glennbo123
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 10, 2008
I want to be a part of it, New York New York
Let’s get this show on the road. Literally. ‘Cause it’s a trip report.
The first portion of the trip was Judy and I taking Marlene to New York City, as a graduation celebration. Marlene will be doing the heavy-lifting, trip reporting-wise, and her text will appear in orange.
Some people asked why her graduation trip wasn’t to Paris (since she loves all things French) and it brought back some memories in planning this trip because she did actually try to angle for a trip to France...New York City was a bit of a hard-sell. She offered to throw in all of her savings, or she could go by herself (to save money, of course). But before we could even take a breath and respond with some kind of reasoning, her sister Lauren (firstborn, and therefore the rule-enforcer) jumped in with, “Absolutely not! I was only allowed to pick someplace on the RCI list between North Carolina and Maine. Europe is out of the question! And besides, New York is great.” So there you go. And once we settled on New York City, planning specific activities was a little difficult too. She didn’t want to do the boat tour that was a highlight for Lauren and Judy. She wasn’t interested in seeing the Statue of Liberty. She didn’t care about getting on the Today show. Also, our contact at the Museum of Natural History (Andrew, the bug exhibitor) isn’t there anymore, so no free tickets for us, and she wasn’t interested in that anyway. We were at least able to narrow-down the activities to a Broadway show (more on that in a later chapter), and she wanted to go to the New York Botanical Gardens. Other than that, we were going to play it by ear.
One more thing to note is that having Judy along was a late addition. When Lauren went on her graduation trip we decided that Judy would accompany her and I’d stay home with the younger kids. Then, for Marlene’s trip I’d get to go and Judy would stay home with James. And for James, we’d both go. Well, when this one rolled around, I had a full day of work that needed to be done the day after we arrived in NYC. We came up with a plan that Judy would come along (Lauren would be home with James and as you can see, he’s gotten big enough that he doesn’t need a lot of supervision), and I would work remotely from the hotel room that day. I planned the Botanical Gardens trip for that day, which I saw as a win/win, since I got out of it.
However, we only had 2 tickets for the Broadway show since I’d ordered them way back in December, but Judy was okay with not seeing it. It would have kept her up waaay past her bedtime anyway.
Enough preamble, let’s get going. We started out on Tuesday June 16th, driving to the train station in Hamilton, NJ and taking the train into the city. Here we go...
Hello, Dizzers! Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Marlene. I am the second child of three in the Glennbo clan. I plan to study music composition and dietetics in college next year! This summer so far has been super hectic and wonderful – I have gone on vacation after vacation. As you probably know, my father has commissioned me (quite cheaply, I might add) to write a trip report from my own point of view for his lovely readers (that would be you!), so here we go. I have decided to include pictures of my own from my snapchat story to add a little artistic flair – and to continuously remind you readers that I am, in fact, a teenager. The next few photos are from our ultra-interesting journey from home to the train and thus to the city! On our way I was kindly informed that (1) Madison Square Garden is not, in fact a garden, (2) my father has very useful pockets in his cargo pants, and (3) he likes to make plane noises when we drive by the airport.
This is a reference to band. I apologize for the inside joke, but I figured I’d keep it anyway.
Our first cab ride. I was hoping for the Cash Cab.
Instagram Video of the big moment. My brother-in-law who grew up in Brooklyn posted, "Don't act like freakin' tourists!"
We got to our hotel, The Manhattan Club, but our room wasn’t ready yet so we had to stow our luggage with Bell Services and find something to do.
I guess this is a good time to mention that our Manhattan Club booking was a DVC trade-out through RCI. Like last time, I had no trouble booking it, the first time I called. You can now book this hotel directly through DVC, but the points are higher that way so I did a regular trade-out. (Also, you can have a similar overall trip experience to ours by doing the New York Adventures By Disney trip, but that’s waaaay more points and money. And it’s a blatant rip-off of the last time I planned this trip for Judy and Lauren -- including pretty much everything I planned for them, with the exception of swapping “Newsies” for “Wicked”, but I digress.)
So anyway, we needed to find something to do, and fortunately we had a couple things on our list. One was to see FAO Schwartz, the iconic toy store, before it closed its Fifth Avenue location. Once there, Marlene got in line to play the “Big” piano.
A music major that DOESN’T play the Big piano? Heresy!
