Reviews: Four Nights/Four Shows in NYC

To see all the posts from this trip, click here.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the primary reason we traveled to New York City at the beginning of April was to see Broadway shows. The announcement of Glengarry Glen Ross last fall triggered our trip, so when dates for the spring were announced in February, we immediately purchased our tickets. These were followed by tickets for Good Night and Good Luck and Maybe Happy Ending. As recounted in the earlier post, we obtained tickets for a fourth show, Boop, on opening night the same morning as the performance!

Below are my reviews of all four shows. But first a few observations about the New York theater experience versus our experiences theater-going in Los Angeles.

Interestingly, all our shows started at 7 p.m.—versus 8 p.m. for evening shows in L.A. The earlier start allows theatergoers to grab dinner afterwards. This was reinforced by the fact that, after Maybe Happy Ending, when the cast came out after the curtain call to fundraise for Broadway Cares, an AIDS charity, they promised the audience they wouldn’t keep us long and people would still be able to make their restaurant reservations! In L.A., the late start is likely to accommodate the fact that most people have to navigate L.A.’s busy freeways to get to the venue. As such, this means shows usually end anywhere between 10 or 11 p.m. In L.A., by that time, most good restaurants are already closed so theatergoers usually head home. 

By contrast, we found that many restaurants (and, of course, bars) were still open and serving diners in the theater district. Indeed, nearly all the shows we watched clocked in at a surprisingly crisp two hours (two, Good Night and Good Luck and Maybe Happy Ending, didn’t even have intermissions!). And the show with the longest runtime, Boop, which is about 2-½ hours, started at 6:30 p.m.

In addition, because New York City’s theaters generally have smaller footprints, the mezzanine sections feel close to the stage, nearly atop the orchestra seats. In contrast, in L.A., the mezzanine sections tend to be fairly recessed back, away from the stage and the orchestra section. As such, at most of the shows where we were in the mezzanine, we were surprised at how close we still felt to the stage, like we were right on top of the actors!

Now on to the reviews (in the order watched):

Maybe Happy Ending 

Maybe Happy Ending is an original new romantic comedy musical one act that originated in South Korea in 2016 and made its American debut in Atlanta in 2020. It made its Broadway debut in Fall 2024, featuring a diverse cast that includes Tony Award winning Darren Criss (who is half-Filipino) and Helen J. Shen as the leads. (The show has a relatively small cast, with only two additional actors, one playing multiple roles.) 

The musical is a deft blend of the modern and traditional, and thoroughly charming, heartfelt and delightful. Though it’s a fairly small, modest production, it nevertheless features dynamic and innovative staging and stage craft that gives the show plenty of life and energy.

It's the story of two helpbots—android companions that are very human-like—who have been retired and abandoned many years before, and while searching for new meaning to their existence, find each other. As the story unfolds, we learn their backstories, including the reasons they were abandoned. Hanging over their blossoming romance is their fear that they will soon shut down forever due to the inability at some point to re-charge themselves, or to replace aging, obsolete parts. But this self-awareness of their pending expiration dates clearly is clearly a commentary on the audience's own mortality and limited shelf-life. How to best make use of that time and our fleeting lives—and whether love is worth pursuing even if it will inevitably end in loss and heartache—is very much the heart of this story.

Much of the show's charm comes from the performers. Criss and Shen have great chemistry and wonderfully bring out the heart and humor of the play. (As an older helpbot model, Criss subtley projects a slightly more robotic demeanor that is not too different than someone on the spectrum.) Kudos as well to Dez Duron, who provides musical interludes—though he never really interacts with the leads, he possesses a silky smooth voice that I could have listened to all night. 

In truth, of all the productions we saw, Maybe Happy Ending is the one I would recommend to anyone unreservedly.

Glengarry Glen Ross

As I said up top, this Broadway revival of playwright David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is what triggered our travels. It's probably the play I’ve most wanted to see on stage and the announcement of this show—with actors Bob Odenirk, Keiran Culkin, Bill Burr, and Michael McKean—made it too irresistible to pass up.

I first encountered the play, of course, through the 1992 film adaptation, featuring a stellar cast that included Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce, and, in what I consider one of the most electric and commanding cameos ever captured on film, Alec Baldwin. 

I knew going in that the film adaptation (also written by Mamet) was very different than the play, though I had heard that some productions had incorporated aspects of the film into the stage show.

Of course, I can’t speak to other productions, but this one seems solely based on the original play. Indeed, it has a very different structure. Whereas the film opens up the story a little and unfolds in a fairly straightforward chronological manner, the play is more impressionistic and primarily told in two acts. The first consists of three vignettes—all set in a Chinese restaurant—that establish the play’s main tensions. The second act, following an intermission, consists of what is the last extended climactic scene of the movie, in which all is revealed and resolved. (Indeed, as much as I love Alec Baldwin's scene in the film, which gets the story rolling in an explosive and immediate manner, it actually would not work in the play without major restructuring.)

