New York is Thatta Way, Man: Just Another SaUD Miracle Review- May, 2010 (Part 1)featured

Well, that title is a mouthful…and it took me a good month to come up with (but an extra umbrella in your drink if you know the reference).

So, it’s that time again, friends. Another Miracle review. Yeah. *Another* one. And here’s a little secret: there’s another one coming next year because we’re pretty sure our winter cruise is either going to be the Miracle Aruba route or the St. Lucia route. But after that, we’re going to look at trying another cruise line so any suggestions as to what line we should try next spring are welcome!

We’ve actually been home for a month now. I’d have gotten this up sooner but it’s been a busy month. I came home from our trip sick, four of my friends came in to visit from out of town the day after we got back, I met the Glee cast twice and I’m starting a fun little guest blogging gig for Where I’ve Been. But I’ve been dying to get this review started because I have *so* much to write about and so many pictures to share. So if you all are ready, I am, too!

Before I start…any pictures that have cool effects were taken on my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app. And since a few people got testy because I posted the lead up to the cruise review before the actual cruise review the last time, I’m not starting a new thread on Cruise Critic until we get to the actual cruise portion of this review.

And with that…our May trip!

This trip, much like the last one, came up kind of randomly. We’d always planned on going on the Dream in May and doing a side trip to Disney since we can’t do a family trip this year (one of my dearest college friends is getting married the week we normally go). After our trip on the Freedom, we were just really pushed away from going on bigger ships. The crowds everywhere we went onboard killed our cruise buzz and we were craving a smaller ship. Beyond that, we were really craving a return to New York. Last year, we had SO much we wanted to do and we didn’t even accomplish a fraction of it because we felt so rushed.

We bumped our vacation up a week because of the whole my-friends-are-coming-to-town thing (and the whole I-have-Glee-tickets thing) and it worked out well because we found a fantastic rate for two 4K rooms (I believe that’s the classification for the rooms with the french doors). Mom and grandma were actually in the same room they were in a year and a half ago and we were right next door.

With our cruise booked, we set out to plan our New York trip. We loved the hotel we stayed in last year (The Westin- Jersey City) because it was close enough for quick and easy transit into and out of NYC but far enough away from the hustle and bustle. The lowest rate we could find was around $250 a night, which is more than reasonable for a four-star hotel in that area, but in convincing Mom to extend our stay to four nights in New York, we had to keep it under $150 a night. I tried every possible code I could find and we just couldn’t find the hotel for under $250 a night. So, we went to Priceline and I think Stephanie got the hotel off Priceline for around $109/night plus fees.

Now, I normally wouldn’t ever use Priceline for a city as vast as New York just because there’s so many possible hotels and ways things can go wrong, but in this instance, it worked for us and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. I’m often asked how we always get the hotel we want off Priceline. The answer? Research. Know your stuff. Before we decided to use Priceline, we did a lot of research. We knew we’d bid 4* Jersey City (Newport) and that there were a limited number of hotels in that area that fit the bill (which I believe were the Westin, the Grand Hyatt, the W and there might have been one more). From there, we researched every single one of those hotels and made sure that if we got any one of them, we’d be happy with the choice. Trip Advisor is often a helpful resource with this, as you’ll get painfully honest reviews of any hotel. After that, I look at betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com and I cross check our dates with the city and see what other people have bid and won. For instance, when we were booking this trip, I could see that many people who were bidding around the dates we were were pulling up the hotel we wanted. I’ll check what they’re bidding, start low and then, if necessary, move up in $5 increments every time I rebid (which is once every 24 hours because I’m not willing to change my dates, expand the area I wish to stay in or stay in a different category). So us getting the hotel we want every time we use Priceline is kind of one part luck and two parts research.

We had originally booked a standard SUV via Alamo (using the same Visa code I always use), but about a week before we left, Stephanie was doing some research and found out that Alamo had switched up their categories. What was now a standard SUV is what used to be an intermediate SUV. A car like that simply wouldn’t accommodate all of our luggage and grandma’s wheelchair. It’d be nice if Alamo would tell their customers of these switches, but that would require honesty and we all know what the bottom line is. We quickly realized we’d need to upgrade our category to a minivan. Luckily, we knew this: if you wait until about a week or so before you leave, Alamo has last-minute rates. These rates are the cheapest rates you will ever find for their rentals. There is no code that brings the price down more than these. So what we usually do is book using the Visa code, and since you don’t pay until you get to the kiosk and there’s no penalty for cancellation, we’ll play around with the last-minute codes and cancel and rebook with the lowest rate we can find. In this instance, we decided to pick up the car a day early so we wouldn’t be rushed to pack it up and the extra day plus the higher category car (which is normally $500 or so more than the category we usually book for the usual two-week span we normally book for) and with that last-minute rate, it was actually $20 *less* than our original reservation. So it pays to be persistent and constantly check codes.

