Everyone is Talking About The Ride

INDIVIDUAL TICKETS THROUGH 2011 ON SALE TODAY; GROUP TICKETS FOR 10 OR MORE AVAILABLE.

NEW YORK – March 31, 2011 – With steady increases in ridership and predictions for ongoing
growth in group and individual ticket sales, New York’s most unique entertainment experience,
THE RIDE, has announced a new seven-day-per-week schedule starting April 11 through the
end of 2011.  In addition, the number of weekly RIDEs will increase during New York City’s
tourist-heavy summer period and on holidays and holiday weekends throughout the year.
Since its debut last fall, THE RIDE has received significant critical acclaim and given thousands
of patrons front-row seats to the world’s most exciting street life and the city’s iconic vistas. THE
RIDE takes patrons on a 4.5-mile journey through midtown Manhattan on a 49-seat traveling
theater as a live show with dancers, singers, and other performers unfolds on the streets before
them. The funniest and most unpredictable interactions happen with everyday New Yorkers
passing by. THE RIDE starts and ends in Times Square at the New York Marriott Marquis.
THE RIDE’s custom vehicles are outfitted with stadium seating and state-of-the-art lighting and
sound. Seats face sideways so audience members look through floor-to-rooftop windows that
boast breathtaking city views and make the streets, crowds, and building façades feel like a
show just for them.  Onboard hosts guide THE RIDE, commenting on New York history and
sites, and interacting with everyday citizens and performers. THE RIDE was created by
Brooklyn-based entertainment entrepreneur Michael Counts and is directed by Daniel Goldstein.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with positive audience response and word-of-mouth, both
domestically and internationally,” says President and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Danforth.
“We are thrilled to expand the offering of New York’s hottest new experience. Now more people
can have their own front-row seat to the greatest city in the world.”
RIDE SCHEDULE
THE RIDE is a 75-minute experience that departs from the New York Marriott Marquis Times
Square, 1535 Broadway at 46th Street.   THE RIDE schedule for the remainder of 2011 is:

April 11 - May 1
Mon-Thu: 7p, 7:30p, 8:30p
Fri: 7p, 8p, 9p
Sat: 12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p, 7p, 8p, 9p
Sun: 12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p

May 2 - July 3 
Mon-Thu: 7p, 7:30p, 8p, 8:30p
Fri: 2p, 3p, 7p, 7:30p, 8p, 8:30p, 9p
Sat: 12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p, 7p, 7:30p, 8p,
8:30p, 9p, 10p
Sun: 12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p
July 5 – December 31
Mon-Thu: 7p, 7:30p, 8:30p
Fri: 7p, 8p, 9p 
Sat: 12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p, 7p, 8p, 9p
Sun: 12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4 

Additional RIDEs and special pricing applies
on holidays including Memorial Day, Fourth
of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving/Black
Friday, and Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. 
Complete schedule available at
www.experiencetheride.com.



TICKETS
Tickets for THE RIDE are $65 peak (Fri-Sun) and $59 off-peak (Mon-Thu), and are available
three ways:
• Online at experiencetheride.com;
• By phone at 866.299.9682; and
• In person at the box office at 1535 Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets (next to the
Broadway Baby store). Box office is open daily 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. 

Group discounts are available for ten or more.  Please call 212.244.2551 x155, or e-mail
groupsales@experiencetheride.com for details. VIP tickets and packages also are available.  


PRAISE FOR THE RIDE
• “Fasten your seatbelts and embrace the city.” – The New York Times
• “The actions of everyday New Yorkers are as funny as those of the performers.” –
Washington Post
• “Hilarious and amazing…I can’t imagine a better introduction to Manhattan.” – Connecticut
Post
• “THE RIDE is like no other...A multimedia spectacle.” – Dallas Morning News
• “Blurs the line between reality and fiction.” – New Jersey Star-Ledger
• “THE RIDE is one magic bus tour.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
• “Twelve-year-olds may be the toughest market for entertainers. THE RIDE passed the test
for my jaded, 12-going-on-25 daughter.” – TravellingMom.com


MEDIA CONTACTS
THE RIDE is open for media reviews.  Production photos and video b-roll are available. Contact
us for details.

John Michael Kennedy, Goodman Media International
212-576-2700 x 243 or jmkennedy@goodmanmedia.com

Régine Labossière, Goodman Media International
212-576-2700 x 229 or rlabossiere@goodmanmedia.com

Katherine Morrison, Goodman Media International
212-576-2700 x 238 or kmorrison@goodmanmedia.com

SUMMER SCHEDULE INCLUDES EXPANDED DAYTIME AND EVENING OPTIONS.

