You’re Driving Straight Through? No Thanks…I’ll Stay Home

Claire is smiling.....

I know! We got a lot of smiles this trip!

Claire looks so grown up now. Totally lost the little girl look. So pretty!

I know! I never noticed it so much till I compared pictures from just a few years ago. I don't know how she grew up so fast!

We are staying at a small homey b& b on Staten Island. Its called Harbor House and looks like it has a great view of the city and harbor. Our 5 nights are going to cost about what 1 night in Manhatten would cost. Although ‘18 is going better than last year, we’re still keeping a tight rein on the budget.

That sounds fun! Glad 2018 is going better for you. You passed on the bad luck to us this year. I'm counting the days for 2019...it has to get better.
 
Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017


Rise and shine! We have a full day today!


We were staying on Geoff’s Marriot number and received his perks….which included access to the perks club room and breakfast, which is typically in the club room….but with so many people there for the Holiday they actually serve the breakfast in a conference room. We headed down there and got some pastries, fruit, sausage, eggs, etc. It hit the spot!


We then all gather in the hall once we were all ready to hit the town!


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Look how excited Claire is! Hahahaha.


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Off we go. Sadly today was colder.


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One of our favorite spots for pictures.


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I see the bulbs!


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But we are turning here.


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We walked by the Today Show in progress. Now the side we were on was not the fenced side, so we peeked in the windows and saw that Ohio University was in there and I took a couple quick pictures through the window….not more than 3 seconds.


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And I was yelled at by a guard to keep moving. Seriously? If he had blink he would have never even known I stopped and I was not blocking the flow of pedestrian traffic.


The Tree is up!


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A look back at the fenced in area of the Today Show.


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You would be amazed at how small the studio is in there. Very tiny. I always think the TV gives the illusion that it is big.


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Our first stop was at Rockefeller to go underneath and eat while watching the ice skaters. In theory this was good…except they made it at a time that could be breakfast or lunch. Most of us wanted lunch, but unfortunately they were only serving breakfast. I think if we had come just an hour later we could have had lunch.


Some ordered food, but many of us just ordered juice or coffee or soft drinks.


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We did enjoy watching the skaters. Some were good…and some never left the railing.


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Someone had an accident and when we went to the bathroom you could see the person getting medical attention. I think he fell and hit his head and it was bleeding….but we later saw he walking so he was fine in the end.


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The kids then wanted to go skating. Gail looked up some options and put it on hold for now. It was too expensive to skate at Rockefeller compared to other options, so we decided if we had time later she would go to Bryant Park.


We finished up and headed out….except we lost the family. We were confused on where they said they were and where we were, but eventually found them. We separated a bit and Gail took Abby to the American Girl Doll store.


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We looked around Rockefeller Center.


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We spent some time in the Kate Spade store and some purchases were made by a few. Amanda got a really pretty sparkly purse but within 3 weeks the handles were peeling off. She took it back to a local store and they exchanged it for her and she got to pick a different one out. I guess the one she got was a holiday purse not meant for every day….which I thought was pretty stupid since she paid quite a bit for it.


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Time to head over to Saks!


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We worked our way across the street to look at the windows at Saks.


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Imagine my surprise!!!!


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It was Snow White Themed!


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My pictures are out of order…I will just post them as best I can.


First here is some video…and you know me…I take awful video.




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Best Window Display Ever!!!!


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The other side has designer’s views of Snow White basically.


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We were staying on Geoff’s Marriot number and received his perks….which included access to the perks club room and breakfast, which is typically in the club room….but with so many people there for the Holiday they actually serve the breakfast in a conference room. We headed down there and got some pastries, fruit, sausage, eggs, etc. It hit the spot!

That is definitely a nice perk - nothing that holds you up too long, but still sets you up for the day.

I see the bulbs!



I remember those.

And I was yelled at by a guard to keep moving. Seriously? If he had blink he would have never even known I stopped and I was not blocking the flow of pedestrian traffic.

