Nine months ago my son's theatre troupe started raising money and making plans for an educational and fun trip to New York City. We had big plans and a small budget, but were blessed with an enthusiastic group of parents determined to make it happen. Flight arrangements were made and paid for, and research into Broadway shows, hotels, and educational opportunities were in progress, although progressing slowly. Then in January, one member of the parent group heard about an organization called Learning On Location.

Act 1 - Pre-production

Act 1, Scene 1: Enticement
Learning On Location seemed like the answer to a prayer! Based in Salt Lake City, they're a tour/travel company who specializes in educational group tours. They offer tours focusing in Theatre, Science, and American Heritage. Their Theatre tours take place in London, Los Angeles or New York, which worked well with our plans.

The folks at Learning On Location worked with our travel agent to transfer the airline tickets to them, so that they could roll everything into a package for us. We negotiated Broadway shows and seating, educational seminars, sight seeing and hotel options, and they created a package for us that seemed perfect. It even included tickets for "The Lion King," one show our group was hoping to see but had been told was impossible to get tickets for! Our overall cost per person was going to be more than we had hoped, but the package included benefits we had never thought of, like a full-time tour guide, subway passes, and breakfast vouchers.

Act 1, Scene 2: Letting Out More Line
We were informed by Learning On Location that they had a block of fifty tickets for The Lion King. Since our group numbered only 44, if we had any friends or relatives who might want to purchase the extra tickets, we could do so at a reduced price. One member of our group took advantage of this, purchasing a ticket for her best childhood friend who happened to live in New York, and the parents of one of the children in the group, who were traveling to New York with us, but not as part of the group, purchased two of them.

Act 1, Scene 3: Dress Rehearsal
One week before the trip our group met to go over the itineraries, behavior expectations, and rooming assignments. Each member of the group received a glitzy Learning On Location "Passport" folder which contained a pre-printed luggage tag with the individual, group and travel agency names, the detailed daily itineraries, and a New York City map. We were impressed, except that four or five of the individual names were spelled incorrectly.

Act 2 - Live on Broadway

Act 2, Scene 1: The Airport
We assembled at the appointed time in the Greensboro airport where we were met by our first and second surprises (disappointments). First, the flight we were scheduled to take, direct from Greensboro to NYC on USAir, had been cancelled early in the year. We were now scheduled for a later flight, which included a stop and plane change in Charlotte, and would be arriving in NYC three hours later than scheduled. Although Learning On Location had been notified by USAir, our group was not notified, our itineraries showed the old flight information, and our first learning seminar of the trip was to begin an hour before our plane touched the ground in New York. Because of the change, our tickets had to be reissued, making the group check-in we had been promised impossible.

Act 2, Scene 2: The Tour Guide
We were met at the airport by Ray, our tour guide. He rode on the chartered bus with us from the airport to the hotel, telling us a bit (a very small bit) about his background on the way. Billed by Learning On Location as a working New York City actor, Ray had actually been in the city for 17 years, auditioning and trying to make a living as an actor, but was less than successful. As he told me a few days later when I asked about his acting credits, "If I had any kind of acting career I wouldn't be doing this."

Ray gave our group leader the tickets for our performance of The Lion King, then went into the hotel to get us checked-in. Check-in, fortunately, went more smoothly at the hotel than it had at the airport, however it still took more than 30 minutes. By the time we got our room keys we had only 20 minutes to get settled, cleaned-up and changed for dinner and the show. Learning On Location had insisted on formal attire for the show, making that 20 minutes a rushed, painful time for almost everyone.

Act 2, Scene 3: The Lion King!
Our seats for The Lion King were perfect, in the mezzanine but with a clear and relatively close view of the stage. But as the tickets were handed to us by our group leader, it became obvious that there was one less ticket than there should have been. Everyone checked their tickets, to make sure two were not stuck together, but the last ticket was not there. The leader of our community theatre had seen The Lion King earlier in the year, so he went off to another show. So far a refund for the shorted ticket has not been received.