NEW YORK – March 31, 2011 – New York’s most unique entertainment experience, THE
RIDE, has announced a new seven-day-per-week schedule starting April 11 through the end of
2011.  In addition, the number of weekly RIDEs will increase during New York City’s tourist-
heavy summer period, and on holidays and holiday weekends throughout the year.
Since its debut last fall, THE RIDE has given thousands of audience members a front-row seat
to the world’s most exciting street life and the city’s iconic vistas. THE RIDE takes patrons on a
4.5-mile journey through midtown Manhattan on a 49-seat traveling theater as a live show with
dancers, singers, and other performers unfolds on the streets before them.  Often the funniest
and most unpredictable interactions happen with everyday New Yorkers who pass by. THE
RIDE starts and ends in Times Square at the New York Marriott Marquis.
THE RIDE’s custom vehicles are outfitted with stadium seating and state-of-the-art lighting and
sound. Seats face sideways so audience members look through floor-to-rooftop windows that
boast breathtaking city views and make the streets, crowds, and building façades feel like a
show designed just for them.  On-board hosts guide THE RIDE, commenting on New York’s
history and sites, and interacting with everyday citizens and performers. THE RIDE was created
by Brooklyn-based entertainment entrepreneur Michael Counts and is directed by Daniel
Goldstein.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the positive audience response, critical acclaim, and word-of-
mouth for THE RIDE in New York and around the world,” says President and Chief Executive
Officer Jonathan Danforth. “Now more people can have their very own front-row seat to the
greatest city in the world.”
RIDE SCHEDULE
THE RIDE is a 75-minute experience that departs from the New York Marriott Marquis Times
Square, 1535 Broadway at 46th Street.   THE RIDE schedule for 2011 is:

April 11 - May 1
Mon-Thu:  7p, 7:30p, 8:30p
Fri:  7p, 8p, 9p
Sat:  12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p, 7p, 8p, 9p
Sun:  12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p

May 2 - July 3 
Mon-Thu:  7p, 7:30p, 8p, 8:30p
Fri:  2p, 3p, 7p, 7:30p, 8p, 8:30p, 9p
Sat:  12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p, 7p, 7:30p, 8p,
8:30p, 9p, 10p
Sun:  12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p

July 5 – December 31
Mon-Thu:  7p, 7:30p, 8:30p
Fri:  7p, 8p, 9p 
Sat:  12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4p, 7p, 8p, 9p
Sun: 12n, 1p, 2p, 3p, 4 

Additional RIDEs and special pricing applies
on holidays including Memorial Day, July 4,
Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day/Black Friday,
and Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. 
Complete schedule available at
www.experiencetheride.com.


TICKETS
Tickets for THE RIDE are $65 peak (Fri-Sun) and $59 off-peak (Mon-Thu), and are available
three ways:
• Online at experiencetheride.com;
• By phone at 866.299.9682; and
• In person at the box office at 1535 Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets (next to the
Broadway Baby store). Box office is open daily 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. 

Group discounts are available for ten or more. Please call 212.244.2551 x155 or e-mail
groupsales@experiencetheride.com for details. VIP tickets and packages also are available.  


PRAISE FOR THE RIDE
• “Fasten your seatbelts and embrace the city.” – The New York Times
• “The actions of everyday New Yorkers are as funny as those of the performers.” –
Washington Post
• “Hilarious and amazing…I can’t imagine a better introduction to Manhattan.” – Connecticut Post
• “THE RIDE is like no other...A multimedia spectacle.” – Dallas Morning News
• “Blurs the line between reality and fiction.” – New Jersey Star-Ledger
• “THE RIDE is one magic bus tour.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
• “Twelve-year-olds may be the toughest market for entertainers. THE RIDE passed the test
for my jaded, 12-going-on-25 daughter.” – TravellingMom.com


MEDIA CONTACTS
THE RIDE is open for media reviews.  Production photos and video b-roll are available. Contact
us for details.

John Michael Kennedy, Goodman Media International
212-576-2700 x 243 or jmkennedy@goodmanmedia.com

Régine Labossière, Goodman Media International
212-576-2700 x 229 or rlabossiere@goodmanmedia.com

Katherine Morrison, Goodman Media International
212-576-2700 x 238 or kmorrison@goodmanmedia.com

THE ROTARY CLUB

New York in all its vertiginous splendour can be a pain in the neck. Save yourself a trip to the chiropractor by taking to the air and surveying its imperious skyline from above.