While the film, of course, somewhat overshadows and colored my viewing of the play, the production and actors do their best to make the story its own thing and the roles their own. While all are solid, Bill Burr is a standout, perhaps the one performance that transcends the film and, perhaps, even surpassed his film counterpart (Ed Harris). Burr is a perfect fit for the role, projecting more of a lived-in sliminess that isn't quite there in the film. In contrast, Culkin has the unenviable task of trying to make you forget Pacino as Richard Roma…which, of course, given the actor’s presence and line readings in that film, is very difficult.

Revelations in recent years about Mamet’s views and politics also somewhat affected my response to the play. In the original film, the obsession with alpha maleness and what it means to “be a man” are somewhat undermined by the film’s humor, leading one to see the movie as somewhat of a satire of hypermasculinity. In contrast, Mamet’s views make clear that these are themes he is seriously exploring in the play, which makes the play feel somewhat dated and badly aged.

It’s hard to tell how much of the audience had seen the film, but going in knowing the story is somewhat of a disadvantage since the revelations at the end are not a surprise. That said, the play is a smaller and more intimate piece, while the film plays more like Shakespearean tragedy.

Good Night and Good Luck

Good Night and Good Luck is a stage adaptation of the 1995 film of the same name about television journalist Edward J. Murrow that was directed and co-written by actor George Clooney. In the film, Clooney played Murrow’s producer and partner-in-crime, Fred Friendly, but for the stage adaptation, Clooney plays Murrow himself.

The piece tells the story of Murrow’s efforts to stand up to and challenge U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy during the infamous Communist 1950s witch hunts. It hews fairly closely to my memories of the film, complete with the use of the framing device of Murrow speaking at a dinner event in his honor, which bookends the opening and closing of the film, as well as of musical interludes featuring a jazz singer recording in the same studio.

To be clear, this play only happened because of Clooney. The actor clearly believed that the story's message of the importance of journalism as the Fourth Estate and its role of speaking truth to power—while also acknowledging the challenges that our news media face as subdivisions of corporate entities whose goals are commercial and avoiding offending its audience, rather than the public good—remain as relevant as ever. Like the film, the production has Clooney (as Murrow) interacting with real footage of celebrities and other figures. The production and performances are solid, with actor and comedian Ilana Glazer particularly a standout as journalist Shirley Wershba.

What really elevated the production was the final coda, which returns to where the play began, with Murrow speaking to the audience at a lectern at an event. It segues into a cacophony of media clips over the years from the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iraq War, and the Obama years, culminating in a powerful final image that directly connects the show to the modern day, which brought a collective gasp to the audience.

Below: Curtain call from the night we saw Good Night and Good Luck

Boop

Boop is a traditional family-friendly big Broadway musical about animated star Betty Boop, filled with show stopping numbers. It opens in the black and white cartoon world of Betty Boop (giving a nice nod to the Fleischer Studio), who eventually finds her way into the “real” world, where she tries to find herself and navigate the modern world, though the show also makes clear that the character was an early symbol of feminism and self-agency.

While the show was entertaining enough and the performers topnotch, we never felt fully engaged or invested with the characters in the same way as, say, Maybe Happy Ending. Nevertheless, we’re glad we were able to see it—and on opening night, no less! 

Below: Curtain call from the opening night of Boop.

A New York State of Mind

Though I posted about our trip to New York City while still on the road on Facebook and other social media, most of which were re-posted on this blog, below is a more comprehensive account of our trip. Or click here for the full photo gallery from our trip. 

Over the past year or so, we’ve contemplated a major vacation, particularly with our 25th wedding anniversary looming this year. While Europe was on the table, so was New York City, primarily to see some Broadway shows.

The announcement last October of a new production of the David Mamet play, Glengarry Glen Ross, with Bob Odenkirk, Keiran Culkin and Bill Burr, was what convinced us to pull the trigger. I’ve always wanted to see it on stage and my wife agreed that this might be the show to plan our trip around.

I put myself on a mailing list for the show and, in February this year, learned that the dates for the production had been scheduled. After grabbing tickets for the April 3 show, we soon found flights and a great deal for a hotel in the heart of Times Square and Broadway (via Expedia—my plan was to see if I could find a better price for a hotel later, but learned that we indeed got a terrific deal).

Almost at the same time, George Clooney’s stage production of Good Night and Good Luck was announced, based on his 2005 film, about journalist Edward J. Murrow. We purchased tickets for that as well and, after a little research, thought that a new stage musical, Maybe Happy Ending, which received some nice reviews, sounded like good counter programming for the two stage dramas we signed up for.

Flight and Arrival

We’d booked an early morning flight so scheduled a Lyft pickup for 5:30 am for a 7:45 am flight. All went smoothly except for one little glitch. After going through the TSA checkpoint and settling in our gate, I was paged over the terminal loudspeaker by my full name, telling me to report back to the TSA security checkpoint. My wife said later half-jokingly that she wondered if she’d ever see me again when I walked off. It turned out I simply left my ID in the bin at the checkpoint!

