New York, day 2

Day 9 - Saturday 19/6/10 New York City

We woke early and headed out to find some breakfast. We decided to bypass Times Square and walked down 49th to 8th where we found a cafe/restaurant. I had been looking for a diner of some sort, but the criteria was somewhere that was showing the World Cup as the Socceroos were playing and this place had a tv over the bar, so decision made!

Breakfast was nice, I think we all had pancakes of some kind. The Socceroos lost. Boo! After breakfast we continued our stroll doing a bit of window shopping.

We needed to be at The Producer's Club Theater on West 44th at 11.45am for Kenny Kramer's Seinfeld Reality Tour! We are big Seinfeld fans and this was the first thing that I booked for this trip. The tour only runs on Saturdays, so I booked this first, then worked out the rest of the itinerary around it. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to it!

The Producer's Club was tiny and a bit grotty. We were herded into a tiny little room where we waited for the arrival of Kenny Kramer. If you've seen him before, you'll know that he is a quite a character (obviously seeming as Kramer is based on him!).

He started out by telling us that we had to wait for a bunch of Aussies who were running late because they had to watch the Socceroos play. Um, we watched the Socceroos game and we managed to get there on time. And the game had been over for an hour already! I was a little annoyed!!

He told a few stories and the late Aussies finally showed up. He continued to make us laugh with lots of funny stories about his life, his friendship with Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld and the real stories behind some of the Seinfeld episodes. Then he explained that the tour was overbooked and there weren't enough seats on the coach for everyone, so he needed volunteers to share seats. What?? I've worked in the travel industry and for tour companies for years and I've never heard anything like it! Anyway, seeming as we were the only ones with kids, it was assumed that our kids would give up their seats. I was annoyed but agreed and as a thank you, he gave us some free merchandise from his store, KraMart.

After some shopping at KraMart and a short break, it was time to board the coach. It was also lunchtime and we needed to feed Harry so on our way to board the coach we tried to find him something to eat. The coach was parked outside a Turkish bakery run by his friends and he asked us to buy our lunch there as they support each other, but there wasn't anything suitable (not only was the food foreign to my kids, it was all sickly sweet and not diabetic appropriate). There wasn't anywhere else close by to grab something so we ended up with a couple of apples and a punnet of strawberries from a street vendor and we rushed back to the coach. By this stage we were the last people on so were relegated to the back seats and we only had 3 seats between 5 of us. The late-coming Aussies all got on the coach and immediately fell asleep! Needless to say I was not happy.

Kramer pointed out sites from Seinfeld as we drove around but I couldn't see anything seeming as I was up the back with two kids sitting on my lap. The highlight of the tour was when we arrived at the diner and stopped for photos.

After that we returned to The Producer's Club where we were dropped off.

The kids got his autograph

and we walked back up to Times Square in search of something to eat. It was around 3pm by that stage and very late for lunch, so rather then spend time looking around and sitting down to order, we just went to McDonalds in Times Square. Talk about madness! I think everyone that was in Manhattan that day was at that McDonalds! We finally got something to eat and found a table and had our very late lunch.

Once we had eaten, we walked back past our hotel again to Top of the Rock. I had bought NY Citypasses so we claimed them and headed through security. The lines weren't bad at all and the elevator ride up was very cool!

I don't know why, but I only took 3 photos from the top and none of the scenery. I must have just been awestruck by the views or something!

We were meeting friends for dinner at 6.30pm, so we went back to the hotel for a bit of a rest and to get ready. Emily was competing in the North American Irish Dancing Championships in Orlando the following week so some other dancers and their families had arrived in New York and we were meeting up with them. The plan was to go to Carmine's but we couldn't make a reservation and when we arrived there was a 2 hour wait for a table, so we abandoned there and wandered further down 44th street and decided on a restaurant (that I don't remember the name of). They couldn't seat all 14 of us together, but they had two tables which was perfect - 6 kids on one, 8 adults on the other.

After a quick dinner, the big girls left the kids with the dads as it was time for our first Broadway show! We walked over to the Walter Kerr Theatre and took our seats just in time for A Little Night Music starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury. It was the show's last night and Catherine Zeta Jones had won the Tony award the weekend before, so it was a packed theatre and we were in the very back row. Talk about the nosebleed section! It was such a great experience though. I think my favourite thing was the lady who brought her two dogs to the theatre! She had one in her handbag and one on a leash. Hilarious! The show itself wasn't that great (a bit of a boring storyline) but Catherine Z and Angela Lansbury were both amazing and when CZJ sang Send in the Clowns - wow! What a showstopper!

