New York, Day 2 (Hamilton!)

Our plan for Saturday was to see the Saturday matinee of Hamilton. They have a cancellation line where they sell unsold seats (released by the cast, not picked up by the online lottery winners, reserved VIP seats that go unused, etc.). There is a 100+ page forum devoted to the topic and I read everything written in the last year. To increase our odds, we hired a linesitter. It felt a bit like cheating, but we only had one shot to see the show. There was a bit of confusion with the linesitter and on Friday night we though the deal was off, but to our surprise it all worked out. The guy, who I think was homeless, sat in line all night! We had agreed to $20/hour and they told me to expect 8 hours for this time of year. We did not want to pay for 16 hours and felt like they were trying to cheat us after the agreed upon deal. We told him to come back and do the 8 hours or forget it (all of this was done via texting, we hadn't met our linesitter yet and didn't know he was homeless). But, he ended up staying in line all night anyway and just charging us for 8 hours. He was, of course, first in line. We relieved him around 9am and the line was about 7 people long. There were two professional line sitters (ours was there all night, the next one arrived around 3am), a mother and daughter who had done the line 4 times already and had arrived around 530, a guy and his girlfriend (got there around 8), another mom and daughter (all the way from Australia, arrived at 845), then it would have been us if we hadn't paid the linesitter. Although, if we hadn't had the linesitter, I was thinking of getting there around 6,which would have made us the 3rd pair in line. After us, about 5 more people showed up before the box office opened at 10.

At 10, the box office employee came out and offered premium seats at $849/each. Everyone in the line declined. Around 1030, I went to a nearby Starbucks for hot chocolate. It took about 30 minutes because the line was so long. I came back, handed Thomas his hot chocolate and sat down in our other place in line.  I stayed there in case people got upset that we had paid a line sitter, which is technically against the Hamilton rules, figuring we would still have a good chance at getting in. By this point, I knew no one cared, but I had a comfortable spot on the steps and enjoyed talking to the fans around me. Anyway, I looked up a few minutes later and didn't see Thomas; then, he came out with tickets. Victory! Everyone in the line cheered for us (and their ability to move one spot closer, I'm sure). We went into the Marriott next door to warm up and then back to the hotel to hang out before the show.

The spoiles

The show was amazing! Our seats were in the second row on the aisle of the center orchestra. We could see everything, including the spit coming out of the actor's mouths as they enunciated the lines. It was everything we had hoped for, combining our great love of American history with innovative theater. We saw the understudy for the title role, but he was fantastic, very similar in style to Lin Manuel Miranda. It was a definite A+ and the hassles were all worth it. I am hoping to see it again when it comes to DC, perhaps from seats further back so we can get more of an overview approach. And, even with the linesitter, it worked out cheaper than buying the tickets from Ticketmaster like I had done for the February show (thanks to their exorbitant fees). Definitely a win/win! When we left, we were happy to see that the cancellation line did not include anyone who had waited with us that morning. There were new faces, presumably waiting for the evening show, but no one from that morning.

You can't see it on our faces, but boy were we excited!

Standing right next to our seats :)

After the show, we went to Times Square to see if we could squeeze in another show that night. We checked the half off board and decided on Avenue Q, which ran on Broadway for a long time, and even won a Tony for best show, but had since moved off-Broadway. Our plan was to try and walk to Rockefeller Center to see the tree at night, but we couldn't get close. I have never experienced anything like it. You legitimately couldn't move at times. It was worse than leaving a crowded concert or sporting event. Seriously wall to wall people. I couldn't help but think this is how people die in stampedes. If you tripped, you ran the risk of being crushed to death. We decided seeing the tree was not worth dealing with crowds and headed away from the Rockefeller Center area.

We thought Times Square was bad...

Then, we tried walking near Rockefeller Center. Insane!

We stopped and bought souvenirs for the kids and then went to dinner at a delicious little Mexican place, visited a comic book shop and then went to Avenue Q. We were tired, and kind of regretting the ticket purchase, but the show was good. Definitely more adult than we expected (songs included, Everybody is a Little Bit Racist and the Internet is for Porn), but it had a good theme and we really enjoyed it. Thomas actually put it in his top 5 Broadway list (Hamilton is #1 for both of us, I think we also agree on Jersey Boys for #2, then there is a great divergence in our preference).

We spent like 8 hours waiting in line or in shows and still managed to walk 11 miles!

We got back to our hotel around 10:45pm and went to bed. We woke early the next morning, packed and headed to the train station. Five hours later we were home and our adventure was over. It was an awesome weekend in New York, although I don't want to return at Christmas ever again (unless it's midweek). It was a good experiment for us and not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Parking the car in NJ worked out well and I think I would even venture in with the kids during an off-season. There was lots we would like to see, like The Statute of Liberty or One World Trade Center, that we did not have time for this trip. It was another fantastic getaway with my wonderful husband who was kind enough to humor me in undertaking this crazy adventure.