Though I’d heard horror stories about JetBlue, we found the flight and crew perfectly lovely. The free wifi on board was a great boon, as it allowed me to be productive and get a lot of social media done while en route.

On our trip to Seattle back in 2023, my wife taught me a great life hack for flying that we took advantage of on this flight. Like most people, we don’t check in our luggage to save on the baggage fees and just use carry ons. However, when a flight is fully booked, at the gate the airline often asks people if they are willing to check in their bags, for no charge. On our trip to Seattle, I opted not to accept this offer while my wife did, but on this flight, I agreed—and it was rather nice not having to board the plane with any luggage. (This trick worked for us on the flight home as well!)

We arrived at JFK at about 3:30 pm EST. I’d researched in advance options for getting into Manhattan and, similar to our last trip to NYC in 2010 with our kids, there was a set price by taxi, though considerably higher than our last visit: about $85, but after tolls and tip, $105.

Our lodging, the Millennium Broadway Times Square, was on 44th Street (with a rear entrance on 45th). Though the room could’ve used fresh paint or wallpaper, and new carpeting (or perhaps a good steam cleaning), it was otherwise good sized and the bathrooms looked like they’d been updated fairly recently. That all said, we did get it for a reasonable price for the area, and the location couldn’t be beat: we were a half block from Times Square and within walking distance of all the theaters we were going to, as well as to Rockefeller Center. Conveniently, a 24-hour Walgreens was next door! In addition, two of the four shows we were seeing were on the same street as our hotel (one just at the end of the block); the third only a block over; and the last about 4 blocks north of us. Since my wife tends to like to sleep in and I am an early riser, I often used the mornings to get breakfast (usually a croissant and orange juice) that I ate either in the lobby, or often just while sitting in the middle of Times Square, while posting to social media and catching up with the news and on email.

The evening of our arrival, we explored our surroundings a bit and had a lovely dinner at an old school Italian restaurant, Tony di Napoli, and ordered waaaay too much food!

Day 2

Our first full day in Manhattan, we took the subway down to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. (We loved the ease of riding the subway by simply using a tap on our mobile devices to pay our fares, though early on we had trouble with the subway turnstiles properly reading them.)

Though I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, I told my wife there was no need to visit the borough as we have on previous trips—a trip to Staten Island would essentially kill a day and there was no need for me to revisit my old haunts as I have done in the past. Nearby Battery Park was unfortunately closed for renovations, but we could still see the Statue of Liberty from the terminal. From there, we walked up to the Financial District/Wall Street, briefly stopped at Trinity Church, and then visited the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial.

After that, we took the subway up to the Society of Illustrators—where I saw a piece from a longtime fellow comics pro, Lonnie Milsap, on display in the museum’s 100 Years of the New Yorker exhibition. We initially thought about then walking across Central Park to get to Strawberry Fields, a favorite spot in the park of John Lennon’s, across the street from his building co-op, the Dakota, but thought better of it and took a taxi instead. (Our visits to the Society of Illustrators and Strawberry Fields are detailed in earlier posts.)

We got back to the hotel around mid-afternoon, so as to have some time to relax before going to our evening show, a schedule we kept on the other days as well. That evening, we saw the first of our four shows, Maybe Happy Ending (I will detail my thoughts and reviews about all the shows we saw in another post). This was followed by a dinner at an Irish bar, O’Donaghue’s Pub.

Day 3

The next morning, before my wife got up, I visited Midtown Comics (reported here). Once my wife was awake, we visited the FDNY’s Firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company in Tribeca—we’d actually meant to visit the day before when we were more downtown, but forgot, so took a quick subway ride there to see it, then shot back uptown where we saw the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home to the Late Night with Stephen Colbert show, which enabled to discover the location of the Winter Garden Theatre where we’d be seeing Good Night and Good Luck later that week, about 4 blocks north of our hotel. We also grabbed a lovely lunch across the street at an upscale dim sum palace, Din Tai Fung. (I later learned from my wife that this restaurant has a location near us in L.A., in Century City.)

We also found time to visit the Empire State Building—though it had been cloudy all day, the weather cleared up enough that we had great views atop the building. To get there, our subway stop was at Penn Station. We took the opportunity to see the commuter trains and platforms while there.

That evening, we saw Glengarry Glen Ross, followed by dinner at Brooklyn Diner (which frankly was our only disappointing meal on the trip).

Day 4

Our 4th day, Saturday, April 5, happened to be the date of the nationwide Hands Off rallies. Though we were 3,000 miles away from home and would have participated in L.A., we happily took time to participate in the NYC protests, at Bryant Park/New York Public Library.

Due to timing issues, we got afternoon tickets to tour Radio City Music Hall. After getting our tickets, we took a taxi to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Upper East Side in Central Park. Though we did spend quality time there, we did not get to see the entire museum and did have to leave after a few hours to make our Radio City tour, which was another taxi ride back.