How strange. I think somebody had a bit of a Napoleon Complex.


That is an interesting view.

We finished up and headed out….except we lost the family. We were confused on where they said they were and where we were, but eventually found them.

That is why I don't like travelling with big groups.

Amanda got a really pretty sparkly purse but within 3 weeks the handles were peeling off.

That is a shame. For what these purses cost this should not be happening.

It was Snow White Themed!

That is so neat. I loved all the photos.

Corinna
 


Snow White themed windows...how cool was that?

It was so cool!!!

at is definitely a nice perk - nothing that holds you up too long, but still sets you up for the day.

It is a nice perk. And saved some money too.

I remember those.

I love the bulbs!

How strange. I think somebody had a bit of a Napoleon Complex.

Yes!!!!

That is an interesting view.

It was neat to sit and watch and I am pretty sure some had no clue we were watching them. LOL.

That is why I don't like travelling with big groups.

Yes! Sometimes it takes more time finding the rest of the family. At least if you plan to head off, text us so we know

That is a shame. For what these purses cost this should not be happening.

I agree. Amanda was NOT happy.
 
I headed inside to use the restroom then.


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Meanwhile, Mom, Gail and Abby were doing their own thing.


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Claire went to the Kylie Jenner Pop up Store with Amanda and Alexis….but couldn’t get in.


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We all were to meet at NBC shortly, so I made my way there.


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Claire, Alexis and Abby all made it there earlier than I did since they were with other family members.

Soon I was getting text messages with pictures.


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We all arrived and shopped around a bit. We were going to have a tour of NBC Studios today. Gail and I did this tour about 25 -30 years ago and it was a lot of fun and we still have memories from it. Now we would make new memories with our kids!


We stopped off to get pictures…pretending our family members were part of the Today Show.


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As we were walking around, a NBC employee came to ask us if we would like to see The Late Show with Seth Myers. They had 4 tickets left. I texted Rob to see if he wanted to go. I would be somewhat interested, but it would mean missing our dinner reservation. In reality, we had all wanted to go see Jimmy Fallon and we searched for tickets, only to find out he was not having any shows for the rest of that week. We had been researching this option since the day I decided to come and knew how the ticket lottery worked….but unfortunately it was not meant to be.

Rob came back and said he really didn’t care, and neither did I and we decided to skip seeing Seth over our dinner reservation.


Finally it was time to line up for the tour. Sadly, Amanda wasn’t feeling very well and she ended up walking off to find a bathroom in case she was sick. Amanda ended up having issues the whole trip and I felt bad for her.


No pictures are allowed on the tour. We did have to go through security and finally we were off!

I can’t remember the order or even everything we did, but it was fun!


We got to go to the set of Saturday Night Live…this is one thing Gail and I remember from out last tour. They had actually been rehearsing that time and we were all excited.


It’s amazing how small the stage is and even the audience area. It seems so much bigger on TV. We went to the set of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Again, it seems much bigger on TV.


We went to the set of NBC’s Nightly News with Lester Holt….again….super small room. There were basically 3 areas and they were only steps from each other…it all is based on camera angles.


The hallways were neat too with a lot of pictures. Our guide told us that we had been the last group of the day to see Jimmy Fallon’s set as the later ones do a different tour since typically he starts getting ready to tape his show then. I asked where they go instead and he said now they usually go to Megan Kelly’s set. I said…Thank God I’m not on that tour. And my family laughed but the page looked at me oddly. We informed him we just do not like her and refuse to watch her show. He kind of laughed then and said that wasn’t the first time he has heard that.


Now came the fun part…..we got to do our own production of a Tonight Show episode! This is different than the tour we did those 30 some years ago. Back then we were taken to a news room and shown how things work. I was picked then to be part of the weather in front of the green screen….because I had a green coat on….And I was basically just a head which Gail thought was hilarious.


