Help Me With My New York City Vacation
 

I am leaving for NYC tomorrow with my wife and two teenage kids. We
plan on seeing a Broadway production while we are there. We are needing
to pick from one that would be family friendly and that has discount tickets
available. A few shows that have discount ticket available are as follows,
please give your opinion if you have ever seen any of these shows:

Les Miserables
The Phantom of the Opera
Mama Mia
Tarzan

Thanks for your help

I have seen both Les Mis and Phantom... either of them would be suitable and enjoyable. I lean toward Les Mis.

Thanks for the input. I can get discount tickets for Les Miserables at about
$56 per ticket for orchestra level. Normal price is $110 per ticket. I never
realized how high tickets to a Broadway production were.

I've heard that Mama Mia is a little less "kid friendly", but I haven't seen it, so I don't know. My kids have always loved "Beauty and the Beast" and we've seen it twice. "Les Mis" is awesome, but is over 3 hours long, if I remember right--the age of your kids might make a difference. "Phantom" is good too; we saw it in London. There are a few parts that could be a little scary if your kids are really small.

Don't forget...you can stand in line at TKTS in Times Square on the day of the show and get half price tickets. Sometimes the lines are long, but it's worth it. They don't have every show available, so you have to look at their boards. It opens at 3 pm for tickets for the 8 pm shows, I think. It opens like 9 am for the Wed. and Sat. matinee tickets.

Tarzan will be the best for kids f you can get past a man with no shirt!!! I hear the production and stunts are amazing.
I have seen other Disney productions and I loved them.

Although, funny, my favorite was, "Annie Get Your Gun".

They are renovating, the TKTS booth is currently located at the Times Square Marriott, right across from the old booth.

Thanks, didn't know that.
By the way, "Annie Get Your Gun" is one of my favorites too. I don't know if it's still playing though; I haven't looked to see lately what's on.

Naw, it's been gone for a while..I saw it twice!
My wife and I even stole some material for some Valentine's church banquets...shhhhh, heeeeee

I'm in New York City. I arrived last night. My kids are teenagers, so I think
they are old enough to enjoy Les Miserables. We had a good time today.
We did one of the double decker bus tours. We visited Madam Troussard's
Wax Museum, which is really awesome. It is amazing how lifelike many of
these figures are. Also, we went up on the Empire State building's observatory deck. That was really nice. It is an awesome view. Also, we
visited Ground Zero. Our hotel is almost directly across the street. (We are
staying in the Embassy Suites)

I am so jealous! My husband and I went in September and we had a blast. We went to see "The Wedding Singer" but we left early because neither one of us really like plays. We had fun walking around New York. We loved Central Park. Ground Zero broke my heart.

Awww, wish I was still there!
Ground Zero will be an event for your family for sure. Someday I will post video of my wife standing on top of the first Tower just a week before 9/11.
I hope you have a great week!

just remembered, around the corner from the firehouse that was next to WTC is a little deli/pizza joint (can't remember the name) and they make a sicilian pizza that is amazing. If you're not too full try a calzone too. Go past the firehouse, make a left and it is on the left hand side.

Also close to the World Trade Center site is (ahem....) Trinity Church. You can walk inside without the roof caving in, trust me. :lol It's the church where all the people rushed to when the buildings were falling. There are some amazing stories there.

Also, it was the church that was in the movie "National Treasure", where they went deep underground, under the church.

I believe this one of the oldest churches in the USA?? Didn't George Washington attend? They have changed some of Ground Zero since I was last there in January. They ripped out a lot due to construction. Back in January there were amazing giant posters of the events of the day next to the PATH subway entrance...it is all gone now except for the entrance...I also saw lots of construction inside of the gates.

I was in NYC when Sadam was executed and remember seeing some newspaper front pages hung on the Ground Zero fence. They were defaced with graffiti that I can't say here...

Here is a pic of the pie!!!

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...P1010004-2.jpg

Yer wun uh dem darr werdlay boyz ain'chah!!!

Komprahmisah!

Oh man... that just ain't fair...

I miss a good sicilian pie!!! I can almost smell it...