One of the most interesting factoids from the Radio City tour was that the nearly 100-year-old hydraulic system beneath the stage is still being used—when the theater underwent a major renovation years ago, after inspection, that was one feature the engineers said did not need work or an upgrade. The system was an engineering marvel in its day, such that, before World War II, military engineers studied it for use on aircraft carriers. According to the tour, for this reason, a military presence was kept at the site during the war to safeguard the technology.

In the evening, we saw Good Night and Good Luck at the Winter Garden Theatre. This was followed by my favorite dinner of the evening at Gatsby’s Landing, where I had duck.

The restaurant happened to be directly across the street from the Belasco Theatre, where we had seen Maybe Happy Landing two nights before (as well as just a half block from our hotel). That night’s performance had also just let out and people milled around in front of the theater, hoping to get autographs and catch a glimpse of the show’s lead star, Darren Criss, and other members of the cast. As we waited for dinner, Criss did indeed come out. So I took the opportunity to run across the street to take some photos!

Day 5

We toured NBC Studios and 30 Rockefeller Center on Sunday, just before departing for the airport, and saw Studio 8H, where SNL is broadcast. No photos were allowed at any time during the tour. (I also looked into getting tickets months before. It turns out, they offer tickets during a week’s window in August and you are given a take-it-or-leave-it date, though they do also offer stand by tickets.) As noted in an earlier post, we ended up on the same flight back to L.A. as one of the musicians who had performed on the episode of SNL that had aired the night before, featuring host Jack Black. (This reminds me of another celebrity close encounter when I was once in NYC back in the day—we saw actress Téa Leoni at an ice cream shop with what I assume were her children and perhaps her parents!)

It was a memorable, terrific trip that confirmed for us that NYC is indeed one of the world’s great cities, with an incredible energy and vibe. I’m usually ready to go home near the end of my vacation, and while I didn’t feel the vacation went by too quickly, I happily could have stayed longer.

Click here to see the full photo gallery from our trip. 

Click here to see all the posts from this trip.

30 Rock and Radio City Music Hall

Four Plays in Four Nights!

At the Met

Top of the World, Ma!

I Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts!

Midtown Comics Times Square

As a funny addendum to this story, shortly after my visit, Midtown Comics posted on Twitter that actor/comedian Brian Posehn showed up at the store as well that same day!

A post from Posehn's Facebook account then showed up on my feed with this accompanying photo—which suddenly made sense why he partly may have been in town: to see the play, "Glengarry Glen Ross," with his Mr. Show with Bob and David castmate, which we saw Thursday night ourselves!.

Strawberry Fields Forever...

Spotted in the Wild in NYC...

Yes, almost immediately after WonderCon ended, we are off to New York City!

Kingston Firehouse Theater

In my last post, I recounted my recent trip to Seattle. The primary reason for the trip was to visit and spend time with longtime friends from L.A., who moved to the area a few years back—indeed, the husband is one of my best friends from college who now owns the Firehouse Theater, a lovely two-screen movie house in Kingston, Washington, a charming lakeside community along the shores of Puget Sound.

My friend took over the theater in 2022 with the goal of showing both first run and repertory movies for the community and a program that reflects his own eclectic tastes. (When I visited, the theater was showing the new Taylor Swift concert film, as well as Jaws. During the upcoming Halloween season, the theater is scheduled to show the Little Shop of Horrors and the Mummy, with Killers of the Flower Moon and The Marvels coming up.) It was a treat to get a behind-the-scenes tour and learn a little about the nuts and bolts of the business. My friend and I saw tons of films together when we were in college—at campus screenings, at the premier first-run movie houses just off campus in Westwood, and at revival houses throughout L.A.—so it's inspiring to see him fulfill this dream of being involved in movies.

The theater definitely reflects my friend's tastes and personality—in fact, the movie posters that decorate the theater are from his personal collection, as are the Batman maquettes on display inside the candy counter.

And if you visit the theater, consider buying some comics! Prior to moving to Washington, my friend worked for many years as an editor and writer at Bongo Comics, publisher of the Simpsons and Futurama comics—he also had a hand in the forthcoming comics based on the Netflix Matt Groening series, Disenchantment. As you can see from the photos, there currently are Simpsons comics for sale at the theater. The theater's website is at kingstonfirehouse.com.

So if you live nearby or are in or near the area, be sure to visit the theater and take in a film!

Goodnight, Seattle!

We took a quick visit to beautiful Seattle over the weekend! Though we’ve continued to take small vacations, this was our first out of state and by air since well before the pandemic. We traveled primarily to visit longtime friends, but of course did a few touristy things, including visits to Pike Place Market and the Space Needle—from the top of which, we saw Mt. Rainier (as seen in one of the photos).

Our trip also included the opportunity to take our car rental across the Puget Sound by ferry. Having grown up taking the Staten Island Ferry in New York often—which also takes cars, but I usually only took it as a passenger—it was a nice callback to my youth.