Act 2, Scene 4: The Breakfast Vouchers
One of the extras Learning On Location suggested, and we agreed to, was breakfast vouchers. These vouchers would allow each group member to have breakfast in any one of the restaurants or deli's near the hotel, at not cost. It seemed like a perfect way to handle it, allowing everyone to have the breakfast that most appealed to them, and ensuring that the children would have one meal prepaid for them each day, minimizing the cash they would need to carry.

But in keeping with the theme set by Learning On Location back in the Greensboro airport the day before, the breakfast vouchers were not provided. Ray tried to find out what had happened to them - he had been unaware that we had paid for them - but they simply were not in New York. Learning On Location made arrangements with a nice little restaurant to accommodate us for breakfast, sending the bill to Learning On Location, but in doing so it forced us to travel to the restaurant each morning as a large group, at a predetermined (and early) time, and our breakfast selection was limited to two choices. The restaurant was great, with excellent food and service, but by the third morning we were all ready for something different. One member of the group who had been excited about the prospect of fresh fruit and bagels each morning was very upset about the change. And those of us who need a certain amount of sleep were upset about the early breakfast meetings.

Act 2, Scene 5: The Tour Guide - Reprise
Our tour guide, we had been told, would spend each day with us from breakfast time to dinner time, guiding us, providing helpful information along the way, and making suggestions for how to spend our free time.

Ray had other ideas. Ray met us each morning after breakfast and reminded us how important it is to stay together, and to stay on schedule. Then he told us the path we would be taking, the destination, and how long we had to get there. He walked with us, leading the way, from place to place, then told us what time we needed to get back together. Then he left, returning only when it was time to move on.

The day our itinerary called for us to see SoHo, Greenwich Village and Chinatown was the day Ray truly disappointed. One of the kids asked, "What is SoHo?" Ray's answer was that "it's just what this little part of Manhattan is called for some reason." Fortunately, our theatre's director had been a New Yorker, so he explained the origins of the name, the culture of the neighborhood, and how the neighborhood had changed over the years. When we arrived in SoHo Ray told us we'd be going from there to Little Italy then to Chinatown, then we'd be on our own for the rest of the day.

"What about Greenwich Village?" we asked. It was on our itinerary and one part of town that many of us were anxious to explore. Ray said it was too far, was no longer a "happening place," and we wouldn't be missing anything. We had planned before leaving Greensboro to have lunch at Katz's Deli, near the Village, and were disappointed with Ray's answer. He took offense when we told him that was what we wanted to do, so he suggested the group split into two groups so that he could do the walking tour his way and those who didn't want to could go to Greenwich Village. We did split into two groups and the group that went to Katz's Deli had the more enjoyable afternoon.

Ray was not a real charmer.

Act 2, Scene 6: The Music Man!
When our itinerary was first set, in January, we were scheduled for the Friday night performance of The Lion King and the Saturday matinee performance of The Music Man. That was perfect for us, with so many young children in the group. Two weeks before the trip we were advised that we had been moved to an evening performance of The Music Man. No reason was given, of course, and those members of our group who had purchased tickets for shows that evening, which was to be free time, were simply out of luck (and out their money).

When we got to the theatre, up the stairs to the mezzanine, the usher looked at our tickets then pointed toward the North Star (or it might have been Orion). Our seats were in the last two rows of the theatre! Our group was spread out, in small bunches, from one side of the house to the other. It turns out that Learning On Location had not purchased the tickets in January for the matinee, as planned, but had waited until the last few weeks prior to the trip. Matinee tickets were no longer available and the two back rows were all they could get for our group on short notice.

We were not a happy group, especially when more than half of the children fell asleep and stayed that way during the show.

Act 3 - The Critics Speak

We had a good trip to New York City and the kids learned a lot. Most of the good parts, however, were the parts when Ray the Tour guide was not with us, when we were free to break into smaller groups and explore and discover the parts of Manhattan that appealed to us. We found traveling as part of a large group, keeping to a rigid schedule, and seeing the sights that Ray deemed worth seeing to be annoying, uninformative, and unpleasant. Perhaps it is the nature of a prepackaged tour, or traveling with such a large group, but none of us think we'll want to do it again.