Helicopter Flight Services, operating out of Downtown Manhattan Heliport at the foot of the island, offers a range of tours. The whole process is pleasantly infantilising: you are led out in single file, strapped into an adapted seat and spend the next 15 minutes saucer-eyed and gurgling in astonishment.

Bag "shotgun" if you can. The best views are up front and you can also stare at the dials in bewilderment. Our airborne loop took in Brooklyn, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the immigration station through which the forebears of an estimated third of all Americans alive today passed.

This was followed by a Hudson River-hugging spin up to Midtown, its skyscraper cluster still dominated by the octogenarian art deco icons of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building.

It was then back to Lower Manhattan, Trinity Church's elegant spire visible deep amid the canyons of the Financial District. Through ear protectors the pilot provides a robotic commentary.

For all their unwavering professionalism you sense these guys would probably rather be flying Black Hawk missions over Afghanistan. The almost apologetic "yee-ha" as our gentle descent ended in an imperceptible touchdown nearly brought a tear to the eye.

TAKEN FOR A RIDE
National Express meets Knight Rider, pioneering bus tour The Ride casts passenger as both spectator and spectacle. The tiered lateral seating faces a glass side and roof, offering an uninterrupted perspective of Manhattan's dazzling streets and skyline.

Glass is two-way, meaning you're also on show, never more so than during the New York, New York singalong finale piped out to all and sundry. You'll kick yourself but you'll join in. It's that sort of jaunt.

Most of the laughs, however, are at the expense of those thronging the sidewalks. In this you are assisted by actors who mingle with the unwitting crowds at various spots such as Times Square and Carnegie Hall along the 4.2-mile, 85-minute route.

Through concealed headphones and microphones they interact with The Ride's vivacious hosts "Scott" and "Jackie" and perform to music only those on board can hear.
The freestyle rapper, mocking bemused passers-by with splitsecond improvisation, is worth the fare alone.

Considering the tour is at the mercy of one of the world's least predictable traffic systems, it is impressively seamless while the self-deprecatory tone (ironic graphics put the boot into everything from the city's ramshackle Subway system to the dubious gastronomy of its food carts) is a welcome antidote to that occasionally wearing Big Apple exuberance.

The Ride (experiencetheride.com) offers tickets from £40pp (Thursday to Sunday).

ON FOOT PATROL
The name New York's Finest Walking Tours is not a measure of founder Paul Murphy's self-regard.

Rather it's a play on the sobriquet of his former employer, the NYPD.

Modest and erudite, Paul is the antithesis of the brash New York cop stereotype perpetuated by countless movies, and much the better guide for it. Historical titbits are augmented by a contemporary insight drawn from two decades on the beat. "It was like shooting fish in a barrel, " he said ruefully of the regular drugs busts he once performed in Washington Square Park, our starting point.

The atmosphere in this hub of Greenwich Village is still nonconformist, though less illicitly so. Our amble through its snow-drooped maples and elms was accompanied by the sounds of a piano prodigy busking beneath the park's robust white arch.

A few streets on we came to the Stonewall Inn, rows of rainbow flags fluttering above its neon sign.

In 1969, a transvestite enraged by years of police-sponsored extortion attacked an officer here with his high heel. The agenda-changing riots this act sparked cemented the bar's status as the spiritual home of gay rights.

Our walk took in New York's thinnest house, 75½ Bedford Street (didn't stop it fetching £2.3million), Arthur's Tavern, the jazz bar where saxophonist Charlie Parker served his apprenticeship, and the White Horse Tavern, from which Dylan Thomas purportedly stumbled before uttering his immortal last words: "I've had 18 straight whiskies. I think that's the record."

Conversation was just as meandering, touching on everything from the Mafia to the arrest of a naked German in a bank.

"When I joined the force in the Eighties the homicide rate was 2,000 a year, " Paul said over a farewell coffee in a Greenwich diner. "Today New York is officially the safest big city in the US."

Like his tours, a job well done.

 

SPOKES AND MIRRORS

You'd be nuts to saddle up in New York, right? Wrong. Green-hued mayor Michael Bloomberg is on a mission to introduce two wheels to the city. Motorists are said to be exasperated by the bike lanes materialising all over Manhattan but if they're angry, they certainly don't take it out on you, the humble cyclist.