And since I was in the area, I made it a point to visit the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery in Georgetown, a funky neighborhood of Seattle! Back in the 1800s, it was an industrial/railway district.

I actually visited Seattle in 1995 to participate in an indie comics creator tour called the Spirits of Independence that cartoonist Dave Sim organized, when the city was one of the stops. I didn’t see much of the city during that visit, so it was nice to return and enjoy the vibe a little.

Below are select photos—go here for the full gallery...

Disney World 2018 (part I)

This is part I of a two-part blog about my recent visit to Disney World. Below is a general overview of our trip—part II will review the attractions and rides we saw! Click here to go straight to the photogallery.

During the period of about 2009-15, it was our family’s tradition to go to Disneyland in Anaheim, California for a single day visit over the Christmas holiday break. While we generally managed to avoid long wait times, the increasing popularity of the park and resulting shoulder-to-shoulder crowds at that time of year began making the experience less enjoyable, so we stopped going, usually replaced by a ski trip if there was snow in our local mountains.

Even though I know Disney World in Orlando, Florida is supposed to be better and larger, given our proximity to Disneyland, I nevertheless thought a trip to Disney World was superfluous. However, when we were planning our next big family trip and I floated some ideas by the family, it was clear the kids wanted Disney World—so Disney World it was.

Pre-Planning

As I’m sure anyone who has visited the resort (it’s actually a collection of resorts and theme parks, versus the two simple theme parks in Anaheim, Disneyland and California Adventures), planning for Disney World is like planning for battle. My initial online research was very confusing and overwhelming, given the number of choices, parks, resorts/hotels, options, etc. However, with the aid of a book a friend kindly purchased for me as a Christmas gift when he heard we were contemplating the trip, I was able to focus a bit and narrow down my planning. At the end, I did simply go through the Disney World reservation system—which included information on available deals and packages, as well as flights—since obviously it was a simple integrated all-in-one package. (I did independently compare flights and found the flights through Disney were the same I found on my own and at the same price.) And by the time I got to this point, I had done a little research and was a bit more knowledgeable about the whole process and system.

The main reason I found the process a bit overwhelming is because in addition to myriad options, you are also encouraged to book restaurants 180 days in advance and Fast Passes for attractions 60 days in advance. Apparently, those reservations disappear quickly. Indeed, I logged in 59 days before our trip and found that one of the most popular rides, the Avatar Flight of Passage Ride at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, had already sold out of Fast Passes. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to move our planned visit to that theme park to the last day, which did the trick. By that point, four months out, most of the restaurants were also booked.

Another option that required a bit of calculation was the dining plan where each person was allotted a couple of “quick service” meals, one “dining-service meal” and an allotment of snacks and drinks throughout the day (they are given as a total package, meaning they could be swapped and used up or reserved as needed among the members of your party during your visit). I initially signed up for it because it could still be cancelled later because it sounded like a good deal since our meals would all be paid for in advance. Of course, once I did the math, it turned out not to be such a bargain. When I broke it down, it came to nearly $120/person per day, keeping in mind that my party of five included a teen and a tween who are not big eaters. Given that the more expensive sit-down restaurants no longer had any availability on most of the days of our visit, it was clear we would be losing money if we committed to it, so I cancelled the plan. It turned out to be a good decision—I’m sure in some circumstances it can be a good deal—especially if you get reservations at a nice place each night—but if not, you’re likely to come out behind. As many pundits noted, Disney would hardly put together a plan like this if they weren’t making a profit.

Accommodations and General Impressions

Disney of course is renowned for its crowd/line management process, and this was on full display during the trip. Disney World, of course, has its own dedicated presence called Disney Express at the Orlando airport, so once we landed and checked in with them, we and our luggage were taken care of and whisked straight to the hotel.

We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort one of their largest, with room themes for the films Cars, Little Mermaid, and Lion King. Most rooms at Disney World are clearly intended for families of 4 or less, so one reason we booked at Art of Animation is because it has suites that can accommodate 6 (my brother accompanied us on this family trip). We partly chose a Cars themed room thinking it would be the least cheesy of the bunch. I can’t comment on the other themed rooms, but we were actually very pleased with the suite. The room was just large enough to accommodate our party of six without feeling cramped – plus, it had two full baths, a master bedroom (which my wife and I took), and a couch with a twin bed and a pullman bed that opened out over a small dining table. There was also a kitchenette, microwave and fridge.

I’ll talk about food in a bit, but I do want to mention that most of the hotel resorts also have food areas—the Art of Animation had a huge cafeteria style food court. While I’m sure I wouldn’t have wanted to eat there every day, there was some variety in the options and Disney is especially smart to leave it open an hour past the time the parks close, meaning that you can still grab dinner—or even a nice dessert—when you get back. So even though we arrived at our hotel about 9:45 p.m., it was nice to be able to grab a relaxing dinner after a full day of traveling. On busy days like this, I tend to like a full breakfast in the morning, but in order to get an early start, we ended up buying croissants, orange juice and other pastries the night before and eating them on the run the next morning—I was surprised that this kept me plenty satisfied until lunchtime.