One high point of the trip, especially for the kids, was a Question and Answer session with a working Broadway actor. Michael Duran, who is performing in The Music Man, was the speaker at the "Broadway Masters Class" we attended. It wasn't quite the format we expected, based on the information Learning On Location provided, but it was a good session. He was gracious and direct, answering every question the kids threw at him, and he gave advice (like "get a college education before you come to Broadway" and "if you're going to dance, you have to take ballet; it's the foundation of all other dance.") that the parents loved. I'm not sure how we would have gone about setting this session up without Learning On Location. But we all know enough now, and have enough contacts, that if we ever took this trip again we'd be able to do it on our own.

Learning On Location has a website (www.learningonlocation.com) which I visited after returning from our trip. Their "current" listing of shows on and off Broadway is seriously out of date. They show Annie Get Your Gun starring Cherly Ladd. But Reba McIntyre has been starring in it since Bernadette Peters left the role, and now Reba has been replaced (or will be in a few more weeks) by Chrystal Bernard. It still lists Craig Bierko as the male lead in The Music Man, but Eric McCormack took over the role in early May. One can only wonder how much other information on the site is incorrect.

Act 4 - It's A Wrap!

Ray got us back to the airport, via chartered bus, almost two hours before our flight. (We think he was anxious to be rid of us!) We had a leisurely lunch, started to unwind from all the chaos and walking of the previous four days, then boarded the plane that took us directly home to Greensboro.

No one was injured or lost in New York, two fears that parents who didn't go on the trip expressed, and only one child had brought less money than was needed. Other parents on the trip made sure she didn't miss any meals. Learning On Location's recommendation of $25.00 per day for food was unreasonably low when our lunch and dinner choices were limited to those able to accommodate a large group, and the requirement that we all stay together really forced the issue. No one really had the meals they wanted - it seemed we were always forced into a generic restaurant (one we could find at home) with high prices and generic food choices. Although we didn't go there to eat, it was disappointing to be unable to enjoy New York pizza, purchased for just a few dollars in a small pizza shop. That was the type of dining we had expected and wanted.

Curtain Call

We offer a standing ovation for the following:

*** The excellent folks and food at Georgio's Country Grill (803 9th Ave. at 9th Ave. and West 53rd Street), our substitute for breakfast vouchers.

*** Michael Duran and his informative Q&A session with the kids

*** Our theatre director's performance as a tour guide, excellent, informative, and entertaining. Too bad Ray wasn't taking notes. (And I hope our standing ovation makes up for him missing The Lion King!)

*** The Lion King and our close, comfortable seats in the New Amsterdam Theatre that helped us really feel a part of this beautiful, magical, larger than life production.

*** The food at Katz's Deli A review is in the works and it's all good.

*** The kind New Yorkers who were pleasant and helpful when we obvious tourists were lost. The coldness/rudeness we had been told to expect were never experienced. New Yorkers, we learned, are friendly people. They're in a bigger hurry than we are down here, but they're polite and helpful when asked.

As professional theatre lovers, we'd never boo a bad performance. But if we did, we'd offer loud, rude boos for:

--- Ray the tour guide, who didn't like kids, didn't tell this group of 44 tourists anything about what they were seeing and where they were going, and who provided no helpful information.

--- Learning On Location for dropping more balls than they kept in the air: The missing Lion King ticket, the lousy seats for The Music Man, the unreported flight change, the learning session that was missed because of the flight change (and which couldn't be rescheduled because it was a holiday weekend), the missing breakfast vouchers, and a tour guide who had no interest in following the itinerary.

Taking a group to New York City? Are you "Broadway Bound?" Call travel agents, call theatres, call hotels, call airlines. Make contact with actor's groups and get information on classes and seminars that are available. Don't waste your money on a Learning On Location package; I'm certain you could do better on your own. The only catch is getting those Lion King tickets. They're sold out for a year or more in advance, so getting them through a travel agent or a ticket broker might be your only option.

Perhaps the worst option you could take would be to sign on with Learning On Location. Don't let the web site and their literature fool you. They're not nearly as smooth and polished as they appear from a distance.



Recommended: No