Summer in the City

On Wednesday June 20, Kevin and I flew to New Jersey. We had a ship inspection on Thursday morning, and had some extra work to do, so instead of flying home on Thursday, we extended our trip and planned to go to New York City for a few days after we were finished with work! We went to the ship pretty early on Thursday, just in case the extra work took longer than expected, and were pleasantly surprised when we were finished around noon! We went back to our hotel by the airport, packed our bags, and started our journey into NYC!! We took the free hotel shuttle to the airport and then got on a New Jersey rail road train to Penn Station. From there, we took the subway to Brooklyn and dropped our stuff off at our friend Ryan's house (he and his roommate Joseph were so kind to provide us a free place to sleep while we played in the city). We got to the apartment around 3:00 and visited with Joseph for a little while (Ryan was at work) and then ventured over to Times Square to get show tickets! Our main goal this trip was to get tickets to see The Book of Mormon so that was where we went first. They have a lottery 2 hours before every show and we made it to the theater with just 2 minutes to spare. If you win the lotto, you can purchase 2 tickets for $32 each and they are located in the front row or the front boxes. Because this show is currently sold out for the next year, this was our only chance to get tickets and there were lots of other people that were as hopeful as we were. Unfortunately, we didn't win the lotto on Thursday, so we decided to go see The VocaPeople instead. We got discounted tickets for the 7pm show and then grabbed a quick dinner before the show started. We went to a restaurant called Blockheads and enjoyed burritos and margaritas. These were not just any everyday margaritas, they were frozen with Coronitas (mini Coronas) upside down inside them! It doesn't sound great, but the combination was actually awesome. The beer gave the marg a nice bubbly sensation. We went to the theatre around 6:30 and took our seats dead center in the 3rd row! The show was great! Here is a YouTube clip for those of you that may not be familiar with this group:

Obviously they sing everything a cappella and they are awesome!! They originated in Israel and one of the original cast members was still in the cast! We had a blast! This show is actually Off-Broadway, so our stage door experience was a little different than usual, but we still got 6 out of 8 autographs! We were pretty tired, so we went back to the apartment around 10. Both of our phones were dead, so we went back to the apartment assuming someone would be there, but we were wrong. I turned my phone on and had about 4% battery, and was able to make a plan with Ryan. We went to one of the local bars in Brooklyn and waited. Joseph actually ended up coming to get us and we were back at the apartment around midnight. We chatted until about 2am and then crashed!

The view of the Statue of Liberty and the new World Trade Center from the ship. 

This is hard to read, but this is the planning I did on the flight to New York. You can't have a successful (cheap) trip without decent planning. And you always need to have backup options!

My delicious Margarita and Coronita!

Excited about our first show.

Being goofy!

Times Square!

We woke up around 9am on Friday morning and left the apartment around 10:45am. Ryan didn't have to work so he spent the day with us!! We tried our hand at the Book of Mormon lottery again, but were unsuccessful again.  Instead, we took the subway down to Katz's deli. My cousin, Jackie, met us at the theatre and then the 4 of us went to eat lunch. We met up with Ryan's girlfriend, Joy, and her friend, Donna. Lunch was delicious as always! As we were getting ready to leave there was a torrential downpour, so we stayed inside until the rain let up and then went back to the apartment to change clothes. We went back to Times Square around 5pm, for the 6:00 lottery for Ghost the Musical. A classmate of Kevin's from high school, and a former student of Lynn's, Josh Franklin, is currently on Broadway in Ghost so we were so excited to see him in the show!! We entered the lotto and Ryan's name was called, so we for sure had 2 out of 3 tickets. We were just going to go to TKTS to get the 3rd ticket, but Kevin's name was called too, so we got 3 front row seats for a total of $75!!  Right after we got our tickets the torrential rain began again. We ran to a nearby brewery and had some drinks and appetizers before the show and were back at the theatre at 8pm. The show was great and the special effects were awesome! It is always so incredible to see someone you know on stage, and to see them on a Broadway stage is as good as it gets! We met Josh at the stage door after the show, and he introduced us to a few of the leads. He wasn't feeling well, so we didn't go out after the show, but made plans to meet on Saturday. We met up with a friend of Ryan's for a little while after the show and got back to the apartment around 1:30am. It was another fantastic day!!