Aside from its sheer size, one significant difference between Disneyland and Disney World is the use of Magic Bands (see photo at right). Shipped to us prior to the trip, the Magic Bands electronically contained our reservations and Fast Passes, and even gave us access to our room--we didn’t even need to check in (Disney texted our room number right before we arrived). As a matter of convenience, if you link it to a credit card, you could even pay for all purchases at the parks with it, protected by a PIN code.

And, yes, Disney World is a lot larger than Disneyland. In addition to simply having more room (a LOT more room) to grow, the scale is a bit larger that made it feel a little less shoulder-to-shoulder/claustrophobic when it was crowded. (With that said, even though we were there during our kids’ spring break, the parks were not as crowded as I anticipated--lines were rarely at the full capacity they were clearly set up for.)

One interesting difference between the two Disney resorts, in my observation, was the makeup of the crowd. While of course we met and saw people from many different countries, particularly the U.K., France and Germany, it was fascinating to hear a variety of Southern accents, something I just don’t hear in California. Like Disneyland, given the crowds, for the most part everyone was happy to be there and lovely and courteous to others, very chill.

The Theme Parks (and Food!)

We were at the resort for four days and on consecutive days went to Magic Kingdom (classic Disneyland), Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom. In addition, since the flight on our final day didn’t depart until 8 p.m. in the evening we added a fifth day to go to Hollywood Studios, the fifth and final theme park at the resort. (There are other destinations at the resort like TK and TK.)

On our first day, of course, we got to the park bright and early. At our hotel (and presumably the others), there was a dedicated bus stop for each park. Although buses run at various intervals, usually about every 20 minutes at peak times, they actually ran buses fairly frequently to accommodate the crowds and keep people moving, with a bus sometimes pulling up just as as one departed. As I said, we found the lines and crowds to be nowhere near full capacity.

While on the map I could of course see that the Magic Kingdom was on the far side of the Disney World property from our hotel, it really sunk in on the bus ride: although we were within Disney World, the bus ride to the parks took anywhere from about 15 to 30 minutes, depending on traffic and distance of the theme park—and this included going onto a local road, hopping on a freeway and traveling at highway speeds! We could see plenty of areas under construction and plenty of space to grow.

Of course, once we arrived at a park, a necessary inconvenience was the security check. Again, for the most part, these were quick and painless, again helped by the fact that it was nowhere near as crowded as I expected or it could have been.

After a first full day at Magic Kingdom, getting back to the hotel close to 11 p.m., we went to Epcot the next day and found ourselves fairly exhausted. While we did not curtail our trip to Epcot in any way, we actually ended up back at our hotel that second day by early evening and were in bed by 10 p.m. The third day, we slept in an hour later for our second visit to Magic Kingdom and happily found that this had no effect on our ability to get on rides in the morning and were never that tired again (in retrospect there may have been some jet lag involved as well.)

Disney World allows for a variety of experiences—what I mean by that is if one wants to spend time all day hitting rides and attractions you can do that; but there are also plenty of shows, parades (I joked, “There’s a damned parade every 5 minutes!”) and of course just the immersive environment of the park. And, of course, you can just chill at the hotels and hang out by the pool. It really is difficult to have all these experiences and enjoy all the attractions and shows in a day, so you have to make choices or decide to spend one day doing more of one activity or the other. (With that said, I don’t think I could spend more than the five days we spent there.)
As I mentioned earlier, because we planned our vacation relatively “late” (about 4 months out), we were unable to snag many restaurant reservations—on our first full night, we ate at the Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen. It was fairly nice and I was surprised at how open and spread out the tables were. After a day of running around, it was a welcome respite to sit down and be served a nice meal.

It helped that my son, a Disney geek, already had a good lay of the land. In fact, armed with a waiting times app and an innate map of the parks in his head, he turned out to be our navigator and guide for much of the trip! Once we finished one activity, he would tell us what ride had a relatively short wait and, after we agreed, he would just lead us there! What a treat it was for me to be able to just sit back and enjoy. Of course there were times when we’d split up if people wanted to do different things or even just relax.

Speaking of food, aside from the restaurant mentioned above, we ate most meals at the “quick service” restaurants found everywhere. While food is still predominantly the fast food burger/hot dog/pizza type—which I really didn’t want for five straight days—with a little bit of looking you can find a little bit more variety. Epcot, with its focus on international fare, seemed to have the most options and, if not for the kids, my wife and I could have spent the day going from one food vendor to another. I had a scallops dish there and we shared some pretty good fish and chips. During our visit at Animal Kingdom, I found a good place that sold ribs and a rice/vegetable dish at an “African market” (during the day, I also bought a tasty grilled corn on the cob!). Other highlights included a very good roasted turkey leg that I shared with my son (which can also be found at Disneyland) and an empanada at Hollywood Studios that my wife texted me about.