During my five-hour twilight tour I encountered not so much as an inflected syllable. Our tour guide Jesse, by contrast, was shouting at everything with four wheels or two feet to trumpet our presence: "This is New York. People only listen to yells."

This was a leisurely, engaging tour that took us from NoHo (north of Houston), to TriBeCa (triangle below Canal) and over to Dumbo (down under Manhattan Bridge overpass). Yes, you're nowhere in New York these days without an acronym.

Barring a short stretch adjacent to the security-lockdown United Nations building, a "greenway" cycle path flows around the entire perimeter of Manhattan.

We joined this by Pier 40, a former cargo depot converted into offshore sports fields, and freewheeled down to the Financial District, lit in a crepuscular glow.

Here our five-strong group warmed up with a cuppa at the Winter Garden, images of its shattered and splintered glass dome following the 9/11 atrocities still fresh in the mind.

From the observation platform inside, Jesse interpreted the bustling construction of Ground Zero, memorial pools filling the twin footprints of the obliterated World Trade Center.

The finale was a ride across Brooklyn Bridge with its twinkling arches, past the anodyne global headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses (no, we didn't knock) and back through Chinatown, its salivating aromas presaging a well-earned post-ride feast.

 

GETTING THERE:
Travelbag (0871 703 4240/travelbag.co.uk) offers three nights at the four-star Carlton Hotel, Madison Avenue from £489 (two sharing), room only. Price includes return flights from Heathrow to New York. For departures March 2011.

GroupTour Magazine online

By Exclusive Online Article

 

January 18, 2011

NEW YORK ­­­­— The Ride might be a slight misnomer because it portends something simple and unassuming.

The Ride appears to be anything but. It is a roadie-worthy ensemble marrying an off-Broadway production, city tour and reality television with the comfort of a motor coach.

“It’s all about providing entertainment while on tour,” said Lindsay Pitzer, vice president of operations/producer. “We want our audience to be able to interact with New York.”

The Ride provides its interactive approach through its  four 49-seat, $1.3 million retrofitted Prevost motorcoaches. The three-tier stadium-seating, glass-sided vehicle features 40 video screens with movie-quality sound and images.

In operations since October and currently operating Thursday through Sunday, The Ride made an appearance last week at the American Bus Association’s Marketplace 2011 in Philadelphia.

Based at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel, 1535 Broadway, The Ride takes its passengers on a 75-minute, 4.2-mile route that includes Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, Columbus Circle, Central Park and the Chrysler Building.

Created by Michael Counts, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based entertainment entrepreneur, The Ride's productions are directed by Daniel Goldstein and written by John Bobey. The Ride makes New York an at-large stage, using its on-board and on-street performers and augmenting them with the city’s kaleidoscope.

“It’s really part-Broadway, part-tour, part reality-TV,” Pitzer said.

That is discovered quickly upon riding The Ride.

LDV Inc., based in Burlington, Wis., turned the 13.5-by-40-by-8-foot buses into rolling theaters, with ramped-up sound any rock band would love.

It “gave us headaches” getting “an IMAX Theater’s worth of equipment into a rolling room the size of a studio apartment,” said sound designer Brett Jarvis.

He likens the results to Madison Square Garden’s Jumbotron, clearly evident when he turns up the thunderous tones to boom The Ride’s soundtrack.
Accompanying the theatrics are two hosts augmented by performers along the way.

The Ride seeks to share New York’s vibrancy along with its history. For instance, it recreates the iconic end-of-World War II scene from Times Square on Aug. 14, 1945. In the image, an unidentified sailor kisses a nurse (later identified as Edith Shain), captured for posterity by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt (with another view shot by a U.S. Navy photographer and published in The New York Times).

While the production is all about interaction on all fronts, improvisation and reality are the mainstays to providing unique experiences every time out. The immersive show is drama, comedy, documentary and reality all rolled into one.

“You can’t plan things entirely when you’re in New York,” Pitzer says.

The winter schedule, in effect through March 20, has rides at 7 and 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 7, 7:30 and 8 p.m. Fridays; noon, 2, 4, 7, 7:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; and noon, 2 and 4 p.m. Sundays.

The cost to ride is $65 per person, available online; by telephone at (866) 299-9682; or at the box office at the Marriott Marquis Hotel from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more by calling (212) 244-2551, ext. 155, or (866) 299-9682; or via e-mail at groupsales@experiencetheride.com.