The other girls had flown in from Perth that morning and they were all exhausted, in fact they all fell asleep during the show! So our plan was to go straight home afterwards, but as we exited the theatre we saw the crowds waiting at the stage door for the stars and we thought we can't miss this! So we joined the crowd waiting for CZJ but before she appeared, I heard screams coming from across the street, so I ran over there (risking my life with the traffic!) to see who it was and there was Kelsey Grammer!

Back across the road just in time to see Catherine Zeta Jones

We waited a few more minutes but the security guard told us that Ms Lansbury had already left, so we called it a night and wandered back through Times Square to the hotel.

New York, NY!

Day 8 - 18/6/10 Los Angeles to New York

Our flight out of LAX was at 8.15am so we had to leave Anaheim very early. The plan was to get on the road by 4.30am but by the time we got the kids out of bed and the car packed up it was almost 5am. I thought they would go back to sleep in the car but they were all wide awake to wave a sad farewell to Disneyland.

We dropped the car off at the National terminal and hopped on the courtesy bus to LAX, arriving in plenty of time. We checked in and then lined up to go through security which took forever! By the time we got to our gate, we only had about 20 minutes before boarding. We grabbed something for breakfast (can't remember what) and sat down on the floor to eat! I've never seen anything like it before, every seat was taken not only with seated people but others who were lying across the seats. Very inconsiderate! Anyway, the flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to take a credit and a different flight. There was no way I would have done it but they didn't even ask us, probably because of the children.

We weren't expecting any entertainment on the US internal flights, so I was surprised that United actually showed a movie. I can't remember what it was but I know it was family friendly because the kids watched it. I thought they would sleep but they all stayed awake. The flight seemed to go pretty quickly and we actually arrived at JFK about 30 minutes early. I had booked a car transfer with Dial7 so I called them and they told us which car number to look out for. We went outside to wait and within minutes a minivan came round the corner with the driver holding our number out the window!

As soon as we got in the car, all 3 kids fell asleep! I was very tired but so excited to be in New York finally! The traffic was very heavy and the freeway was at a standstill. Our driver kept taking the exits and then getting back on at the next exit! I loved the drive, the scenery along the way was so "New York", it felt like we were in a movie! We finally approached Manhattan and I tried to wake the kids up so they didn't miss it. By this stage it was around 5pm so peak hour was in full swing. I was glad I'd booked a car because the taxi fare would have been astronomical! We arrived at Radio City Apartments, checked in and immediately headed out to Times Square. We were so happy with the location of the hotel, it was very exciting to be right in the middle of Times Square.

We walked around a bit getting our bearings and a feel for the place. After awhile we decided to eat so we stopped at Planet Hollywood and asked how long the wait would be and were surprised to be told that we could be seated straight away! Planet Hollywood was fun and the food was good. I won a dvd in a trivia contest! After dinner we walked around and checked out all the memorabilia.

Bella's prom dress from Twilight

Sandy's dress from Grease

Ferris Bueller's jacket

Robert Pattinson's handprints

Jonas Brother's handprints

The Joker!

When we came out of the restaurant, we couldn't believe how bright it was even though it was night time! We had passed the M&Ms store earlier and the kids were desperate to check it out so we walked back up there. We met Hello Kitty outside and she asked us to pose for a picture.

As soon as I took the photo, she ripped her head off and demanded a tip! She asked for $5 but I only gave her $2. What a cheek!!

The M&Ms store was a big hit. I don't know how many times we went in there over the next 10 days!

After browsing there for what seemed like hours we walked back past our hotel to Rockefeller Plaza where we stopped for ice-cream

and checked out the NBC Experience Store

30Rock window

Friends window

By that stage we were pretty tired so we headed back down to the hotel and called it a night.

Disneyland

Day 7 - 17/6/2010 - Disney's California Adventure

The plan today was to spend the whole day at DCA but the kids were desperate to ride Space Mountain one more time so I told them we would get to Disneyland early and spend a couple of hours there before heading to DCA for the 10am opening. Based on the past two days, I assumed that DLR opened at 8am so we had an early McDonalds breakfast in our room again, and arrived at the gates at 8am. As we walked up and saw that the crowds were still lined up outside, I remembered that opening time today was 9am. Doh! We joined the line at gate 13 but after a quick family discussion about how there wouldn't be enough time to really do anything if we were to make rope drop at DCA, we decided to skip DLR this morning. I would have made more of an effort to get them back on Space Mountain again if we weren't going to WDW a couple of weeks later, but everyone was happy to leave it until we arrived at the Magic Kingdom.

We had some time to kill so we wandered up to Downtown Disney but unfortunately nothing was open yet. We decided to check out the Grand Californian which was very impressive! We bought some stamps, wrote some postcards, got a coffee and were first in line at the far left gate of DCA where the cast members were getting ready to open.

