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Review: Once on Broadway (and is Once appropriate for kids?)

Once was just nominated for a slew of Tony awards: Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Direction in  a Musical, Best Choreography, Best Orchestration, Best Scenic Design of a Musical, Best Lighting (and Best Sound Design) of a Musical.

What makes Once different? When you enter the theater, you’ll notice something different from every other Broadway show. The stage is not only lit, it’s populated with the actors and musicians playing music (which started about 15 minutes before the official showtime). You’ll also see other people up there – audience members. Yes, you can go on stage before the show (and during intermission) to listen to the music and buy drinks at the on-stage bar. And you can bring those drinks (wine/beer in plastic cups with lids and straws) back to your seat. I would love to have taken a photo but they were making a lot of announcements prohibiting photography, even before the show started.


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Review: Terracotta Warriors at Discovery Times Square

The Egyptians had their pyramids and burial chambers filled with goods they thought they’d need in the afterlife. Chinese emperors were buried with a full size army. Fortunately this army was made of terracotta, but 8,000 soldiers strong.

Terracotta Warriors exhibit. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

(Tickets and discount ticket information at the bottom)

The army is thought to include 130 chariots and 520 chariot horses and 150 cavalry horses (2 of which are on display at this exhibit), and nonwarriors like acrobats and musicians. The soldiers formed a large army in complete battle formation. They were buried in three pits, which are not fully excavated. You can see details and a lot of pictures of the ongoing Terracotta Warriors archeological excavations here. Continue reading “Review: Terracotta Warriors at Discovery Times Square”

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Sleepover at the Philly Zoo

Many zoos have sleepover programs you can attend with a group (like scouts) or on your own. We went to the Philly Zoo with our Cub Scout pack and thought we’d share our experience here. One of the great things about the sleepover program, is you can get a lot more “show and tell” type of experiences. Animal shows, some behind-the-scenes activities, early access to exhibits, and additional tours. By the way, the Treehouse is open to the public at some times, and only to members at others. You can see some grand arches inside – the building was designed by a church architect and is one of the oldest zoo buildings.

Our host talks to the kids

We spent much of the evening in the Treehouse (one of two indoor spaces you can sign up for). The space was awesome, with a large tree the kids could explore, dinosaur shells they could climb into, a large-scale beehive they could climb in, and more. Our host for the evening, Kaitlyn, was excellent at keeping the boys in line (something we parents have a hard time doing). Continue reading “Sleepover at the Philly Zoo”

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Review: Beyond Planet Earth – the Future of Space Exploration at the American Natural History Museum

We recently had the chance to tour the new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. It’s called Beyond Planet Earth – the Future of Space Exploration, and it’s about…space exploration!

In it you’ll learn about the history of space travel (and see this Russian space capsule, the Vostok,  that had all of four switches and 35 indicators inside. It carried Yuri Gagarin among other Soviet astronauts in the 1960s).

4 Russians lived here in space.

The best way to describe the exhibit is to go through some interesting facts we learned:

–Does the moon have a smell? Yes, but astronauts can’t smell it because there’s no air on the moon. They could smell the lunar rocks on board the space craft – they smell like gunpowder (but the smell didn’t last until they landed back on Earth).

–Since October, 2000 there has always been a person living in space. Continue reading “Review: Beyond Planet Earth – the Future of Space Exploration at the American Natural History Museum”

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Hidden Mickeys on the Disney Cruise

This is 3rd in a series of 3 posts about the Disney Wonder Cruise to the Mexican Riviera. Part 1 is an overview of the Disney cruise. Part 2 is a very in depth review of all aspects of Disney cruise ship life (kids’ clubs, food, pools, spa, staterooms, etc.)

While on board the Disney Wonder, we had fun trying to find Hidden Mickeys. I didn’t even look to see if there was any mention online until writing this post. Turns out there are a few Hidden Mickeys on the Disney Wonder (we even found 2 official ones, and one posted here – the stained glass). If you’re not familiar with Hidden Mickeys, they’re mouse shaped ears hidden in the design of things at Disney parks. If nothing else, it kept us entertained as we walked around.

The gingerbread house up for the holidays was teeming with them.

Lots of Mickeys on the gingerbread house. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

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Dead Sea Scrolls Major Discount Tickets

If you’re thinking of seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit (read our Dead Sea Scrolls with Kids review here), now’s the time to click “buy.” Groupon has a deal for through Sunday where you can get tickets for $10-15 each. You can see the list of Dead Sea Scrolls deals and discounts available daily here, but bottom line is you’re not going to get a ticket for less than $20 on a normal day, and here there are no additional fees. At the box office, Dead Sea tickets are $27 for adults and $19.50 for kids.

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Review: Disney Wonder Mexican Riviera Cruise – the Details – Part 2

As mentioned in yesterday’s post this part 2 in a 3-part series on the Disney Cruise. Read on for very extensive details about the cruise. Part 1 was an overview. Part 3 is special Hidden Mickey photos. Here I break the cruise into categories. If you’ve taken a Disney Cruise, please post about your experiences!

Glad we didn’t need one of these. Copyright Deborah Abrams Kaplan

Continue reading “Review: Disney Wonder Mexican Riviera Cruise – the Details – Part 2”

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Review: Disney Wonder Cruise to Mexican Riviera – part 1

When we returned from our Disney Cruise, our friends had a lot of questions, the main one being, “should we book one too?” The answer to that question is of course, individual. In this 3-part series on the Disney Cruise, I’ll give an overview (here), then go into specifics about the cruise (activities, food, kids’ club, entertainment, etc.). Part 3 is special Hidden Mickey photos.

The Disney Wonder – copyright deborah abrams kaplan

We had a fabulous time on our Disney cruise, and went with an extended family group on the Disney Wonder. Our 7 night cruise was the Mexican Riviera itinerary, going into and out of Los Angeles, with port calls in Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta (the Mazatlan stop was cancelled ahead of time due to violence there). Disney will add New York City as a starting/ending port, in 2012, which is the talk of everyone at school. They have will Canada and New England coast trips, as well as visiting the Bahamas and going to Disney World in Florida. This was our second cruise (the first was an Alaskan cruise when my daughter was a toddler, and Disney didn’t do Alaska then). Continue reading “Review: Disney Wonder Cruise to Mexican Riviera – part 1”

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