I hit "record" on my phone and got some video with one hand while taking pictures with the other!
We got to see a muppet-making shop! Pretty cool! Dad had a geek-out moment. Apparently he always wanted a muppet when he was little! I did! I had to confess that when I was young I read in a magazine, National Geographic “World” if my memory is correct, that they went through several muppets every year due to wear-and-tear. Of the biggies anyway, Kermit, Miss Piggy, etc. I was tempted to write to Jim Henson and beg to get one of those used muppets, but never did. Anyway, this place inside FAO Schwarz was like a Build-A-Bear Workshop, but you could build a muppet instead. I’d never seen one of these before, or even knew they existed. Are there others? Why on earth do they not have one in Disney Hollywood Studios. They’d make a killing.
For our next stop, Marlene wanted to see where Julliard is. We started walking there and passed a shop that had an unbelievable piano in it.
And of course, I had to get a picture with the expensive piano! We were on our way to visit Juilliard (the “Harvard“ of music schools, mmkay?) and passed this fantastic shop. Through the glass windows I spied the most extravagant GREEN piano I have ever seen. No, my favorite color is not green, but you have to admit that this piano is GORGEOUS! When I asked the sales clerk how much it was – for the record, of course – he replied, “That piano is on sale for $65,000,” That’ll get me out of a store really quick!
Reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from "The Pink Panther".
Next we HAD to check out Juilliard, AKA the DREAM school! My favorite soundtrack composer was taught in this exact school – Michael Giacchino (Star Trek 2012 and other favorites).
By this time we were feeling kind of hungry. We decided to check out a bakery (called Levain) that had been referred to us by my cousin, who was pretty familiar with the city! We headed in its direction and found it relatively easily. Mom couldn’t eat anything because she can’t have gluten, so dad and I got this baguette with tomato, mozzarella, and basil, which I really enjoyed, and a cinnamon brioche.
I had to get to some food pictures before I ended this chapter. I know my DISers!
Up next: Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to...
Let’s get this show on the road. Literally. ‘Cause it’s a trip report.
The first portion of the trip was Judy and I taking Marlene to New York City, as a graduation celebration. Marlene will be doing the heavy-lifting, trip reporting-wise, and her text will appear in orange.
Some people asked why her graduation trip wasn’t to Paris (since she loves all things French) and it brought back some memories in planning this trip because she did actually try to angle for a trip to France...New York City was a bit of a hard-sell. She offered to throw in all of her savings, or she could go by herself (to save money, of course). But before we could even take a breath and respond with some kind of reasoning, her sister Lauren (firstborn, and therefore the rule-enforcer) jumped in with, “Absolutely not! I was only allowed to pick someplace on the RCI list between North Carolina and Maine. Europe is out of the question! And besides, New York is great.” So there you go. And once we settled on New York City, planning specific activities was a little difficult too. She didn’t want to do the boat tour that was a highlight for Lauren and Judy. She wasn’t interested in seeing the Statue of Liberty. She didn’t care about getting on the Today show. Also, our contact at the Museum of Natural History (Andrew, the bug exhibitor) isn’t there anymore, so no free tickets for us, and she wasn’t interested in that anyway. We were at least able to narrow-down the activities to a Broadway show (more on that in a later chapter), and she wanted to go to the New York Botanical Gardens. Other than that, we were going to play it by ear.
One more thing to note is that having Judy along was a late addition. When Lauren went on her graduation trip we decided that Judy would accompany her and I’d stay home with the younger kids. Then, for Marlene’s trip I’d get to go and Judy would stay home with James. And for James, we’d both go. Well, when this one rolled around, I had a full day of work that needed to be done the day after we arrived in NYC. We came up with a plan that Judy would come along (Lauren would be home with James and as you can see, he’s gotten big enough that he doesn’t need a lot of supervision), and I would work remotely from the hotel room that day. I planned the Botanical Gardens trip for that day, which I saw as a win/win, since I got out of it.
However, we only had 2 tickets for the Broadway show since I’d ordered them way back in December, but Judy was okay with not seeing it. It would have kept her up waaay past her bedtime anyway.Enough preamble, let’s get going. We started out on Tuesday June 16th, driving to the train station in Hamilton, NJ and taking the train into the city. Here we go...