After a few minutes one of the cast members announced "I'm going to choose this family from Australia" and came out to where we were waiting. He explained that he needed a family to open the park and we were it! In addition to being the first people through the gates that day we were also being made Honorary Citizens of Disneyland!! So my mistake at getting the opening times wrong worked in our favour in the long run!

He took us inside, gave us our Honorary Citizen badges and explained what we had to do.

We faced the crowds waiting on the other side of the gates and counted down from 10 to 1 then shouted "Let the Adventure Begin" which was when they opened the gates. We turned around and hotfooted it to Soarin' before too many people got through and were the first ones there. Soarin' was fantastic, we loved it!

After Soarin' we stopped in Radiator Springs and met some friends

and then joined the crowd waiting at the rope to get into Paradise Pier. At rope drop we went with the crowd towards Toy Story Mania but were stopped by a cast member outside California Screamin' who told us it wasn't operating. Boo!

We quickly made a new plan. We grabbed Fast Passes for California Screamin', then joined the relatively short line and rode it within 10 minutes. Wow, what a fun roller coaster! We used our fast passes and rode it again straight away then got more fast passes for later (although twice was enough for me!). By that stage Toy Story Mania had opened but the wait was already 30 minutes so we decided to skip it and visit the rest of Paradise Pier.

The wait times were short but the rides here were fairly unimpressive. We did Mailboomer and Mulholland Madness before lining up for Mickey's Fun Wheel. We went for a moving car and boy, did it move! That was the scariest ferris wheel I've ever been on!! Sammy was terrified!

After Silly Symphony Swings and Golden Zephyr we decided to have an early lunch at Pizza Oom Mow Mow. I hate sitting around as I feel like I'm wasting time, so I decided to run over and get FastPasses for Tower of Terror while the kids finished eating. I got around to ToT only to find that the FP machines were not working but the lines were not long at all. I tried to call Alex to tell them to come straight there and I would get in the line, but he wasn't answering. So I decided to run back to Pizza Oom Mow Mow and get them, but I was stopped in Sunshine Plaza as the High School Musical show was going on. I finally got Alex on the phone and they were on the other side of it and we couldn't get to each other. They ended up cutting through the Wine Country Trattoria and we were reunited! We went back to ToT and got straight onto the elevator. I'm not sure why it wasn't busy, but I wasn't complaining! We had to do child swap as Sammy didn't want to ride but that made the other two happy because they got to ride it twice! It was definitely a favourite!

Sammy is a huge Playhouse Disney fan so the Playhouse Disney Live on Stage was a priority for us. He had been watching clips of it on YouTube for months and was so excited to go. We lined up for the next show but 10 minutes before showtime, a cast member came out and said they weren't sure if the next show was going to go ahead or not. We were welcome to wait but if they cancelled it, we'd be waiting another hour till the next one. We decided to come back later and check out the rest of Hollywood Pictures Backlot instead.

First up was Monsters. Inc Mike and Sulley to the Rescue

Daddy needed a nap so next up was Muppet Vision 3D! Then Turtle Talk with Crush where Sammy was chosen to ask Crush a question which was a lot of  fun! We wandered around a bit while waiting for the next Playhouse Disney show and ran into a couple of fun characters

We walked over to Golden State

but the lines for Soarin' were too long so we didn't ride that again (not until we got to Epcot that is!). There was only a short wait for Grizzly River Run so we rode that and then headed back for the next Playhouse Disney Show

Then it was off to "a bug's land" for It's Tough to Be a Bug

We ran into Pluto

and got stuck behind the High School Musical show again on our way back to Paradise Pier!

We used our California Screamin' Fastpasses and then lined up for Toy Story Mania. The line was the same as the day before, around 40 minutes, but it seemed to go quickly.

We had the most amazing day at DCA. Being chosen as the family to open the park was really special. We were stopped all day by people (the public and cast members alike) asking about our Honorary Citizen badges. One man said he's been going for 40 years and it's his goal to be made Honorary Citizen but it hasn't happened for him yet. We got lots of congratulations from cast members as apparently it's a real honour :). My family is Irish and my husband's family is German so the kids always say they are 3 nationalities - Australian, Irish and German. Now they say they are 4 - Australian, Irish, German and Disneylandish!

We left the park just before closing and went back to HoJo for a swim, then drove down to Anaheim Garden Walk for dinner. I was really surprised by how quiet it was. There was hardly anyone there. We had dinner at Johnny Rockets which was nice enough. The boys loved their hats that they made.

We heard a lot of cheering coming from the bars so we wandered over to one to find out what was going on. It was the NBA grand final (or whatever it's called) and the Lakers were winning. The game was nearly finished so we stopped to watch it for awhile. There was great excitement when the Lakers won the championship!

We drove back to the HoJo to pack and have an early night ahead of our 4.30am departure. We were sad that our time at Disneyland had come to an end but very excited to be going to New York City the next day!