We had just completed a 10 day Carnival cruise to the Caribbean and our ship docked in Manhattan. We had never been to New York City in December so we extended the trip for 4 extra days. Before we left home we had a warm clothing suit case and a cold clothing suit case.

DAY 1….Since out hotel was only 6 blocks away from the port location, we waited until the last possible minute to disembark. The hotel was very nice, and had a room available early, so we changed our clothes and headed to explore. We had planned for snow, but it was pouring rain. The hotel had umbrellas for sale…thank heavens.

We ate an early dinner at the Carnegie Diner. It is a newer restaurant located in the theater district. The food was amazing. For dessert we had the Pancake Milkshake!!

We had time before our show so we walked to nearby Time Square and loved the lights and the colors of the Christmas season

You could see that work had started on the ball for New Year’s Eve….the 4 had not yet been installed

We had tickets to Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre.

The usher told us we had great seats and we did…front row second tier. Not bad for just looking at the online seating chart..lol

Wow…what a show. At the end Cindy told Jim that she felt like Paul Harvey, “and now you know the rest of the story”. We will never again watch the Wizard of OZ and not think about this play. You could not take picture during the performance, this is the curtain call.

In the lobby, there was a display that was similar to the actual set. The visual effects were incredible and helped tell the story.

DAY 2…We started the day at Rockefeller Center. The star on top of the tree weighs 900 lbs and is 9 feet in diameter. It stands above the ice skating rink.

We had a reservation to ice skate for an hour

We rented skates and that is when Jim said, “I have never been ice skating”, which makes sense growing up in California but how did Cindy not know that..lol.

We got on the skates and headed to the rink. Jim did amazing for his first time and just stayed close to the side.

In the middle of our skating session, we had a break for the zamboni, to clean and refresh the ice.

Cindy was so excited and had to keep reminding herself where we were…Skating at Rockefeller Center!!

One last loop around the rink…we truly enjoyed every minute and had so much FUN!!!!

Near Rockefeller Center is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was dedicated in 1819 and then consecrated in 1910, when the building was paid off.

The cathedral has capacity for 2400 worshippers. It serves as the headquarters for the New York Catholic Diocese. The interior was beautiful.

Being Christmas, there was a full-size nativity scene inside the cathedral.

For lunch we went to AVRA, a wonderful Greek restaurant. You are given a pita tray to start, much like a Mexican restaurant gives chips and salsa. We also ordered a hummus sampler, it was excellent.

The Christmas spirit was everywhere

Our afternoon activity was the Rockettes Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall.

The building opened in 1932. The foyer chandelier is impressive and there were displays of items used in past shows.

Even the theater bathrooms were pretty cool, as they still had the original dryers, which operated with a foot pedal. That’s the construction nerd coming out!!

The Christmas show is one of the most anticipated events of the year.

The theater is a spectacular venue with great acoustics. You never know when you book your seat, what it will be like, but these were great seats.

Before the show, two gentlemen came out and played prelude music on organs.

Photography was not permitted during the performance but it was an incredible experience. The Rockettes were wonderful and the show had numerous additional elements…Santa Claus was a pivotal part of the show but there was also a live nativity with real animals!!

After the show we walked by the tree at Rockefeller Center, which was beautiful at night. We also caught a glimpse of the tree from Fifth Avenue.

At Saks Fifth Avenue, we watched the short Christmas light show on the front of their building.

The store windows were decorated using a whimsical, fashion, Christian Dior theme

We headed back to our hotel and stopped at a New York-style pizza place, that sold over 20 varieties all by the slice. The dinner of champions…the cookies were from the Rockettes show.

DAY 3…Our last day we walked 7.5 miles. We started the morning at the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saint temple.

For lunch we ate at an amazing Italian restaurant. The bruschetta was very good.

After lunch, we headed to Time Square to the Planet Fitness booth. You are given 1×1 inch pieces of confetti, so you can write your wish, hope, or resolution for the New Year. The confetti will be part of the New Year’s Eve celebration

We had to include Willy P and Spuddy in our Time Square pictures.

We had booked a tour to Brooklyn, which is one of 5 boroughs in NYC. The meeting place was the Time Square McDonalds. We spent $8 so we could obtain the code and use the restroom…lol

We caught the tour bus To Dyker Heights which is a neighborhood in Brooklyn. It is famous for their Christmas displays. We travelled through the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel. At 9117 feet, it is the longest underwater tunnel in North America.

This house in the adjacent neighborhood of Bay Ridge was our first stop and is appropriately known as the Blue House.

Dyker Heights is famous for it’s “traditional” Christmas displays. Besides the lights you see lots of tour buses and hot chocolate booths as you walk through the neighborhood.

This was the first house to decorate in the early 1980s. There is literally not an inch space uncovered.

Every house has their own unique theme

This house is known as the Wizard of Oz house.

Our favorite house had buttons you could push and it would “snow”. Jim was unfortunately standing directly under the snow machine…lol

Our tour bus dropped us of on 42nd Street so we got one last picture in Time Square and the New Year’s “tower” as we walked to 59th Street.

We passed Juniors which has the best New York cheesecake and just had to stop. Everything sounded so good that we had a late dinner instead and took the cheesecake with us.

The next morning we had cheesecake for breakfast and at the airport we had an assortment of food, but the crepe was amazing, like lick the box amazing!!!! It’s truly all about the food!!!

After a month of 3 different adventures we were headed home. It was BAM all the way and so much fun.