Mom and Stephanie went to pick up the car on Mother’s Day (which was the day before we left). I had booked the pick up for 10:00 pm because it brought the rate down further and even though I told them not to, they went to pick up the car around 7:00 pm. And, of course, they were told they couldn’t pick up the car yet unless they wanted to be charged for an extra day. They took a look at the cars available and there were some not-so-nice looking minivans and one really tripped out one that was nearly brand new, had a DVD player, satellite radio, touch-screen controls and heated leather seats throughout the car. They were worried it would be gone when they got back, but luck was on our side and we got the car we wanted. And me, being, well, me, saw we had a bigger car and took it upon myself to expand the amount of luggage I was taking. I think the final tally was seven pieces? There was my main luggage piece, the shoe suitcase, the garment bag for all of my dresses, my rolling carryon, my large Kate Spade carry on, my laptop bag, my camera bag and my handbag. I think that makes eight? Either way, we had PLENTY of space in the car for all of our luggage. Maybe one day I’ll learn to pack less. I won’t count on it, but I won’t rule it out, either LOL.

So hotel down, car down, the last thing we needed to book was our Broadway tickets and our tour tickets. Stephanie takes care of our Broadway tickets because she always finds us amazing seats for cheap (I think she said she uses broadwaybox.com). I insisted we go see Hair again because Ace Young was starring in it and I love me some Ace Young. Stephanie got us front row seats to a matinee show for $60/ticket about a month before we left. A few weeks before we left, Stephanie and Mom decided that they really wanted to see Promises, Promises (with Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes) and Stephanie got us some fantastic mezzanine seats for the first night we were in New York for around $80/ticket (which was half the price they normally sell for). The last thing we booked (which we booked a few days before we left) was our NYC tour. We tried to tour on our own last year and we didn’t even see a fraction of what we wanted to. Stephanie booked us on the City Sights Hop On/Hop Off bus tour and it was one of the best decisions we made (but more on that when we get to it).

Everything booked, all the details taken care of and we were super excited to get going. Since we had tickets to a show the first night we were in New York, we needed to make sure we arrived in the early afternoon so we had enough time to get settled in the hotel. While we normally leave on our trips around 2:00 am, this time, we wanted to leave for this trip around 11:00 pm. So the day we left, Mom took a half-day at work and we ran errands when she got home (it was also grandma’s birthday, so we had a little celebration for that). Mom and Stephanie tried to get some sleep. I stayed up and packed and then watched the Cubs game with grandma. When they got up from their naps, we packed up the car and then Stephanie and I ran to get some dinner (Superdawg for me, McDonalds for her), I set the timers for my VCR (we’re getting DVR next week- yay!) for American Idol and Glee and we set out around midnight (fashionably late…as always).

Stephanie makes these vacation mix CDs for our trips and for this one, she tried to coordinate Chicago-themed songs for when we were driving through downtown (she has a thing for being able to see two great skylines in one day). I kept myself awake playing with the touch-screen controls (which I had a kid-like fascination with) and before we knew it, we were going through the Skyway and we were on our way.

I fell asleep around halfway through the drive through Indiana. I woke up and the sun was rising and we were in Ohio. I hate driving through Indiana. There’s never anything to see and there’s a not-so-pleasant smell for long stretches. But Ohio? I love driving through Ohio. They have the *best* rest stops. For real. They’re like the Disney World of rest stops. They’re clean. They’re well-kept. There’s shops and there’s plenty of restaurants.

It was still early so the only thing that was open inside the rest stop was Starbucks. Good enough for me. We all got oatmeal and I got a coffee, Stephanie and grandma got tea and Mom stuck with diet Coke. We wanted to minimize our stops so we could get to New Jersey and check into the hotel as soon as possible, so we didn’t make another non-gas stop again until we were in Pennsylvania and Mom wanted a sandwich. The drive through Pennsylvania was gorgeous. Not the black hole I remembered, but it took forever since it was the longest part of our drive. I got Stephanie to watch an episode of the Kristin Chenoweth episode of Glee (we decided that if we couldn’t both watch the main DVD player, neither of us would watch it since we both wanted to sit in back with grandma and the DVD only played on the screen in front when the car was parked) and we passed the time taking naps and talking about what we wanted to do in New York.

The drive actually went pretty quickly and before we knew it, we were driving through New Jersey (where, apparently, by federal law, you cannot pump your own gas) and we had our first peek at the NYC skyline.

We hit the hotel around 3:30 pm and Stephanie ran in to get us checked in while Mom had the bellhop take our luggage before we went to self-park the car in the adjacent garage. We had called a week earlier to note our preferences from my Starwoods Preferred Guest profile (high floor, city view) and the best they could accommodate us with was a 10th floor room with a city view. I can’t complain- we booked through Priceline and they gave us two beds, a city view and they gave me Starwoods points for our stay. The room was just as I remembered it. The room was spacious (another perk of staying in Jersey) and clean. Perfect for our four-night stay.

Being back in the same hotel we were in last year, I kind of felt like our trip the year before never ended. Everything was the same. I found comfort in the familiarity. Because I already kind of knew my way around, after we got settled in, I left Mom, Stephanie and grandma to rest and I walked over to the Cosi down the block to get grandma a sandwich and some soup for dinner.

When I got back, Mom and Stephanie were in their theater clothes so I got ready, we watched some TV, got grandma settled in for the evening and set out for the city. Last year, the whole PATH/Metro thing confused us and while we had a greater sense of the system this time (and despite the fact that I take public transportation in Chicago all the time), we still had our moments. So we set out early just in case.

