New York City With the Whole Family!!!!! 2006

I grew up in the Northeast corner of New Jersey and have been living out of the area for most of my adult life...I usually get a trip in every other year to see shows and enjoy being back in NYC...this year I decided to take the whole family and let the grandchildren get their first views of the big apple! Since the children had never been there I really wanted it to ‘POP’ for them...so we stayed very close to times square and planned day events and shows in the evening...it takes some planning and organizing...but it can be done...getting a group of eight in and out of places takes planning and patience!

Quick Tips:

Plan, plan, plan...your time will blip by in a New York Minute!!! Particularly with children, keep things moving and the fun coming. Use the travel sites like Expedia for sightseeing activities and http://www.telecharge.com/ for Broadway and Theatre tickets – this site lists all of the shows running and will transfer you to the Ticketmaster site when they have the shows you are looking for. Make sure as you are putting your schedule together you block out plenty to trtansportation time when it is necessary to change locations.

Best Way To Get Around:

The most effective way to get around the city is by cab...it is the quickest and most time efficient...just realize you have to put in extra time depending upon the time of day you are trying to get one...if you need one during the typical business times 8-9 am and 4-5:30 p.m. understanding the competition may be too great and you may end up hoofing it—not a significant problem with adults—but depending upon the ages of the children—may be a challenge...remember that the ‘streets’ run east and west and create the ‘short blocks’ so it is very easy to get children involved in counting with the street signs . .. Avenues run north and south and create the ‘long block’ . . .and long they are- - not even an adult will stick with you looking for street signs with eager anticipation. So as you are walking in NYC if you are crossing ‘streets’ involve the kids in identifying your next ‘street’. There are also double decker strickly tourist tour buses (with lots of sales agents on the corners attempting to saell you tickets and packages) with ‘on and off’ privileges...but my advice...only use them if you have ALL day...because the route is standard and you end up not being at a bus stop when a bus is there... Although the subway system is terrific I didn’t use it with the kids because I wanted the most time at street level as possible. DON'T take your car into Manhattan—look up the train routes through Amtrack and do a park and ride or doi what we did—park at an airport and taxi in...it will cost about 60£ a cab but when balanced well worth the investment in your mental health!

This is one of the best kept secrets on Manhattan...reasonable space for multiple people at reasonable prices. All of the rooms are either one or two bedroom suites with some sort of kitchen facilities—which is great for all of those corned beef sandwiches and cheesecakes you can’t finish in one sitting, and for having cold pizza for breakfast! Manhattan is not know for space, so when you get into this price range for rooms it will be very tight, not at Radio city Apartments! The bedrooms have two queen size beds and a couch in the living room which opens to an uncomfortable bed (but what fold out is comfortable??). The rooms for the most part will be under $200 per night, which if you haven’t been looking at Manhattan hotel prices yet, IS a deal—specially when you are booking for a group/family. The location is the best! It is ½ block off of Times Square, and ½ block from Rockefeller Plaza. You can make reservations at the big travel sites i.e. Travelocity, Expedia, Hotels.com etc, or their own site which is www.radiocityapartments.com. Book early because the demand is great—once people have been there it becomes their location of choice!!!!

Taking the children to their first Broadway show should be quite the event. We chose Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, a show I have seen many times before. I believe anyone will be entertained at the performance. If you don’t like the story and don’t know the music (but who under 16 would that be??) and can’t appreciate the performers, the colors of the costumes and the scenery should alone keep you entertained. It really is a fabulous production . We saw it when an actor from All My Children was guest starring as Lumiere, he should be glad he has All My Children to go back to but the rest of the cast was at its usual stellar best. There is a number done by Gaston and the male dances with pewter mugs which is an absolute show-stopper, you just don’t want it to end. We also were very excited to see the recently opened Disney Tarzan. It was really terrible. It has one opening sequence which makes you think it is going to be good...and that was it. The rest of the show was slow and lifeless. There were a lot of bungee cord effects but nothing to hold the show together. I had read bad reviews prior to seeing and thought ‘well they are just not appreciating a show more geared towards families’—no it was just that bad for anyone! Some of the adults of our group went out, without the kids, to see Avenue Q—one really TERRIFIC show. But far too raw (even through there are puppets) for children. Having seen Lion King I can highly recommend that production, it is worth the time and money. Avoid wasting your money and valuable time on Tarzan!!!

If you are traveling with girls this is a MUST go, they LOVE it! If you have never heard of it check out their website at www.americangirl.com, and don’t show the girls and save hundreds of dollars :^)

American Girl attempts to be very pro-girl with books about each doll and stories galore, with various doll outfits and clothes that match the doll. You can see the buying opportunities building can’t you? You make reservations well in advance of your planned trip through their site for lunch and the show. Lunch is very nice with a special seat for your doll and the food is good. The show is what I thought was long and dull, it is a pajama party, but the girls in the audience loved it! There is a hair saloon, for the dolls of course, which when you first arrive you should make an appointment because believe it or not this is the first thing to fill up and it may be hours upon hours before you can get your doll in. There is a photo studio where they take pictures of the girls with their dolls and then of course have many packages available to purchase including putting the photo on what appears to be the recent American Girl Magazine. There can also be quite a line to this also. So go there first thing in the morning! Even though the dollars will bleed (or rather hemorrhage) from you, it is a TERRIFIC time for the girls in your life!