In any case, it was a great trip, helped by great weather (we were in shorts the whole time, it was slightly humid a couple days and we had some light rain another couple times) and low crowds.

The Attractions

Below is a list of the attractions and activities we enjoyed during our visit. In the next part of this blog, coming soon, I’ll provide a review/overview of our trip!

Day 1/Magic Kingdom
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Fast Pass)
Under the Sea: Journey of The Little Mermaid (Fast Pass)
People Mover
Carousel of Progress
Thunder Road Mountain
Hall of Presidents
Country Bear Jamboree
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (Fast Pass)
Little Mermaid
3 parades
Dinner reservation: Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen
Seven Dwarfs (Fast Pass) 

Day 2/Epcot
Space Ship Earth
Test Track (Fast Pass)
Journey Into Imagination With Figment (Fast Pass)
Sides
Oh Canada Pavilion
China Pavilion
RELAUNCHED! Mission: Space (Fast Pass)
RELAUNCHED! Mission: Earth
Nemo Ride 

Day 3/Magic Kingdom
Haunted Mansion (Fast Pass)
Splash Mountain
Muppets
People Mover
Monster Laughs (show)
Tiki Room
Pirates of the Caribbean (Fast Pass)
Disney Rail
Carousel of Progress
Seven Dwarfs (Fast Pass) 

Day 4/Animal Kingdom
Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain (Fast Pass)
Kali River Rapids
It's Tough to Be a Bug
Avatar Flight of Passage (Fast Pass)
Navi River Journey
Dinosaur (Fast Pass) 

Day 5/Hollywood Studios
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Star Tours
Indiana Jones Stunt Show
March of the First Order Parade
Star Wars Launch Bay Theatre
Walt Disney Presdents
Star Tours

Click here to go straight to the photogallery.

There and Back Again: The Grand Canyon

When I was growing up, my parents made it a point to take a summer vacation somewhere around the country every year, but one place we never made it to was the Grand Canyon. I’m glad to say that I finally made it to this must-see national park with my own family (including my brother).

We had a terrific trip. Although it’s no doubt a cliché, words and photos do little justice to the experience of actually being at the Grand Canyon. Viewing it in person is absolutely breathtaking and awe-inspiring.

Get Your Kicks on Route 66

We opted to take a popular Grand Canyon Railway package, which starts in Williams, Arizona, a town that touts itself as “the last town to be bypassed by Route 66.”*

Located 65 miles from the Grand Canyon, Williams today serves as a gateway to the Grand Canyon for those traveling west by car and or opting to take the Grand Canyon Railway, which takes tourists daily to and from the Grand Canyon. Operating since 1901 and tied historicallyto the development of the Grand Canyon as a tourist spot by the Santa Fe Railroad, the railway closed in the late 1960s but was resurrected in 1989 as a dedicated tourist train serving the national park. (The development of the Grand Canyon as a tourist resort is also closely tied to the rise of the Fred Harvey Company, one of the first chains of hotels and restaurants, famous for its “Harvey Girls.”)

The operators have quite shrewdly also positioned the railway as a “green” alternative to driving and polluting the Grand Canyon, claiming that it is responsible for keeping 50,000 cars from the park. These efforts—which also encouraged the use of reusable water bottles—is in line with the park’s efforts to promote green living and preserve the natural wonder of the Grand Canyon.

Though Williams is nearly a straight-line north-westerly drive from L.A., rather than take the 7.5-hour drive, we opted to fly to Las Vegas, stay there for a few days, then drive to Williams in a rented car. Vegas is about three-and-a-quarter hours from Williams and Phoenix is about an hour closer, being the closest major airports to Williams and the Grand Canyon.

Our railway package began with a night at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel at Williams (which is right next door to the Williams Train Depot); a two-and-a-quarter hour train ride to the Grand Canyon the next morning; an overnight stay at the Grand Canyon at one of the lodges inside the park’s tourist village and resident community, the Grand Canyon Village; and a return trip to Williams the following afternoon, with one final night at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. Given that the package included two breakfasts and dinners at the buffet restaurant at the Williams railway hotel, the train trip and entertainment, and a brief coach bus tour at the Grand Canyon, I have to say the cost of the trip was certainly very affordable. The company took care of our luggage the whole way, transporting them from one hotel room to the other the entire way, so we never had to worry about them. The package also included a cowboy gunfight at Williams and a “train robbery” on the way back–which featured the train robbers running alongside the train on their horses. All the employees on the tour were incredibly nice, welcoming and upbeat.

The Grand Canyon

As mentioned, our package included a coach bus tour of the Grand Canyon upon arrival. Frankly, now that I have a better understanding of the park, the bus tour was probably unnecessary, but it was nevertheless a good way for first-time visitors like ourselves to get oriented and learn about the park. After that, we were on our own.

The reason I say the bus tour was unnecessary is because the Grand Canyon has a great shuttle system consisting of three lines—one that serves the Grand Canyon Village which is the visitor nexus for the park and two that take visitors on round trips around the South Rim with stops at various key viewing spots on the rim. Anyone wishing to hike (or bike) can certainly do so, but the shuttles are obviously a great way to see the sights if you have limited time or energy. Each vista point offered as spectacular view as the last.