The Ride is working on student-oriented offerings which it hopes to offer starting later this year, Pitzer said.

WashingtonPost.com

By Nancy Trejos

 

December 17, 2010

 

As the guy on the sidewalk ripped off his trousers to reveal "I (heart) New York" boxers, two women walking right past him never interrupted their conversation. No one seemed to care when he took off his wig, either.

I watched this scene unfold from a bus. But not just an ordinary New York bus. This bus was outfitted with 3,000 LED lights and three rows of stadium seats. This was "Experience: The Ride," a new theater production in which all of midtown Manhattan is the stage.

I didn't know what to expect as I boarded the bus at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square for the 41/2-mile, 75-minute ride. I settled into a front-row seat, facing the side of the bus that's transparent from floor to ceiling. Was this going to be a city tour? An improv show? Street theater? A silly way to spend an afternoon? The answer: all of the above.

More than a dozen performers were stationed at various points along our route to sing, dance, juggle or simply act goofy for our pleasure. I'd booked a 2 p.m. show on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and the streets were packed with shoppers and tourists. That's how you want to experience "The Ride," because the actions of everyday New Yorkers are just as funny as those of the performers.

Our tour guides were Jackie and Scott, graduates of New York University and Columbia University, respectively. (Turns out they were actors, but for a while there, Scott had me completely convinced that he had earned a degree in urban planning from Columbia.)

 

Our bus, "The Ride," was also a character. "His" voice boomed over a loudspeaker. He would occasionally scan people and objects and, in his deep voice, impart all sorts of random facts about them. ("Subject: New Yorker. Cost of purse: $2,500. Cash in purse: $7.52.")

With the Times Square jumbotron behind him, an actor wearing sparkly oversize 2011 glasses led us in a New Year's countdown. ("The Ride" will feature a holiday theme until Jan. 2). "Ma'am, can't I get a New Year's Eve kiss?" he asked a young woman when we got to 1. She declined, but other passersby were more willing to go along with the show.

On one street, three police officers broke into a dance and waved at us. In front of the Charmin Restrooms on Broadway, a woman wearing a plastic toilet seat costume around her waist started dancing with a man in a puffy purple jacket as he sang a rap song. Outside the Bank of America building, a man wearing silver pants and a silver hat joined Santa Claus in a tap dance.

Who was a performer and who was a spectator? It was hard to tell sometimes, especially in a city where a walking Elmo outside a Times Square store is not such a rarity.

Between scenes, Scott and Jackie threw out random New York facts. Did you know, for instance, that Santa Claus has ended the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade every year except for 1933, when he led the parade? Or that construction workers built the Chrysler Building four floors per week?

Scott and Jackie also tested our knowledge with the occasional "Quiz Show" break. The cost of renovating the ceiling of Grand Central Station was $75 million, "The Ride" told us. "What was covering the ceiling?" Scott asked.

 

 

Cleveland.com

By Susan Glaser

November 19, 2010

The Ride started prowling the Midtown neighborhood last month, giving passengers a terrific view of the city streets -- and the oddball characters who inhabit them.

We boarded the tricked-out bus (another bus!) at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. Three rows of stadium seats are oriented sideways, looking out toward the street through floor-to-ceiling windows. Our comical tour guides, Jackie and Scott, introduced us to the vehicle -- a talking, high-tech machine, which set out on an hour-and-a-half roam through town.

But this was no ordinary Gray Line roll: Dotting the route were more than a dozen paid performers, who put on mini-shows for Ride passengers, accompanied by music and video playing inside the bus:

• In Times Square, we witnessed a riled-up New Year's reveler counting down the days to 2011.

• On 42nd Street, a suited soft-shoe tapped out a scene from the musical that borrows the street's name.

• And outside Carnegie Hall, an aspiring opera singer belted out a few bars of Bizet.

The performers were terrific fun, but equally entertaining were everyday New Yorkers' unscripted reactions to these unexpected street scenes. A screaming rapper (also on 42nd Street) drew wide-eyed stares from passers-by; a pink-tutued ballerina on Columbus Circle garnered a more enthusiastic response from those seated nearby.

By the end of the ride, the show turned inside, with Ride passengers belting out a vigorous version of "New York, New York" to a growing Times Square audience on the sidewalk. Cheesy? Sure, but just try to keep quiet.