Regardless of your religious affiliation, Saint Patrick's Cathedral is worth seeing. The architecture is really impressive and children can appreciate the pure ‘big-ness’ of it all. It is open to visitors and is well worth walking around the main room to see all of the marble statues. It is really an impressive building!

Top of the Rock!!! If you are staying in the Times Square area this is a GREAT place to see the skyline...it costs about 15.00 per person...and they had a photographer who will take your group picture at the top!!! This is located at the top of Rockefeller Center (where the big Christmas Tree is set up each year) and the NBC studio (for which there is a studio tour which is a very nice thing is the kids are interested in behind the scenes look at television)...make sure they see the Today show before your trip so that when they get there it will be someplace real from television!!! On the top the views are outstanding...this has just recently been reopened...if you are a movie buff the movie Wonderful Town with Gene Kelly was filmed at the top of the rock...the building itself is an incredible display of art deco. The elevator to the observation deck has a clear top and fun lighting to watch during the ride up. In addition to the views there is an interactive light room which really kept the kids ...and the adults entertained...we went back quite a few times to get more play time with the interactive lights!!! It really is a great location...no expensive cab ride for your group if you are staying in that area...and it is about 1-2 hours of entertainment ...might be longer if the crowds are high...we were very lucky ...he day was cloudy and it had been raining so we essentially ahd the whole thing to ourselves ...and had a GREAT time!!!!!

Yes this is the largest Toys R Us in the world...large enough to have an indoor ferris wheel...the store has all of the toys that Toys are Us market and in addition there are many very cool displays...there is a huge tyrannosaurus rex and a Lego Empire State building (yes even with King Kong climbing the side) and a Barbie house and the displays go on and on...it is well worth the $4 ride on the Ferris Wheel...yes that price is per person...and the wait depending upon the time of day can be 1/4-3/4 hour...but they want to get you on and off so you can purchase so they do their best to keep the ride moving!!!! It really is worth seeing and what child isn’t entertained in three stories of Toy store...what adult for that matter!!!!

Grand Central Station is a terrific place! Its massive size and constant buzz of humanity will be amazing to all and I would recommend taking the kids there! The ceiling has a zodiac and star theme, and be sure to have the children find the one spot left from the restoration (spearheaded by Jackie O.) to see what the entire ceiling looked like before it was cleaned and restored. The movement of people is constant and is a very unique place for the family to see.

Plan of being there for lunch—there is a dining concourse in the basement with lots of dining choices, my personal favorite is Juniors. This was first started in Brooklyn and is now even sold on QVCD, and they had without a doubt the best NY Cheesecake I have ever tasted. They have lots of flavors all of which are outstanding. Have everyone get something different so you can try them all!!! Juniors also has the BEST corned beef and pastrami on twin onion rolls—a great thing to split so you can save room for the cheesecake! The sound of the people make this a real NY experience for your group!!!!!

DO IT...DO IT...DO IT!!!! I have been to Manhattan hundreds of times and had never done the helicopter tour. I decided to spend the money (because nothing on Manhattan is cheap and then when you multiple if by the number of family members it gets REALLY expensive) to take the whole group on the 15 minute helicopter tour...essentially it takes you down the river on the west of Manhattan to the statue of Liberty and then back...the helicopter will hold seven plus the pilot...since we were a group of eight we had to break into two trips... there is a short video prior to your departure and the tours leave every 15 minutes all day into the night...there is really no bad place to sit—all the views are terrific...we brought plenty of cameras and videos and ended up with some pretty nice shots...since we weren’t going to be in NYC for a long time I deiced to forgo the trip to the statue of liberty and got a great view of her this way! They provide you with lockers because nothing except yourselves and the cameras can go—and just so you know—they ask everyone their weight prior to getting on—so if that is information which is a close kept secret—it won’t be once you are there! You go through metal detectors. It really is a unique experience and a chance to see NYC like you do in the movies! A GREAT time for kids. By the time you get to the heliport, wait for your group to be called (they can be running late when you arrive!), see the safety movie and take the trip—you probably have a couple of hours in your 15 mintute ride...we got out at 5 and of course couldn’t get a cab and hoofed up the 20 streets and three avenues back to Times Square—which took about 25 minutes with the kids in tow! There are a lot of companies which do this tour—start at Expedia.com and check out the company names and then their web sites and book the best deal available!

Mars 2112 is a family oriented theme restaurant that the kids will really enjoy...the prices are moderate but the food quality is not as good as it should be so don’t make this a meal destination but rather a goodie stop...you take a space ship from the lobby to Mars and the interior of the restaurant is made up to look like you are on the red planet...the space ship is about a 3-4 minute motion simulator ride...for those who choose not to travel they can enter mars through a doorway...but the motion simulator is very tame...there are characters walking around for great photo ops...there are signs that say no cameras . .but everybody used theirs...including us!!! There is a character walking around who will take photos at your request for 6.95 a piece...it is a unique experience and the kids will find it fun!!!!