Tag: new york

Musical Influenced Tour Of New York

by melissay1, posted in Theatre, travel

I’m pretty sure I get subconsciously influenced by things more than the average person. The episode of Hannah Montana where Billy Ray is typing gr8ted cheese, I ran to Tesco to get grated cheese for about a month after that, in Keeping Up With The Kardashian’s they had bowls full of Nerds out the entire series…yep you guessed it I became addicted to them for a little while when I was binging Kardashian episodes. So it’s no surprise when at the moment I have songs from musicals playing on repeat and I’m watching too many YouTube videos of the cast performing them that I’ve started to build up quite a weird itinerary of things to do when I visit New York based on things I’ve heard in musical theatre songs. So without further ado, here is my musical influenced itinerary so far!

7/11

Freeze Your Brain – Heathers The Musical

More Than Survive – Be More Chill

I have to visit a 7/11 and get a slurpee. I’ve heard that 7/11’s aren’t the nicest of places in America but when JD In Heathers sings an entire song about having a Slurpee in 7/11 and Be More Chill’s Michael mentions going too – I have to go. Slurpee’s look like a Slush Puppy or a Tango Ice Blast but times hundred and I’m so insanely excited to try one. They look huge! To top off my 7/11 experience I need to have a Red Vine and hope that a guy dressed head to toe in black is wondering the aisles singing whilst drinking a Slurpee…

A La Mode

For Forever – Dear Evan Hansen

For the longest of time I thought that A La Mode was a place and it was put into Dear Evan Hansen is contextualise it and I just didn’t get the place reference because I’m British. I recently googled it and couldn’t believe it was an actual ice cream shop and New York has one! I’ll definitely be going to grab a scoop at A La Mode! I’m already eyeing up the pink sprinkle flavour.

JonnyPops

Jared Kleinman – Dear Evan Hansen

Jared Kleinman wears a JonnyPops shirt in Dear Evan Hansen and for that reason alone I need to have something JonnyPops when I’m in America.

Pinkberry

Sync Up – Be More Chill

I hope it’s warm when I go to America because this is the 4th frozen item that I’ve decided that I need to have when I’m there. Be More Chill mentions Pinkberry a couple of times but my favourite is in Sync Up. I will be going to Pinkberry and I will be that loser saying Jeremy’s exact line and asking how was Pinkberry and if no one answers with Brooke’s reply I’ll be very disappointed…at the moment they have a special Be More Chill based one to buy too so if they would like to extend that to when I go that would be fantastic.

Mountain Dew

Be More Chill

The short version of this is that in Be More Chill, Jeremy gets a pill which controls his mind and Mountain Dew activates it and Mountain Dew Red deactivates it. So naturally I need to have Mountain Dew. The musical also says Mountain Dew Red was discontinued in the nineties and I’m not sure if it just doesn’t exist in England or if it is actually discontinued but either way I need to have some kind of Mountain Dew whilst in America.

Corn Nuts

Heathers

Although lots of food is mentioned in Heathers, Corn Nuts are the ones that stick in my head the most – after the Slurpee of course! Probably due to the fact Heather yells the word repeatedly! I’m pretty sure I wont even like Corn Nuts but I’m dying to try them

Does anyone have anymore suggestions of musical related food places I need to try whilst in America? Let me know in the comments!

Planning A Trip To New York

by melissay1, posted in travel

Planning a trip to somewhere that you’ve visited countless times before is always difficult. Do you keep repeating the things you’ve done before? Do you extensively Google search to find the weird and wonderful little gems that you might have missed on previous trips because you had other things that you wanted to do?

Then when you travel with other people you have to take into consideration what they think. I would (and have…) spend the entire week in a theatre seeing the Broadway shows I’ve obsessed about or I’d be happy queueing hours outside a building just to see on the sofa from Friends. But when you travel with others you realise you can’t just let the week revolve around your plans and when other people have a go with the flow attitude rather than my uptight planning and booking things for everyday, it can get frustrating.

