So I planned a surprise trip to New York for my husband and I for our anniversary and I had to break down and tell him today.  Our anniversary is not until the end of May and I wanted to wait until pretty close to time to surprise him. I told him for a couple of reasons - (1)  He started reading my blog the other night and didn't realize that I was so worried about us financially (2)  I wanted him to know NOW, that I planned this ages ago when we were a little better off financially!

I was super excited about it because I've always wanted to go see a Broadway show and so has he.  I've been to New York, but not since I was about 12 years old and I didn't see much of it - none of the big sites.  I wanted a chance to see a show, have a nice fancy dinner and hit a few tourist attractions like the Empire State Building, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, etc. Thankfully, he wasn't upset about it, in fact, he is happy we are going and excited also - WHEW - relief!

I actually got some fantastic deals on the flight, show tickets and hotel, and it is all paid for at this point.  We are going to a show called "Rock of Ages" at Brooks Atkinson Theatre and I got my tickets through Ticket Master since they had the best deals.  Great seats - front row middle in the Mezzanine.  The setting is Sunset Strip in 1987 and features rock music from that time period like, Journey, Bon Jovi, and Foreigner - this is right up our alley!  They have a live rock band on stage that I'm told is really rockin'.   Its looks like loads of fun and I can't wait!  I found an unbelievable deal on a hotel right in the middle of Times Square - The Hilton Garden Times Square.  Beautiful hotel, walking distance to everything including the theater, great rooms and the reviews are really good.  I booked through Expedia because it was cheaper than the actual hotel and all other sites I checked - then I searched for coupon codes. I always, always search for coupon codes when I purchase anything online.  I go to www.ebates.com first and see if they offer a kickback for going through them and I get 8% cash back.  Then I searched for dates around the time I wanted to go to New York.  The difference between these 3 days, and those 3 days was a whopping $150 PER NIGHT.  So, I went with a Monday through Wednesday, which gets a lower rate and less tourists!  Then I found a code for $50 off per night on the hotel room.  So when its all said and done, our $289 per night hotel room cost $79 per night - how is that for deal?!  So, off to book the flight.  I try to book through American Express whenever I can because I can use my reward points for money off travel.  I take full advantage of any card that will reward me with points - especially when it can be used for travel!.  I was happy to see that the flight was not very expensive anyway - but with my reward points, roundtrip for both of us was only $200 total.

I wish I could find such good deals on every vacation we plan.  Now I have to do some research on the cheapest tickets into the sites we want to see - which won't be that many.  I primarily want to take in the city, look around, etc.  Now, just have to worry about the money for a nice dinner - but I'll find a deal on that too!

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