So this time around we each got a part. Gail, Abby and Claire were “the band”. Rob and I were camera operators. Mom and Aunt Mary were the audience. We got Alexis suckered into being the host and Geoff was the Guest. There were others on our tour who did other things as well.


Alexis did a fabulous job….even though she chomped on gum the whole time. LOL!!! She was not shy at all. Geoff as the guest was hilarious. He really went off on his own and I think they ended up telling him to wrap it up as he was talking so much. It was great fun!


And we each were sent the video via email.


Video


After that it was time to end the tour. It was a lot of fun and the video makes a good keepsake.


After the tour we made our way back over to Times Square to have lunch/dinner.


We made a stop for some pictures.


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And another stop.


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A little crappy video while I am walking.




Dinner was at Tony’s Di Napoli.


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We checked in and had to wait a little bit so we all tried to load the video we had been sent from NBC. It took a while and reception wasn’t great, but we finally got it so we could watch.


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We were seated and explained that the meals were served family style and each plate would feed 2-4 people. We all decided on things we wanted and ordered a bunch!


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They were HUGE! We had soooo much food and a ton left over, but it was amazing!


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We highly recommend this place and I think we will be back again on a future trip.


Luckily we had mini fridges in our rooms and we took our leftovers back to snack on later.


nyc73 by Jenseib, on Flickr
 
Another fun day! We did the NBC tour several years ago and the studios are small! I would love to see SNL someday...I thought since I work for NBCs parent company that would help, but apparently even our execs can't get tickets!

Dinner looks amazing!

Jill in CO
 
That sounds like so much fun.



What a shame.

Dinner looked great.

Corinna

Amanda has food allergies and we wondered if she ate something contaminated...but we never could figure out if she did or not. She just didn't feel good the whole trip unfortunately.

Another fun day! We did the NBC tour several years ago and the studios are small! I would love to see SNL someday...I thought since I work for NBCs parent company that would help, but apparently even our execs can't get tickets!

Dinner looks amazing!

Jill in CO

That would be so cool to go and watch. There aren't a lot of seats in there and I am not sure how they pick people to watch it.
 
We all changed and got ready for our evening. Well most of us. I believe Aunt Mary and Rob were staying behind tonight.


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Tonight we had a show to get to.


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And it wasn’t too far away.


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Aladdin!!!!!!


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It was crowded as all heck. We did stop and bought a few souvenirs and got some drinks and snacks and then found our seats….which were WAY up top. They were scary. Very steep and they were on a slant. And the seats were tiny. Amanda totally freaked out. I was not happy either, but I figured I could make it…at least for a while…as long as I never had to move. Amanda left. She couldn’t take it. She texted us later and said she talked to someone and told them that the seats were too scary and she was having an attack and they said they could find her a seat on the lower level and they did and she said it was wonderful.


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At least with Amanda gone, we had an extra open seat, which gave us a little more room.


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See how the theater curves…our seats went on this curve, so the middle was higher than the sides.


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One false move and you fall to your death!


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And then the show started……I had heard mixed reviews of it, where some really love it and others weren’t impressed. We loved it! It is a little different than the movie and the show on the Fantasy (and what was formerly at Disneyland), but it was great!


It was well worth the time sitting in the horror seats!


At intermission, Abby had to use the bathroom and we all carefully let her and Gail out while we hung on for our lives. Hahahaha.


After the show, we slowly made our way out with the masses and then decided to get some pictures.


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We waited to get a picture in front of the lamp.


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It was our turn finally but others kept trying to jump in, so I was firm and let them know that we were waiting first. I think people were startled that I did that, but honestly we could be here all night if we didn’t take action.


Someone took our picture and in return I took theirs.


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We headed back to the hotel and got back into comfy clothes. We had one more thing on our list tonight….going to see the parade balloons.
Last trip, we headed out on Wednesday night late and were able to go up and down and see them and it was pretty cool. Last time it was Geoff, Claire, Amanda and I. This time, Amanda was still not feeling great, so she skipped out, but Gail decided to come.