"You get a tour and a show," said fellow passenger Lucy Core of Queensland, Australia, making her first visit to New York. "I loved it."

Be warned: Tours are planned for 75 minutes, but ours ran nearly 30 minutes longer, thanks to traffic snarls and road closures (we were in town the weekend of the New York City Marathon). So you might not want to make dinner reservations immediately following your tour.

The guides filled in gaps between the 15 street performances with banter and New York trivia -- covering everything from the $75 million restoration of the ceiling at Grand Central Terminal to the gargoyles on the Chrysler Building, made out of old hubcaps.

But the conversation felt like little more than filler while we waited for more of the real deal, which was taking place outside, alongside all those iconic buildings.

Performer Ashley Harrell, who plays the singer at Carnegie Hall, said the ever-changing New York City landscape is what keeps the show so fresh.

"It's different every night," she said. "That's what makes it so interesting."

City Guide NY

By CG News Desk

November 18,2010

The city’s newest entertainment experience – THE RIDE – gets a seasonal update this month designed to give patrons a new perspective on New York City during the holidays. Starting Nov. 22, 2010, THE RIDE’s 4.5-mile journey through midtown Manhattan on a 49-seat travelling theater will incorporate Christmas-themed surprises, music, and performances into a critically acclaimed live show that unfolds on the streets.

“The streets of New York have the most beautiful holiday sights and sounds you’ve ever seen, and THE RIDE gives you a front-row seat to it all,” says President and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Danforth. “From holiday music and surprise Santa appearances to a Nutcracker-inspired dance in Columbus Circle, THE RIDE is the best way to experience the beauty and excitement of New York all season long.”

THE RIDE’s custom vehicles have stadium seats; riders face sideways to look through floor-to-rooftop windows that make the streets, crowds, and building façades feel like a show designed just for them.  On-board hosts lead audiences through midtown Manhattan, comment on the area’s history and sites, and incorporate performers along the route who entertain and interact with passengers. THE RIDE was created by Brooklyn-based entertainment entrepreneur Michael Counts, written by John Bobey, and directed by Daniel Goldstein.

App.com

By Bill Canacci

November  7, 20

10

Lots of New Jersey residents have taken a bus to Port Authority, and there are probably some who have taken a tour with visiting family and friends aboard one of those double-decker buses around Manhattan.

Part of the fun is seeing tourists and city residents react to the performers. On a recent trip, most were simply ignored, but there's no doubt that in the future, some will join in.

On board The Ride, perky "ride operatives" Scott and Jackie help pump up the crowd. They also "talk" to The Ride, who talks back in a computerized voice that sounds more like a kindler, gentler (and slightly wry) HAL 9000 than the computer on "Star Trek." The Ride is full of information about the city and its famous landmarks, and throughout the trip it provides fun facts about everything from Carnegie Hall to Grand Central Terminal. The high-tech Ride features more than 3,000 LED lights, 40 monitors and a sound system that can emulate everything from a subway to a night at Studio 54.

Tickets for The Ride are $65, $59 during nonpeak times. Is the 75-minute ride worth it? That depends. If you're familiar with the city, probably not. If you want to show your relative from Ohio around, perhaps.

Is it better than a Broadway show? No, unless we're talking about "Rock of Ages."

Probably the most annoying thing about the trip is the "Ride Wave." Think of it as slightly worse than the "wave" seen at every sports event since 1982. It quickly grows tiresome.

The Ride begins and ends in the heart of Times Square, near the Marriott Marquis (one of The Ride's partners). It is now running four times most weekday evenings, but will offer more rides on weekends beginning Oct. 29. A schedule of rides and more information is available by visiting www.experiencetheride.com

.

 

New Jersey Star Ledger

By Meredith Galante

October 29, 2010

The paparazzo snaps his camera at the purple glowing bus passing down 48th Street. Then he turns and photographs a man walking with his companion on the sidewalk.

The man becomes angered and attempts to throw a punch at the photographer, before his friend holds him back.

Was that part of the show? Or is that just New York?

It’s “Experience: The Ride,” a new “bus theater” production that provides insight into the city’s most famous landmarks, including the Empire State Building, the New York Public Library, Central Park and other attractions. This unusual-looking tour bus, decorated with 3,000 mood-enhancing LED lights, playfully claims it is a government experiment to document and research New Yorkers.

The Ride blurs the line between reality and fiction. Its gimmick is not always letting you know for sure if the ballet dancer with a thousand lights on her tutu, the street opera singer, the paparazzi and the dancing deliveryman are a part of the show.