Hello, Dizzers! Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Marlene. I am the second child of three in the Glennbo clan. I plan to study music composition and dietetics in college next year! This summer so far has been super hectic and wonderful – I have gone on vacation after vacation. As you probably know, my father has commissioned me (quite cheaply, I might add) to write a trip report from my own point of view for his lovely readers (that would be you!), so here we go. I have decided to include pictures of my own from my snapchat story to add a little artistic flair – and to continuously remind you readers that I am, in fact, a teenager. The next few photos are from our ultra-interesting journey from home to the train and thus to the city! On our way I was kindly informed that (1) Madison Square Garden is not, in fact a garden, (2) my father has very useful pockets in his cargo pants, and (3) he likes to make plane noises when we drive by the airport.
This is a reference to band. I apologize for the inside joke, but I figured I’d keep it anyway.
Our first cab ride. I was hoping for the Cash Cab.
Instagram Video of the big moment. My brother-in-law who grew up in Brooklyn posted, "Don't act like freakin' tourists!"
We got to our hotel, The Manhattan Club, but our room wasn’t ready yet so we had to stow our luggage with Bell Services and find something to do.
I guess this is a good time to mention that our Manhattan Club booking was a DVC trade-out through RCI. Like last time, I had no trouble booking it, the first time I called. You can now book this hotel directly through DVC, but the points are higher that way so I did a regular trade-out. (Also, you can have a similar overall trip experience to ours by doing the New York Adventures By Disney trip, but that’s waaaay more points and money. And it’s a blatant rip-off of the last time I planned this trip for Judy and Lauren -- including pretty much everything I planned for them, with the exception of swapping “Newsies” for “Wicked”, but I digress.)
So anyway, we needed to find something to do, and fortunately we had a couple things on our list. One was to see FAO Schwartz, the iconic toy store, before it closed its Fifth Avenue location. Once there, Marlene got in line to play the “Big” piano.
A music major that DOESN’T play the Big piano? Heresy!
I hit "record" on my phone and got some video with one hand while taking pictures with the other!
We got to see a muppet-making shop! Pretty cool! Dad had a geek-out moment. Apparently he always wanted a muppet when he was little! I did! I had to confess that when I was young I read in a magazine, National Geographic “World” if my memory is correct, that they went through several muppets every year due to wear-and-tear. Of the biggies anyway, Kermit, Miss Piggy, etc. I was tempted to write to Jim Henson and beg to get one of those used muppets, but never did. Anyway, this place inside FAO Schwarz was like a Build-A-Bear Workshop, but you could build a muppet instead. I’d never seen one of these before, or even knew they existed. Are there others? Why on earth do they not have one in Disney Hollywood Studios. They’d make a killing.
For our next stop, Marlene wanted to see where Julliard is. We started walking there and passed a shop that had an unbelievable piano in it.
And of course, I had to get a picture with the expensive piano! We were on our way to visit Juilliard (the “Harvard“ of music schools, mmkay?) and passed this fantastic shop. Through the glass windows I spied the most extravagant GREEN piano I have ever seen. No, my favorite color is not green, but you have to admit that this piano is GORGEOUS! When I asked the sales clerk how much it was – for the record, of course – he replied, “That piano is on sale for $65,000,” That’ll get me out of a store really quick!
Reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from "The Pink Panther".
Next we HAD to check out Juilliard, AKA the DREAM school! My favorite soundtrack composer was taught in this exact school – Michael Giacchino (Star Trek 2012 and other favorites).
By this time we were feeling kind of hungry. We decided to check out a bakery (called Levain) that had been referred to us by my cousin, who was pretty familiar with the city! We headed in its direction and found it relatively easily. Mom couldn’t eat anything because she can’t have gluten, so dad and I got this baguette with tomato, mozzarella, and basil, which I really enjoyed, and a cinnamon brioche.
I had to get to some food pictures before I ended this chapter. I know my DISers!
Up next: Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to...
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Thrown to a pack of wolves!
Thanks for reading my past trip reports, and it’s good to have you along for this one! We had a nice time in NYC, but more on that as we progress.
I've lurked on all your other reports, but I actually caught this one at the beginning (woohoo!), so wanted to jump in. Love the start! And the three week vacation part. And the going to NY part. And...well, just all of it.
Did she starve to death?
)
What a shame that it's no longer open as I would LOVE to do this!
Tell that young man he needs to slow it down a little.................