The canyon is about 277 miles long, 18 miles wide at its widest, and about a mile deep. No doubt one reason the Southern Rim of the canyon is the most developed and visited is because of the trails you can take down to the bottom: the Bright Angel Trail and the South Kaibab Trail. They are about 9 miles down, taking you more than 4,000 feet (the canyon’s elevation is about 7,000 feet). Hikers are not advised to attempt the hike in a day, especially since one has to remember the hike back is uphill. Hikers have the option of staying at a lodge called the Phantom Lodge at the bottom (or, presumably, camping). But you can certainly go as far down on the trail as you like and then turn around and come back.

The first day we stayed out long enough to watch the sunset—understandably a popular pastime as many people settled down around us to do the same. Returning back to the village, we found the “upscale” restaurants had 90-minute waits and decided to just hit the food court at our lodge. Not as good as a sit down restaurant meal, but at least we were able to order food quickly and replenish ourselves.

On the way back to our building, we found another advantage of being a little bit outside civilization—the night was so clear that we were able to easily find the North Star, the Big and Little Dippers, and Orion’s Belt!

The next day we spent exploring the western side of the Canyon. It was at that time that my brother, son and I (while my wife and daughter slept in) discovered we were within walking distance of the rim and the main trail heads.

We visited at the perfect time—it was spring break for my kids and the weather was clear and comfortable, being neither too warm or too cold. While there were many people there, I wouldn’t consider it crowded. I can only imagine what it’s like in the summer at the height of tourist season—I overheard a bus driver say that the park had 17 permanent suttle drivers and, during the summer, employed as many as 54 to accommodate the crowds.

I’ve never had love of heights—while it’s not debilitating and being at the Grand Canyon wasn’t a particular problem for me, I certainly wasn’t as brave as some folks who were able to rather non-chalantly go fairly close to the edge. Nevertheless, I have to admit, just starting down one of the trails was enough to bring my heart to my mouth—and in any case my son refused to start down anyway. (My daughter was more than game, but since no one else was willing, she was denied the chance—I told her she could do it on her own trip!)

At least I can say I’m not alone because there were at least three instances while I was there of people horsing around in such a way that made others nearby literally scream—after witnessing one such incident involving a young man who leaped high from the edge for a good picture, one rather burly gent muttered to me “I must be getting old.”

While there are fences or walls at the main vista points, some of them would offer little protection for young children; and the main trails and other points have no such protection at all. But it’s all a matter of common sense and a little bit of caution. (Googling such incidents, I found that the park averages about 3-4 deaths a year from falls, and another 8-12 or so a year from “environmental factors” like dehydration and sunstroke).

Hoover Dam

On the drive back from Williams to Vegas, we stopped at the Hoover Dam since it was on the way. I’m really glad we did. When we got close to the dam area, there were only a few cars ahead of us in the security check line for vehicles; I can imagine that during the summer the service road can get quite a bit backed up. Plus, once we entered the dam area, a sign almost immediately pointed us to parking right there and we quickly found a parking space.

While there are several levels of tours visitors can take, we simply opted for the museum tour which includes a room that offers a nice overlook of the dam. And, of course, we made sure to walk across the dam that includes the state line dividing Arizona and Nevada.

As the pictures accompany this blog show, the area also provides a spectacular view of the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, opened in 2010 and built for security concerns.. I’ve since learned it’s the second highest bridge in the U.S. after the Royal Gorges Dam in Colorado—and since we drove across the memorial bridge and I’ve walked across the Royal Gorges Dam Bridge (it’s a pedestrian tourist bridge that was the highest in the world until 2001), I can say I’ve traversed the two highest bridges in the U.S.!

The Hoover Dam was, in its way, as breathtaking and impressive as the Grand Canyon. Completed in the midst of the Great Depression, it is truly an engineering marvel (it was even completed two years ahead of schedule) that represents an apex of American ingenuity and industriousness that has stood the test of time.

Visiting the Hoover Dam also proved to be a nice bookend to our Grand Canyon trip since, of course, the Hoover Dam straddles the Colorado River, so it was a treat to point out to the kids that we were seeing the same river we saw at the Grand Canyon.

In all, our trip went smoothly and safely, and was a memorable vacation as American as apple pie!

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* Historical Route 66, made famous by legend, song (and TV), was displaced with the rise of the Interstate Highway System and Route 66, which runs through the town, was the last leg to be replaced by the I-40 in 1984. Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985. My wife reminded me that Santa Monica, California, near where we live in West L.A., was the west coast terminus of Route 66. Signs and souvenirs at the Santa Monica boardwalk capitalize on this connection.)


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Below are additional photos from our trip:

To see all the photos, visit the following links:

• Las Vegas leg
• Grand Canyon
• Hoover Dam

You can see a mule train of riders in the center of this photo