Only in Noo Yawk! Well, I guess Sicily too!:killinme

I wonder if these were cooked on a Wood Fired Oven... we found those Bistros produced the finest Pizza in Italy when we visited last year.

Nah... in Sicily, it's different than NY Sicilian pie.


We have a place here that has a really good Sicilian (along with regular NY pie). If they weren't so stinking huge, I would get me one... it'd take me two weeks to finish by myself though...

Grimaldi's is Coal Fired.

http://www.grimaldis.com/

Coal fired is the NYC tradition...

I have some experience in working with these Ovens... wood fired that is.

My company sweeps the chimney and powered termination on one at an upscale Bistro every month.

Also I have done some construction of the ovens...

Here is a pic from a workshop we did in O5'

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...eep/steveh.jpg

When I do get a house of my own some day, a wood fired pizza oven is one of the very first things I want to have installed.... outside of course. Too hot in Texas for them inside a home.

Hey there are several methods for do-it-yourselfers... It takes a refractory or firebrick lining and a lot of thermal mass around it...

Yeah... the only thing that concerns me about doing it myself... is doing it myself. ;)

I'm not exactly a professional mason. ;)


I've checked into the do it yourself thing. I'm actually a member of a pizza making forum (yes, such a thing does exist!) and they discuss ovens on there... a few of the guys have done it themselves and are very happy with their ovens.

I am having a fit here and my wife wonders why.....

Monk, you are not fair!

First DA with Ring Dings and now this!
:ranting

thats what is so neat - you need not be a professional.

I may have perused the same forum in the past. The composite materials can vary greatly.

This one?

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/


This is the section discussing Hearth ovens

He he he, whatever ya do BOOM...do NOT look at the next video that I post on "Monkey Takes Manhatten" thread....:killinme

No thats not the same ... I don't think it is at least it's been a while. I will see if i can reconnect to the site

Well we haven't heard from our thread starter have we?? I hope he's ok and not at some all night club!!!! J/K
Must be sleeping...

LOL! Monk, are you still there? In the city?

That's very funny! By the way, that pizza place you were referring to near
Ground Zero wouldn't be Caruso's would it? I ate there yesterday. It was
very good.

Let me give you guys an update on my trip.
Saturday night we landed late (11pm) at JFK and took a cab to our hotel,
the Embassy Suites in Lower Manhattan. We bought a 3 day New York pass
for the trip. This includes admission to over 40 attractions and also it gave
us a 3 day City Sights Bus Tour with on/off privileges. (This is a combo ticket)
Sunday we went up to the observatory deck of the Empire State building
and also we went to Madam Troussad's Wax Museum. Both of these are
must do's. We took the portion of the bus tour from 42nd St down to Lower
Manhattan and called it a day.
Monday, we walked to Battery park and took the ferry over to the Statue of
Liberty. We then took the bus tour from Lower Manhattan back up to
the Rockefeller Center and we did the NBC studios tour. At 8pm we attended
Les miserables. After this we called it a night.
Tuesday (today) - We started the day off on the bus tour and got off at
the United Nations building. We did the guided tour. Then we went to the
Museum of Radio and Television on 52nd St. Afterward, we did the Uptown
bus tour, which includes the west side, upper west side, central park, Harlem,
and the Upper East side. After bus tour we ate at ESPN Zone, hopped on the subway to go back to the hotel and called it a day.

Sounds like you have had a full trip so far!!

You may be right... of course, I did spend 18 years serving the ole debbil!:slaphappy

Today my New York City trip comes to an end. Tennessee I'm coming home!
We wrapped up our trip yesterday with a visit to Fox and Friends and also
the Today show studios. My daughter got her picture taken with Kelly (can't think of his last name - he is on Fox and Friends usually only on the weekend). Also, she got her picture taken with Stacy London (Co host of What Not to Wear), Stacy is a frequent contributor on the Today Show. Also,
I got to shake hands with Natalie Morales of the Today Show and got a photo of her as well.
A little later in the day, we went to Macy's department store. Afterwards
we walked around Times Square and went up to the "Top of the Rock", as
the Observation deck on the top of the Rockefeller Center is called.
Last night we watched the Manhattan fireworks show.
Today, we head to JFK for our flight back to Nashville.

Cool - Post some pictures.