was nice, hot & cold stuff. Free breakfast = good thing.

Sherri arrives via taxi (she's a show-off! lol) and we head off walking to our first destination. My cell is also down all morning, so I didn't tweet alot.

First destination: Macy's. Mary needs a Clinique fix. I'm a Cover Girl girl myself (read bargain-shopper). No holiday windows yet, but inside is all dazzled up.

We walk around a bit, get sprayed about a thousand times (a la "Friends" episode!) and did you know they had a MoMA store in there? Coolness.



And then....I spy with my little eye.....

The "exclusive" Macy's Holiday 2009 Sailor Mickey

I was sooooo tempted, but I didn't buy it. And you know I'm looking for a travel alarm clock! I have plans, can't be late! will be my mantra/motto for my disney trip. If it was smaller and not a sailor I would have bought it, maybe. Maybe I'll change my mind by the next time I go back into the City.

After walking around Macy's a bit and making one of the security guards laugh by our discussion of which subway line to take (he was just shaking his head...lol!!), we head for the subway stop, fill up the Metrocard and head on the V line to uptown.

Second destination: Museum of Modern Art (aka MoMA) to check out Tim Burton info and the museum store. We found out his exhibit doesn't start until Nov 22, but we get a sneak peek at some installations.

Tweet:
@museummodernart can't wait for this!!

We head off to check out the Store. Interesting things, but nothing I actually wanted to buy. Surprisingly, their ornaments were kinda sucky. Mary buys a 70 lb Tim Burton book since he is having a signing a few days later.

By, MoMA since you again soon for the Tim Burton exhibit.

As we are walking to the next destination, I see this cool church, St Thomas:

And this store, that I can never afford nor fit into:

And a street scene of NYC:

And, then we turn the corner to see this sight.....

 

[MyMuse]

And, then we turn the corner to see this sight.....

Yea, you KNOW that was going to be one of my destinations! LOL!

Can you see the Christmas Carol ad in the window?

We enter the hallowed halls. I should remind my friend Mary is one of the people who will be at Disney the same time as I. Her mom is a DVC owner and they are staying at Bay Lake Towers. Mary also got married at Disney and recently came back from DisneyLand. So, you know, she "gets it" and is happy that I'm not "getting it". LOL!

Some pics inside store:

Some photos of the new figurines they have. I think they are phasing out the Precious Moments collection and phasing in the "folk-artsy" Jim Shore collection. They are ok, but I'm not loving them:

Cool pin collection art thingie:

Of course, Mary & I go nuts, oohing and ahhhing and Sherri is shaking her head, laughing. We kept getting distracted by all the "shiny things". We also confirm they will reopen a store in Times Square.

Here's what I got:

I love my car toppers, I have the turkey on my car now:

I FINALLY got 3" Vinylmation Mickeys!!

Mug, can always use another one and it's cute (picked up the corresponding ornament too):

And this for my niece Jenna (from the May trip report). Goes perfect with her trip and will serve as a reminder of her 15th BDay at Disney!

All in all, I don't think I did too bad. I could have done worse damage, but I did pick up a few things from when I was there earlier in April.


I think at this point we head back to the hotel....

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

LOVE!!!! the Walt Disney World pin set!!! AMAZING - and expensive I'm sure!

 

[MyMuse]

As we are heading back to the hotel, I take pics of the Church across the street from our hotel, St Francis of Assissi:

We decide to detour for lunch at Lindy's and get some nice chicken sandwiches special for $9.99! Wow! ....oh, wait, we get the bill and our drinks are $4.29 each! Holy buckets!

We finish and go back to our room to do a quick clothing change into "concert clothes" before we head back to The Beacon to enjoy another night with The Rob Thomas.

We rush around, head for the subway again and this time there was a delay. Never boring in NYC.

Mary had gotten us "VIP tickets", which just means you get a pretty lanyard and a party-ish thing before the doors open along with half-way decent seats. So, we had to be there at 4:30pm.

We get there just in time, get checked in and thank the fan club people for letting me change the meet 'n greet day. They express their sympathy which I really do appreciate.
Sherri goes to hang in nearby Starbucks until the doors open at 6pm.

More pics of the Theatre:

Since we are already there, we get to see Carolina Liar from our great 6th row center seats! WOOT! And our friends Diana & Karen are right behind us. Perfection!

CL doesn't thrill me at all, but I'm always glad to see an excited band play NYC and definitely in this gorgeous theatre. They finish and One Republic comes on. I really enjoyed them from night before and enjoyed them again.

Lead singer dude came into the audience:

Then Mr. Rob comes out and we mightily enjoy.

Here's some more The Rob pics:

Gotta love sequential shooting & funny faces

"....it's feels like somebody is watching me....."

The trademark handpat on chest:

Singing some peace:

Special guest was John MacEnroe (aka Johnny Mac), doing Jimi Hendrix' "Purple Haze"

Ahhhhhh.....another great musical night done.