“The intent was to put together a New York experience that is sort of a love letter to New Yorkers and to tourists,” said Jonathan Danforth, CEO and president of the Ride.

The interactive, 75-minute experience incorporates 40 video monitors on the bus and 15 street actors along a 4.2 mile route.

Scott and Jackie, the Ride co-hosts (played by different actors on different rides), provide fun facts along the way, but their flirty banter adds an unnecessary distraction to the experience.

The Ride itself becomes a character whose prerecorded voices talk to Scott, Jackie and the bus riders throughout the tour. It plays music, provides information on buildings it passes and predicts human behavior. The Ride inserts dry humor to counteract Scott and Jackie’s bubbly improvisation and, for extra laughs, shows live videos of passengers aboard.

Among the street actors seen during the tour, New Year’s Eve Guy provides the first comedic interaction, claiming he has been partying in Times Square since the turn of the millennium because he loves the holiday so much. With noisemakers and a party hat for the occasion, New Year’s Eve Guy runs up to people on the street, trying to celebrate. Most tourists reject his hugs, but that doesn’t stop him from partying.

Each ride provides a personalized experience for its passengers. The set of real people on the street varies, along with traffic and weather that alters the show.

Tourists and New Yorkers gaze at the bus, puzzled at the unusual sight. Passengers sit sideways, and people on the street can see them. Some take pictures, while others wave or try to be part of the show.

“People will walk away with an experience they had not had before that shows them new aspects and views of New York,” said Danforth. “And I hope it leaves them with a feeling of camaraderie with their fellow riders and the people on the streets of New York.”

During the show, real New York can get in the way of seeing certain performances. When a truck obscures the view, the Ride suggests honking or deploying a missile to destroy it. Street actors also have extended dance performances when the Ride is stuck at a red light.

When the Ride returns to its port at the Marriott Marquis, Scott and Jackie say their farewells to the riders with “New York, New York” playing in the background — a nice cap for an experience that offers patrons an opportunity “to be a part of it,” in the heart of “the city that doesn’t sleep.”

The Ride

Where: 46th Street and Broadway, New York; the box office is outside the Marriott Marquis hotel.

When: Rides are at 15-minute intervals, seven days a week. Hours vary, though rides usually start at noon Thursday-Sunday and at 7 p.m. Monday-Wednesday.

How much: $59 (non-peak) and $65 (peak). Call (646)289-5060 or visit experiencetheride.com.

Dallas Morning News

By Eunice Fried

October 24, 2010

NEW YORK CITY – The Ride is like no other ride. A bus with 3,000 LED lights and 49 stadium- style seats in three tiers facing one glassed side of the vehicle, it's a blinking, flashing, humming, talking multimedia spectacle. It debuted this month.

What it offers is a 4.2-mile, 75-minute trip through midtown Manhattan that is as much an entertainment extravaganza as it is a sightseeing tour. The live entertainment pops up along the streets of New York. The sightseeing centers on the city's landmarks – Broadway, Carnegie Hall, Central Park, Grand Central Station, among many others – and as we drive past each, we learn gems of information about it.

Who knew, for instance, that 17 percent of New York is devoted to parks and that the decoration on the setbacks of the famed art deco Chrysler Building was made of Chrysler radiator caps, car fenders and hood ornaments?

But what sets The Ride apart from all other tours are the dancers, singers, jugglers and actors along the way who break into their respective acts as The Ride passes.

Notice that serious, well-dressed businessman carrying a black umbrella and hurrying along the street? Look again as he suddenly throws himself into a wild tap dance. See the man on Sixth Avenue in sports jacket and hat? One pull, and off come his trousers while he continues to stroll up the streets in his underpants.

Watch the ballet dancers, she in a pink tutu and glistening bodice, twirl around the base of the Christopher Columbus statue at Columbus Circle while traffic screeches around them. Add a delivery man who suddenly drops his packages and breaks into an exhilarating hip-hop number, a man who buys three hotdogs from a street vendor and then juggles them, a not-very-promising soprano belting out an aria on 57th Street and other performers. The plenitude of talent proves that all the world – at least, all of midtown Manhattan – is a stage.

If some of the acts border on the eccentric, perhaps more eccentric is the nonreaction of New Yorkers passing these outsized, often outlandish performances and never noticing, never breaking step. True, two young women glanced back for a brief moment at the man who tore off his trousers. A couple of people noticed the hip-hopper as he hung upside down from a construction grid before flinging himself on the sidewalk and twisting himself into a pretzel.

