In my last post, I revealed one of my strategies for success while traveling: The Top 3. The idea is that we make a list of our top three priorities to see or do (on a day, during a weekend, whatever fits) and do our very best to make sure those things get accomplished. We often get to see or do much more, but knowing we carved out time, money and energy for our highest priorities makes the other things feel like bonus points!
After checking in to our hidden gem of a hotel (yes, "secrets" still exist in New York City and yes, I will tell you more about our hotel in a future post!) we had enough time to walk around and soak up a bit of the Big Apple atmosphere, grab a bite to eat, and go back and change before heading out to the first of our Top 3: the Broadway play, Mary Poppins.
I highly recommend the experience of going to a live show in New York if possible. There are currently 40 Broadway theaters and even more Off-Broadway theaters, which describes venues in the same area that seat less than 499 people and are often smaller in scale of production. With all that variety, there is bound to be a show that fits the taste and appropriateness level of all but the very youngest travelers. As long as your children are old enough to be entertained themselves and not disturb other theater-goers, look for a family show!
Finding Discount Tickets
There are several different ways to look for discounts to shows. If you have some time in your schedule and are flexible, there are the TKTS booths in the city which sell day-of tickets to shows up to 50% off!
Other websites, such as Broadway Box, which offer good discounts to all but the most popular shows.
Finally, there are unique ways to get discounts to certain shows that may not be available to everyone (or not known to everyone.) We got a discount on our Mary Poppins tickets, a Disney show, because of a promotional code in a Disney e-mail newsletter to which I'm subscribed. With a little flexibility and looking, a show can usually be found at a reasonable price.
We all had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the show. Even though Petunia saw it at the age of 6, two years later she still brings up things she remembers. Knowing the whole experience had such an impact on her young self is so dear to me.
Unfortunately, our late lunch/early dinner did not keep our bellies full through the late evening entertainment. We had a great idea to get New York pizza and have it back at the hotel. I will just say that an unplanned detour of many, many city blocks (really, don't ask) got us back to our hotel room with slightly grumpy attitudes, very sore feet, and cold pizza. Just being transparent that we have lots to learn on the journey of traveling well!
Next post we will keep checking off the Top 3 with a very big day in New York City!