Kevin and Ryan at Katz's Deli.

Jackie and I at the deli.

The torrential downpour that began right after we purchased our Ghost tickets. 

Getting drinks and nibbles before seeing Ghost the Musical!

The Ghost marquee!

We were so excited to see Josh on Broadway! 

Kevin, Josh Franklin, Caissie Levy, and me! 

So excited!

This is Norm Lewis who plays Porgy in Porgy and Bess. I saw the show in March, but didn't get to see him because I went to a Matinee. Very cool!

We woke up around 9am again on Saturday and left the apartment around 11am. Can you guess where we went first? If you guessed the Book of Mormon lotto, you guessed right!! The lotto was at 12:00 for the 2:00 matinee, and this time WE WON!!! I could not believe they called my name! There were probably 150 people there and my name was 1 of 11 called! The best part about winning the tickets for this matinee is that it gave us a chance to enter a different lotto for Saturday evening!  I purchased our 2 tickets, located in the front left box, for only $64, and then we went to lunch at Shake Shack! This is the burger restaurant we ate at in Dubai, that seriously has the best burgers I have ever eaten! This day was turning out to be incredibly memorable! We got to the show around 1:30 and had an absolute blast. This is probably the funniest show I have ever seen. There is definitely a reason it won 9 Tony Awards and is sold out for the next year! Sadly, the 3 main original characters had all left the show a few weeks earlier, but their replacements were great! We went to the stage door after the show, but because it was a matinee, I didn't expect any of the leads to come out. To my great surprise, they all came out! We were so excited! We had about and hour to kill before Kevin was meeting up with Josh and I went to another lotto, so we went to Ryan's restaurant and had drinks and appetizers. Around 5:45pm, Kevin and I went our separate ways. My plan was to try my luck at the Newsies lotto and if that didn't work, to go to the Peter and the Starcatcher lotto, while Kevin met up with Josh. Unfortunately, I did not win the Newsies lotto, but on my way to the next lotto, I noticed a standing room only line for Newsies. I decided to try and get tickets for Newsies this way, and was successful!! I couldn't believe in the same day, I had gotten tickets to two of the most sought after shows on Broadway! I was literally floating on cloud nine!! I met Kevin and Josh for about 20 minutes and then Kevin and I made our way to the Theatre. Little to my knowledge, Kevin had made arrangements with Josh, who had a friend in Newsies, to take us backstage after the show. I could not even believe it! This was turning out to be one of the best, most memorable, days of my life! Everything was falling into place! Newsies was also amazing! It was a little rough standing through the whole show, but absolutely worth it! The dancing was amazing! It was so incredible for me to be sharing these experiences with Kevin! I knew how much he wanted to see both Book of Mormon and Newsies and I was so proud to be able to make this possible for him!! After the show ended, we went to the stage door and met up with Garett, Josh's friend. Garett took us backstage and showed us some of the props and then we chatted for a few minutes on the stage. I could not believe I was standing on a Broadway Stage! It was such an incredible feeling and experience. The stage door was crazy with screaming fans, and it was almost impossible to find a decent spot, so Kevin and I started the journey back to Brooklyn. We got back to the house around midnight and visited with Ryan and Joseph before crashing around 2:00am. It was an AMAZING day!!

The best burger I have ever tasted! I sure hope they branch out soon!

I still can't believe we won the lotto!

So excited to see the show! The magical frog was excited too!

Rory O'Malley! He is an original cast member that has an incredible roll in the show. We loved him!

Does this really need an explanation?

Standing on the Newsies stage with our new friend, and Newsies cast member, Garrett Hawe! Such a surreal experience!

Our flight left on Sunday around 5pm, so we hung around the apartment for a while, before leaving around 1pm. This trip was so special and memorable for me! New York is truly an experience and I am so glad I got to share my passion of getting cheap theatre tickets with Kevin! To put it in perspective, we saw 4 Broadway shows in three days, and spent less than $250 total! We had an absolute blast and can't wait for the next trip!