 

[MyMuse]

LOVE!!!! the Walt Disney World pin set!!! AMAZING - and expensive I'm sure!

I was expecting to see sales, but there were none.

I want to say that pin set was either $150 or $175, not too too bad, considering the other fine art collectables!

 

[MyMuse]

We get home again via subway. BTW, I am so glad we didn't get lost or take the wrong direction in all this time! LOL!!!

Back at our hotel, get ready for bed, talk, etc and eventually hit the hay, though I do have a rough time falling & staying asleep.

We wake around 8am-ish and head downstairs to breakfast again. We finish head back to our room and escort Sherri to Penn to catch her 11:30am train back to Delaware.

I start taking pics right away. LOL!

MSG & Penn are in the same place & I guess it is 11:01am

Gotta love it

I'm a little excited for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. I waited FOREVER for this graphic to pop up again. LOL

We decided since the day was nice, we would walk to Times Square instead of using the subway. I wanted to see the Toys R Us store with its cool ferries wheel.

Times Square:

MTV Studios (now defunct TRL Live space)

Couldn't see the Wheel since there is a New Moon covering

Thee Ferris Wheel!

The cars on the Wheel:

The store was a little on the busy side. But we managed to check things out, see cool stuff and childhood reminders:

Smurfs!!

Strawberry Shortcake! what did they do to her, bring back the original!

Entire Barbie section/room thing

Lego structures:

Jurassic Park area:

Spidey was there too; can he sense me?

Ok, it was getting a little too much in there, so we decided head back out into Times Square......

 

[MyMuse]

We head back out to Times Square and behold:

We stroll down the new "pedestrian walkway", which still freaks me out a little in the middle of Times Square

At this point we decide to eat & shop at Hard Rock Cafe. I love me some HRC!

We shop a bit and I pick up these goodies:

And best of all, they fit! To find non-white T-shirts at HRC that run big is almost non-existent. These will come down with me to Disney.
And I resisted the Monopoly set, but I may have to pick it up next time around, since I now have a $40 credit on my All Access with my latest purchases.

Due to the All Access card (HRC club), so we were able to get the next table in the big 'ol crowd that was there.

Tweet:
having lunch @hardrockdotcom! all access card does work & yes, bought yet more HRC stuff...lol

We had a nice lunch of salads, nice seating area, nice waitress. Really, can't ask for more than than that.

We were somewhat by the cool bar area:

We finished and debated whether to do a double-decker tour, but decided to push that back until spring weather. We go back to the hotel to rest up for the last gig tonight and I was starting to get a tad nervous.


We walk back to the hotel and rest a bit before changing onto concert clothes. We probably got to the hotel around 2pm. Due to the meet 'n greet, we had to be there again at 4:30pm.

Tweet:
Heading out to the final @thisisrobthomas gig in nyc. Picked to meet him - thank u fan club!!

We head out at 3:30pm to ride the subway line once again to 72nd Street.

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Can't wait to hear about the meet'n'greet!!!

 

[MyMuse]

Mary & I get there and I check-in for the meet 'n greet. Thankfully, we made friends with another couple (from Wales! my grandfather was Welsh) the previous night at the VIP party. So we all had someone to hang with; Mary with the husband and me with the wife whilst waiting for the meet 'n greet with Rob.

I won't lie. I was nervous. I know he's cool and everything, but I was still nervous. I was even more so, when I realized that the meet 'n greet was for a single person, cannot bring a guest. I usually have my partner in crime, Mary with me for anything Rob-ish. So, it was nice being nervous with someone.

Mary & the husband hung with us until we were taken away by the fan club. Out of the theatre. Passed the connecting hotel. Where are we going? Around the corner. Into a dank, dark alley. Whaaaaa, you ask? Yes. AN ALLEY. A open space with fire stairs above and with raining sprinkles coming in alley. Okaaaaay.

The fan club guy, Chris, did apologize and said that The Beacon was being difficult about meeting inside. We were in the alleyway right outside the stage door. Lordy. But he did take care of us and I didn't get wet, so I was fairly happy.

So, eventually, Rob comes out and thankfully, we were in the back of the line. I like the fact he talks to people, answers questions and doesn't act like its a cattle call. No problem being patient.

My friend goes first and does quite well.

I ask her to stay, so she's allowed to stay inside (when finished people were asked to immediately leave). I walk up to him and he says "Hi, I'm Rob" and I say "Rob...who?" and he cracks up. Like this:

I say that I was in the "Someday" video for about 3.2 seconds and we highfive. It was cute.

I mentioned this was my first shows (I'm usually at way more & these were the last of the tour) and that our birthdays were close and he said "my fellow Aquarian". Trust me, it was funny.

I ask if he was going to play "Wonderful" (song off current CD) and he said he was going to play another song that a few fan club members were asking him to play called "Downfall" (off prevous solo CD). I said ok, he's allowed. We laugh.

