...the one in which WE get to put on the show on Broadway....
After a delicious and satisfying dinner at Tony Di Napoli's, we had just a short walk through the heart of Times Square to our next activity. Easier said than done, actually, because my butt had become pretty comfortable in that chair, and it took a monumental effort - as well as a threat of eviction - to get me out of it.
We were soon walking through the throngs, hordes and masses of barbarians that all seem to permanently inhabit Times Square...and on a beautiful Saturday evening, it was packed with humanity. As we were standing on a street corner, waiting for the All Powerful Hand to signal that it was safe to cross, a very strange bus pulled up and sat for a minute across from us...
How to describe this bus...well...the entire side of it consisted of HUGE windows, and the people inside the bus were sitting - all facing US. And through a speaker, we could hear that they were ALL singing - "New York, New York" (naturally!) - and they were carrying on and laughing and trying to engage us - the innocent bystanders on the street corner - to sing along with them.
Well.
What else did we have to do? I mean, we were just standing there - so why NOT sing along with them?! Doesn't every person standing on 42nd Street in NYC sing along with a busload of people?
Hubby thought this was the coolest thing ever, and as the bus pulled away, he managed to snag a photo:
As we crossed 42nd Street to our next destination, he couldn't quit talking about that bus.
"That was SO cool!" he said..."I've never seen anything like it...I wonder what it is??!!"
Well. For those interested, it's called "Experience The Ride" - and their information is HERE. It's a 45-foot bus with stadium seating and surround sound, that drives through the streets of Manhattan for some hilarious surprises and entertainment along the way.
And here, folks, was one of the greatest surprises/bombshells EVER in the history of vacation planning... because, at that moment, I said to him, "It's called 'The Ride' - and that's actually where we're going next."
HOW COOL WAS THAT??!!
YES! I had actually made 8:30 pm reservations MONTHS ago for The Ride - and that's where we were headed! (It runs several times a day, and what we experienced at the corner of 42nd Street was the finale of the previous ride).
HOW AWESOME WAS IT THAT HUBBY GOT A SNEAK PREVIEW OF IT - ONLY MOMENTS BEFORE WE WERE DOING IT OURSELVES??!!
When I spring the surprise on Hubby - and told him that's where we were headed - he thought I was totally yanking his chain.
"No way," he said. "Are you serious?"
"Totally," I said.
What's weird about this whole thing is that we never, ever saw the bus on the street again - for the rest of our trip. Ever. Only that one night. Isn't that bizarre?!
I think so.
Anyway - we were soon at our designating loading place for The Ride - on 42nd Street - and Hubby was bouncing up and down with excitement. What a big kid - now HE was going to be able to sit inside that really cool bus!
We loaded up into the really cool stadium seating:
We had two hosts inside the bus with us...
Scott
Jackie
Scott and Jackie should be on a comedy stage. Seriously. Between the two of them, they keep up a running patter of NYC trivia, information, and comedy gold. We laughed so hard during our 90-minute ride that my face hurt.
MY FACE HURT.
Hubby was practically in tears the entire time...which is a good thing.
I don't want to say too much about this - as there are a lot of surprises in store for you while you experience it. Some of the most fun we had was when we got to sing and watch the crowd outside the bus interact with US:
I would give this FIVE STARS on a rating of 1-5...it was THAT much fun. Seriously - we would have done it every night if we'd had time. It's an absolute DO-NOT-MISS experience in midtown Manhattan, and I can't say enough about it. Days later, we were STILL talking about it, and laughing at some of the things we heard that night.
YOU MUST DO THIS IF YOU EVER VISIT MANHATTAN!!!!!!!!!!
After experiencing "The Ride" - we decided cupcakes were in order...and luckily, our next destination was literally right across the street. Whew. My feet were VERY happy about this.
We were going to be visiting the famous "Cake Boss" bakery - TLC's baker himself, Buddy...would his cupcakes live up to the hype? Or would we be disappointed???
Stay tuned!
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