I believe we took a subway over to the area and then walked several blocks. When we arrived the streets were blocked and they had police monitoring it. Why??? Ugh! We saw people going through, assuming they must live down the street. After watching some people I tried to walk right with them….but got caught. LOL. Darn it! I said I wanted to get over to Central Park West, but they informed me that the whole road was closed. Darn it!


Well we tried. We are not sure why they now don’t allow people to go up and down like they have in the past. We just took pictures from afar.


Gail thought this was a Ghost Busters building. I couldn’t tell.


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We then started walking back. We passed this store and I had to take a picture and text it to my daughter Paige.


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Gail asked if we were walking the whole way back and we laughed and said no…it’s like 40 some blocks from where we were. Oh yeah….we don’t want to do that. We said we would get a taxi….plus it was really getting cold out now.


So we kept walking and were not seeing any taxis. Geoff decided to stop in a store as they needed more toilet paper in their room. They had asked several times now but they were not refilling it, so he thought he might as well just get some in case they never do.


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We totally were laughing at how the guy had to use a stick to get it.


So we kept walking and Geoff pointed out different things.


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We really didn’t see an easy way to get a taxi and since we now were pretty close, we just kept walking. Finally we were back at the Marriott and just laughed at how we had just walked over 40 blocks after midnight in very cold weather.


Geoff posed with his newly purchase toilet paper and of course we were all laughing.


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We headed back to our rooms with our plans. We were getting up early tomorrow for the parade! Several of us were going early to get a spot.


We settled down in our beds and I took the chair bed, which was wonderful and I had a great nights sleep!


 
They were scary. Very steep and they were on a slant.

That sounds like the kinds of seats I usually end up with.

She texted us later and said she talked to someone and told them that the seats were too scary and she was having an attack and they said they could find her a seat on the lower level and they did and she said it was wonderful.

That was really nice of them to do.

See how the theater curves…our seats went on this curve, so the middle was higher than the sides.



That is a really weird layout.

And then the show started……I had heard mixed reviews of it, where some really love it and others weren’t impressed. We loved it!

We have it in London as well now and part of me really wants to go and see it, but again, I am getting a lot of mixed reviews.

What a shame that you were not able to look at the floats close up.

Corinna
 
I made it! :cool1:

Where do I start? Geez, that van did not look very comfortable! I would have done the same as you and take a flight!

Umm, the Marriott Marquis is an expensive hotel and it has hard beds and doesn't refill your toilet paper??!!! :scared1:

I would love to visit NYNY one day. I would have to do some type of movie tour because I am a huge movie buff and so many awesome movies have been filmed there! That would be so much fun! BUT, I don't think I would do well with the crowds :crowded:

I laughed my butt off when you told the people you were next for the lamp photo! :rotfl2: I don't think this polite Canadian would do well in that situation...actually, knowing me, I would have just said forget the photo :cool: :rotfl:


That's great that you got to see Brook and Nikki! :love:

Looking forward to more popcorn::
 
Really enjoying your trip report so far:thumbsup2 40 blocks! Wow, good for you and no wonder you slept good. :laughing: Looking forward to the parade
 
I enjoyed Aladdin but I didn't love it. The "Friend Like Me" scene was worth the price of the ticket though.

40 blocks in the cold! You are brave! I would have called an Uber! Very cool seeing the balloons.

Jill in CO
 
I just had to chime in...I am from NYC and our apartment is very close to where you guys were when you watched the Macy's parade floats. It's definitely a tradition for a lot of people to watch the floats before the parade :)
Saks had a special Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs theme last fall/winter. There was a special brunch with characters in the store if you paid like 100 per person. I did not go, I would not pay that much, when I can get the same for less at Akershus, LOL. The store windows were wonderful though!
I thought Aladdin was great too! I'm glad you guys were able to catch it.
Look like you guys were having a great time in NYC. I spend more time at our house in NJ now but I really do miss the city. Actually going to our apt tomorrow to experience city life again for the weekend!
 