During this, he is signing my limited number lilthlograph, which means I'm sure I'll see it after the tour. It's number 198 out of 250, very Warholian.

Chris from the fan club takes our picture. I wish Rob was smiling, instead of 'deer n headlights' look but I'll take it.

I finish at this point and leave the space. My friend and I walk back up to the theatre and notice our poeples are not there, so we call and find them at nearby Starbucks. I notice it's only 5:09pm! It went quite quickly!!

Tweet:
just met @thisisrobthomas! sooooo nice.

We hang in Starbucks and unbeknowst to me, one of Rob's bandmembers is there. Yes, I'm Miss Oblivious.

He talks to us for a moment and I thought that was really nice.

Tweet:
met matt ...also very nice. looking fwd to @thisisrobthomas gig tonite!!

I order my Starbucks Peppermint Mocha and we both finish telling our stories. Before we leave to head to the show, the girls take a pic with our autographs.

That's me on left, then Lisa-Marie from Wales and Mary on the right

 

[MyMuse]

I finished the last installment, got interrupted and poof! my post went bye-bye.


*grooooaaaannnnn*

I'll see if I can rewrite it when I get home. I'm supposed to be doing work. LOL!

 

[MyMuse]

Rewrite!

I left with us finishing up with Starbucks and heading back to The Beacon.

Tweet:
Fan club - chris j. thank you very much! you rock.

This is the official unofficial last night of the tour; they are a couple of rescheduled dates & some add-ons, but without Carolina Liar or One Republic. Let me explain in Rob Thomas-Matchbox20 Land, that the last night of the tour, the opening bands usually get creamed by jokes, tomfoolery or sheningans of some sort. In the past, it has been hilarious!! As such, the last night, is a big draw for fans.

I have a great seat in 5th row to the extreme left & Mary sitting in the row in front of me but couple more seats over to the left. As it turns out, our friends Karen & Diana has the seats next to me! How awsome sauce is that?! We bought our tickets at different times and everything.

Just one more pic of the gorgeous Beacon. This guy stands at each side of the stage

We see Carolina Liar again and again I'm not impressed but Karen & Diana think they are great. During the set, in he middle of one of their songs is suddenly interrupted by a Matchbox 20 song (Push, I think) and Rob & his band coming out with champagne. They scare the crap out of Carolina Liar, who obviously was not in the know. For the audience not in the know, it was a great, fun surprise as well.

After their set, Karen & Diana ask me to take a pic with them and Carolina Liar. I agree and we go out to the lobby to get this accomplished. On the way back, we chat with another of Rob's band, Abe. He's a sweetheart.

By the time, we finish all this, One Republic comes onstage. They are really very good & I enjoy "Shout" cover (by Tears for Fears) once again. Their new CD came out today, so I may go and pick it out over the weekend.

One Republic finished and onto The Rob Thomas! WOOT!

A tribute to Tyler, his recently deceased doggie

The special guest was Robert Randolph again

A sign from the audience & placed on the drum riser

Tweet:
Ahhh...the end of the 3 @thisisrobthomas gigs in nyc are over. Back to reality tomorrow. Great job boys! @mattymay

The end of 3 great nights spent with good friends, fun times and Rob Thomas.

We gather up or things (and my Warholian lithlograph!) and get back on the wonderfull crowded subway back to our hotel.

We pack up the next morning after breakfast and head home via train. We wave goodbye to NYC for another cople of weeks until we come back on Nov 28th for the Tim Burton exhibit and the special screening of the Princess & the Frog.

 

[MyMuse]

Yes, I know FINALLY! So, here I am at the cupst of 15 days. Lordy.

December Disney To-Do List
- Schedule refining/check park hours, etc
- Buy luggage tags: done
- Do something crafty with Mickey Head stickers (more luggage tags?)
- Consult with touringplans.com
- Prelim RideMax plans
- Book car service
- Start pre-packing/packing list
- Photopass: I think discount code will happen!
- Cancel Holiday D-Lights tour: done
- Buy travel alarm clock
- Recheck rental car rates / join speed service: done
- GPS, custom Disney POI: done
- Make new binder cover: done
- PA shopping goodies: pics taken, will post soon
- M&M charge & hotel: done
- Review menus
- Disney apps for Verizon: Phone not avail yet?!
- Timers for lights: bought, not yet installed


- Photopass; my friend Mary is supposed to have her mom call DVC & see if she can receive the discount. I think this came through! If this comes through, if anyone *coff* wants *ack* to *wheeze* participate *coff* in a *ack* share *wheeze*, then please *wowee* PM *coff* me.

 

[KatGarcia]

I gotta know who told you that there was going to be a Disney store opening in Times Square?! NOT true. Rumors fly but NOTHING is set in stone, believe me there would be people holding each other down to get transfers. Looks like a great weekend! I def hope we can check out the Tim Burton Exhibit together! Text me your plans when you get a chance so I can get days off work if I need 'em.