To get to the theater, we had to take the PATH to the World Trade Center, walk a few blocks and transfer to a subway train to Times Square. It was quick and easy. We narrowly missed the start of evening rush and before we knew it, we were surrounded by the hustle and bustle of Times Square. We found the theater and then set out to find a quick place to grab some dinner.

When we were planning the trip and talking about our goals for it, one of mine was that we not eat at chain restaurants. I mean, you’re in New York. Why go to McDonalds or TGI Fridays or the Olive Garden when there are options all around you? I think we accomplished this (except for our daily breakfasts from Cosi and the occasional sandwich or cup of soup that grandma would want from there). Our first night in New York, we were stuck in Times Square for dinner, which meant either chains or touristy restaurants with inflated prices and not so great food. Mom wanted pizza and we ended up at this Famiglia Pizzeria place (which I guess is like Sbarro in New York). Is it a real representation of New York pizza? I hope not because none of us thought it was that good. But we were hungry and it was fast and near the theater. We also had an order of garlic knots, which were very heavy on the garlic.

After we ate, we walked around for a little bit and as we were going back to the theater, we noticed the theater was next to a Crumbs Bakery. One of the things on my NYC list was to get a cupcake at either Crumbs or Magnolia, so I was *super* excited and it did not disappoint. Mom had a Promises Promises cupcake (which was vanilla with cream cheese frosting, I believe), Stephanie had a plain vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting and I had a special cupcake (Oprah’s Live Your Best Life celebration cupcake), which was a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting and a chocolate fudge center. It was the best cupcake I’ve ever had. The cake was light and fluffy and the frosting was SO delicious and despite the heavy layer sitting on top of the cupcake, it, too, was surprisingly light.

We saw a line forming to get into the theater and headed over to the show. The theater where the show was held (The Broadway Theatre) was absolutely gorgeous, with these stunning crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. We quickly found our seats on the second level in the mezzanine, which were really fantastic. We had the second row in our section (which was facing center stage) and there was no one sitting in front of us, giving us a fantastic view of the show.

Promises, Promises is a show set in the 1960s and featuring the music of Burt Bacharach. Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth were phenomenal (Stephanie feels some sort of connection to Sean Hayes because he went to the same college she did). I know there’s been some controversy regarding Newsweek and the article about openly gay men playing straight men and their believability, but I thought Sean Hayes was just absolutely fantastic. He and Kristin Chenoweth had some great chemistry (and she really does have the voice of an angel. I’m in awe of her every time she opens her mouth). My only issue was that every time I saw Sean Hayes for the first half-hour or so of the show, it was just kind of like ZOMG THAT’S JACK! I think for all of us, though, the real standout of the show was Katie Finneran (a fellow Chicago native woot woot!) in the role of Marge MacDougall. She was HILARIOUS and really got the essence of the character. At the end of the night, she actually received the largest applause of the entire cast. Well earned, in my opinion. She actually just won a Tony for the role the other week.

Stephanie and Mom loved the show, I had a mixed reaction. I didn’t care for the first act. I actually found myself nodding off at parts (to be fair, though, I was really tired from the drive). Finneran’s character shows up towards the end of the first act and I feel like that’s when the show really took off. The second act was a rollercoaster of emotions, but just so much better than the first act. Best show I’ve ever seen? No. But the opportunity to see Kristin Chenoweth perform live was worth every second…every penny.

After the show, we noticed a flurry of activity coming out of Times Square, which didn’t seem too out of the norm….except for the flurry of emergency and police vehicles entering the area and the street cops cordoning the area off. Yep. Another bomb scare.

I wasn’t really scared. Mom was a little worried. But we had one big problem: the train we needed to catch was in Times Square, and we couldn’t get in. And my iPhone was nearly dead (despite the fact that I bought a portable battery charger just for instances like this…and it didn’t want to work). So we found a station to catch the subway at…except we didn’t have enough money on our fare card…and the machines to add money to the cards were all broken…and there was no one at the booth inside the station. So we had to go back up the stairs, find *another* station to add money to the card, go *back* to the station to catch the train to the World Trade Center, transfer back to the PATH, take that train into Jersey and walk back to the hotel. It was a long night.

Grandma was fast asleep when we got back to the hotel. Stephanie showered and then went straight to bed. I showered and then bought some internet time ($9.95/24 hours). I downloaded the episode of Glee that I missed while we were at the show, caught up with my news, did some cruise research and then finally went to sleep around 3:00 am. What can I say? I’m a night owl. I left the window shades open as I went to sleep because it’s so beautiful to fall asleep to the New York City lights from across the Hudson river.

We had an insanely long day, but I was just so excited to be back in New York. I’m a city girl, born and raised right outside of Chicago and New York is the only city that really kind of replicates that feeling of home for me. I’m comfortable with the noise, with the fast pace, with the crowds. I could sleep when we got home. Who needs sleep when you have one of the world’s greatest cities at your fingertips? So I looked out at the lights until I dozed off, super excited for what the next day would bring us.