Sorry I dropped off the face of the earth for a few days. It's been a busy week. Claire is done with school though now...and she is thrilled.

That sounds like the kinds of seats I usually end up with.

I know...I wish we had known that when we were buying tickets....warning...you may not fit in this seat and if you do there is a chance you may fall to your death!

That was really nice of them to do.

She was so happy she got to see the show still after paying all that money.

That is a really weird layout.

I think these theatres were built so long ago and evidently people were skinny then? And dare devils?

We have it in London as well now and part of me really wants to go and see it, but again, I am getting a lot of mixed reviews.

I think because of the mixed reviews I had heard, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. We were so high up we could see some of the special effects on the stage and that was pretty neat too.

What a shame that you were not able to look at the floats close up.

I know!

I was bummed

I made it! :cool1:

Woohoo! Of course I have been not here for days now.

Where do I start? Geez, that van did not look very comfortable! I would have done the same as you and take a flight!

I am sooooo glad I flew!

Umm, the Marriott Marquis is an expensive hotel and it has hard beds and doesn't refill your toilet paper??!!! :scared1:

YES!! The price per night for that week is INSANE!!!!! And I know they were very busy and full...but come on...bring the toilet paper!

I would love to visit NYNY one day. I would have to do some type of movie tour because I am a huge movie buff and so many awesome movies have been filmed there! That would be so much fun! BUT, I don't think I would do well with the crowds :crowded:

There are so many things to do there. I was tempted to take on of the bus tours on the last day that shows sites, etc...but I worried about getting back in time for my flight.

I laughed my butt off when you told the people you were next for the lamp photo! :rotfl2: I don't think this polite Canadian would do well in that situation...actually, knowing me, I would have just said forget the photo :cool: :rotfl:

Well I wanted a picture! hahahahaha

That's great that you got to see Brook and Nikki! :love:

It was nice to see them both again...even though I had just spend 3 days with Brook the week before.
I miss that we won't be able to all go on a long cruise together again this summer.

I've had those seats a time or two :tongue:

SCARY!!!!! I really don't see how they are up to code.

Really enjoying your trip report so far:thumbsup2 40 blocks! Wow, good for you and no wonder you slept good. :laughing: Looking forward to the parade

Thanks!
Well at least we worked off some of that big dinner!

I enjoyed Aladdin but I didn't love it. The "Friend Like Me" scene was worth the price of the ticket though.

I think Disneyland's version is my favorite, but I did enjoy this show. We were so high up we could see things on the stage....coming up from the floor....it was cool. They did have a couple of really good songs/dance segments. We also loved Prince Ali....which is my favorite Aladdin song!

40 blocks in the cold! You are brave! I would have called an Uber! Very cool seeing the balloons.

Yes, we should of...but not one complained and we just laughed at ourselves when we got back.

I just had to chime in...I am from NYC and our apartment is very close to where you guys were when you watched the Macy's parade floats. It's definitely a tradition for a lot of people to watch the floats before the parade :)

How neat to have an apartment there. My Uncle Geoff is actually looking at job opportunities in the area and he would get an apartment and come home on weekends....but not sure if it will work out or not.

Saks had a special Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs theme last fall/winter. There was a special brunch with characters in the store if you paid like 100 per person. I did not go, I would not pay that much, when I can get the same for less at Akershus, LOL. The store windows were wonderful though!

That is so neat....but yeah...thats a steep price!

I thought Aladdin was great too! I'm glad you guys were able to catch it.

Me too! Claire loves theatre and shows. She has since she was little and I used to try to take her to some highschool productions at least once or twice a year. We've been slacking the last few years.

Look like you guys were having a great time in NYC. I spend more time at our house in NJ now but I really do miss the city. Actually going to our apt tomorrow to experience city life again for the weekend!

It is such a fun place...but for us...we never could live there. We live on a dairy farm...so about the complete opposite. hahaha
 

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