Day 13: Top of the Rocks, Highline, Lion King Musical & Times Square

Day 13: Top of the Rocks, Highline, Lion King Musical & Times Square

April 21, 2022

We drag ourselves to breakfast at 9:30 am - yawn - and then leave the hotel heading towards Manhattan. We have tickets for the Rockefeller Center "Top of the Rocks" at 11 am.

At the subway station, I see the funny "footprints" calling for social distance for the first time. Another Corona relic... I find these really funny though.

There's not much going on at the Rockefeller, we can go up immediately. We are also lucky with the weather again. It's cloudy, but the sun is slowly fighting its way through. Yesterday rain was forecast for today, but luckily we don't see anything of that today!

The famous picture 'lunchtime atop a skyscraper' is hanging (funnily) in our living room. We always wondered if the picture is 'real' - many of our friends doubted it - but here, at the Rockefeller Center, we learn: Yes, the picture is real!

The view from the Rockefeller Center is great! Especially the view of Central Park. Unfortunately, the new architectural sins, these pole-shaped, narrow skyscrapers, are really ugly and somewhat spoil the view of the park. We really like the several "terraces" that you can go up to have an open view of the city without any disturbing grids at the end.

After about 1.5 hours, we take a detour to the roller rink in front of the Rockefeller Center and then look for the next entrance to the "Highline", where we walk to the Vessel Building & The Edge. Not much is blooming yet because it's still too cold, but in a few weeks, when all the flowers on the Highline are blooming, it will look great for sure!

After a detour to the Vessel Building (unfortunately the stairs are closed, but you can go inside), we go back to Times Square. We stop by our beloved Dunkin Donuts and treat ourselves to donuts, iced coffee, coffee, and hot chocolate. Then we stroll around Times Square, looking for a street artist. The daughter found many videos on the internet, but unfortunately, there is only a strange "Cowboy Granny" roaming around besides the standard mascots "Cookie Monster, Elmo & Co".

We decide to go back to the hotel before our evening program. Tonight, we are going to see the musical "The Lion King" at the "Minskoff Theatre".

When we planned our USA trip 2 years ago, we bought tickets for "Frozen". Unfortunately, the musical disappeared from the scene in 2022. Mega bummer, because that would have been something new for all of us. I saw "The Lion King" a few years ago in Hamburg on the occasion of my "round" birthday with my husband. Since the kids know and love the movies, our son can sing all the titles up and down, so it was clear that we would buy tickets for "The Lion King". We have already seen Aladdin in London a few years ago, so this musical unfortunately dropped out of the selection.

"The Lion King" starts already at 7 pm - probably because of the child actors - so we decide to have our dinner AFTER the performance. We treat ourselves to some snacks in the room and join the endless queue in front of the Minskoff Theatre at 6:15 pm. Wow, there's even more going on here than yesterday at The Phantom of the Opera!!! Passports and vaccination passports are also checked here, masks are mandatory!

We managed to secure 4 seats in the "Mezzanine" (upper level) all the way to the right in the 1st row (BB). The view is great, we can enjoy the stage without any restrictions, we have a side view to the "drummer's" lodge on the right, and the best part: at the beginning, when the animals move through the audience in the lower part, suddenly one actor stands right in front of us and performs 10 cm in front of our seats in the spotlight! Amazing!!!! We are thrilled!!!

Although my husband and I have already seen the musical in German, we are totally excited about the performance and the actors' performance. We like it much better than the German version. Is it because of the language? No idea. What we see is definitely the incredible motivation and gratitude of the actors to finally perform on stage in front of an audience after a long Corona break.

The kids and we are mega excited and clap our hands sore at the end 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 😜

After the successful musical visit, we manage to get a table at Taco Bell and treat ourselves to a quick dinner.
The daughter saw on social media that there is always a "show" at Times Square shortly before midnight. Ok - we're here anyway today, so we'll hold on until midnight and watch the show.

To the delight of the daughter, there are also some artists on the move tonight - unfortunately, most of them are of the "rip-off" type - talking and advertising for a long time, at the end making a single jump over 4 people and pocketing some decent money... We already knew this "system" from other big cities like London. Oh well, whatever.

We find a place on the stairs at "Father Duffy Square" and watch the hustle and bustle. For example, we meet a replica of the "Back to the Future" vehicle including Doc Brown. Funny 😜

Shortly before midnight, we see the same spot on all screens. I have no idea what they are actually advertising here - supposedly an art project - and it's over just as quickly. Exactly at midnight. Hm... we waited for over an hour for that?? Son is annoyed, daughter is disappointed... Well, off to the hotel and to bed - the day was eventful again!