I need a place to write about my trip to make me feel better about my current lack of planning frustrations so I thought I would write up a post detailing just a couple of the things that I like to do in New York in the hope it might help others plan a trip. I’m not going to go into too much detail as I’m sure as my own trip gets nearer I’ll be writing more posts about this.

I’ve never wrote anything like this before so please give me some slack if this is completely rubbish…practice makes perfect after all!

Do Something Unique To The Days You’re Visiting

I think that its important to look what is happening in a place when you are visiting, something unique that might only be happening on the days your there. I never used to do this until I visited New York on multiple occasions now I do it everywhere I visit as I think if something only happens once a year it’s a nice bonus to catch it. Sadly this year I (yet again! This is actually my 3rd time I’ve missed it by a matter of days!!) have just missed the Broadway Flea Market but I do manage to catch New York Comic Con and Ben Platt is in town which is exciting in itself, even if that day I won’t be able to attend as I’ll be seeing his fellow Dear Evan Hansen cast member Will Roland in the show Be More Chill. The last time I visited I managed to catch the St Patricks Day parade and because I knew it was happening I could plan to get up early in order to get the best spot to view the parade.

Go Up The Tallest Building

New York is spoiled for choice when it comes to this as so many buildings offer a ticket to the top to admire the view! When I go to a new city I always try and find the tallest building (or in some cases hill) and go to the top. No matter how many you go up, nothing is quite like looking out and seeing the city below and if you’ve been before seeing other peoples reactions make it worthwhile. I think it also gives you a great sense of perspective about the size of a place too. Its also worth deciding in advance which one of the buildings you want to go up too and get your ticket booked! Many offer a ticket which gives you priority access and believe me, during the busy times it is worth every penny! I bought a walk up ticket to go up the Empire State Building at night and I had the choice between a 2 hour queue for the lift or have to tackle the stairs – so definitely prebook to avoid this!

Broadway

If you like seeing theatre shows then you have to go to see something on Broadway. I adore it and it wouldn’t be a trip to New York for me without seeing at least one show. Whenever I go its always a real effort to decide which show to see as I usually have a list of must see shows but you can guarantee that if its made it to Broadway you’re in for a good night whatever you see. Currently I’ve just booked to see Be More Chill and I cannot wait to see the show! I’m hoping for a day seat / lottery to Beetlejuice though. Sadly its worth mentioning that Broadway can work out very expensive but cheaper options like the online lotteries or a ticket booth on the day you want to see the show exist if you want to get a last minute ticket.

Attractions

I suppose this goes without saying for wherever you go but look into the attractions in New York before you go. The city has so many and if you prebook its less of an expense whilst you’re there plus it guarantees access if you really want to go and see certain things. Personally, my two favourite tours that I’ve done in New York are the Yankee Stadium Tour and Madison Square Gardens. I enjoy doing stadium tours but I’ve found they’re of varying standards but both of these tours were superb and well worth a visit if you like that kind of thing. Also, if you’re into more of an informative tour then the 9/11 museum needs to be on the top of your list. Personally, I found the entire thing a little overwhelming and truly heart breaking at many points but I did still spend hours in the museum. It was very interesting and if you think you could deal with the emotional side of the museum it is worth visiting.

Planning

As an obsessively planner I’m pretty sure I’m one of few people who do this. I’ve visited most of the real tourist attractions in New York now so before I go I now write a list of the little things that I would like to see and do. New York is a big city and the skyscrapers can make you abit bewildered so I think its nice to have a list of things you’d like to see then if you accidentally amble nearby you can make a detour and see the thing you want to. For example, despite multiple trips I have never been to the Statue Of Liberty. Obviously I’ve seen it and gone past it on the ferry but I’ve never been up to the crown. Other things on my list include Roosevelt Island Tram, a proper look around Brooklyn as currently I’ve only been to Park Slope and quickly around it on a bus trip and a day trip to Philadelphia.

I hope you enjoyed this post and if anyone has any recommendations for me to do when I go to New York that would be great!