A young mother pushing a carriage almost ran into the ballerina en pointe and never looked up. Completely oblivious to them, a street cleaner pushed his broom in front of two young performers dressed as ushers and doing a Broadway song and dance number. People walked around the tap dancer as he threw himself this way and that, as if he were just another sidewalk obstruction.

Don't get the impression that New Yorkers are jaded or indifferent. They did stop to look, stare and snap pictures – at the bus and us. As The Ride drove through Times Square toward the end of the trip, loudspeakers were turned on so that people outside could hear the passengers inside singing "New York, New York."

They stopped, they clapped, they snapped, they waved, they sang along. Who said New Yorkers are blasé?

 

Eunice Fried is a freelance writer in New York.

 

When you go

Getting aboard

The Ride leaves from the Marriot Marquis Hotel, 1535 Broadway, on the 46th Street side. It returns to the same location.

Tickets

The Ride box office is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. It's at the Marriot Marquis, ground level, outdoors, between 45th and 46th streets. Price: $65, peak (hours vary); $59, off peak. Children 10 and older are welcome; they pay the same price. To order by phone, call 1-866-299-9682. Website: www.experiencetheride.com

Times

 

•The first ride of the day is at 10 a.m.; the last ride leaves at 9:45 p.m. Participants should arrive 15 minutes before departure time.

•To get the most street reaction, or nonreaction, consider a ride between 2:30 and about 7:30. Most Broadway shows begin at 8 p.m., and until then, the sidewalks are jammed. After that, the crowds are less intense.

Details

•There are no restroom facilities and no eating or drinking on the bus.

•The Ride operates year-round and in all weather, except during the rare blizzard or hurricane.

New York Beacon

By Don Thomas

October 27,2010

Imagine taking a tour through New York City streets on a bus, not just any bus but one fully equipped with three rows of stadium seating allowing every seat the very same access and view?

Now, further imagine that the bus is loaded with high-tech, multimedia equipment akin to those provided at Radio City Music Hall or Madison Square Gardens. Three thousand LED lights, 40 video monitors linked to an amazing sound system and an IMAX theater compliment a 13 feet high 45 feet long vehicle enabling overhead view of yellow cabs, bicycles, tri-cycles, pedestrians, sidewalks, pavement and street scenes.

 

What if the imagination expands to find street  performers and actors in synchronized unison with comedic and historic details provided by onboard hosts on that spectacular mobile miracle? Undeniably, that imagination would be on track with a brand new tour experience which rolls into New York this week. It is called “The Ride.”

 

Unlike those blasé doubledecked bus tours which routinely guide tourists to sights of the city, this unique one-of-a-kind entertainment experience combines a multi-discipline production with real,  live actors and performers strategically positioned throughout the scenic Manhattan route.

“The streets of New York are the world’s biggest  stage and ‘The Ride’ is your front row seat, Jonathan Danforth, President & CEO said.

“It’s spectacular! It’s unique! I have never experienced anything like this before. I just don’t know how they are able to do it in the middle of all  the New York traffic,” a visitor from Kentucky said.

 

Surprises along the route are unpredictably New York. The hot dog vendor on the corner is likely to sell a few frankfurters on cue. Who could imagine that scenario? On any given ride a couple of ballet dancers could light up Columbus Circle while providing the kind of performance one would have to pay big bucks to enjoy at Lincoln Center.

 

That light-footed dancers could put on such a show in the round as traffic swirls around them; or that a courier would pause from delivering packages to break dance on a sidewalk; or that the sailor in his glee to celebrate the end of World War II kissed a New Yorker might still be in action these many years later is an inevitable sighting on each excursion.

 

And while the streets provide plenty to glare at,  there is also a skylight to peer up at the view of edifices that make up the skyline of the city. To witness the reaction of resident New Yorkers is nothing short of the stereotypical claim – they are unfazed.

 

Despite the unusual presentations, pedestrians and commuters appear oblivious to the street antics or the gigantic, moving theater. The marvel though becomes distinctive when tourists take a glimpse of the bus, the antics and the residents who scurry down the subway steps, hurrying home to the outer boroughs.

 

“The Ride” made its debut and may still be elusive to masses of tourists who visit the mid- town area. A stop on the perimeter of the Marriott Marquis Hotel is where a super-sized,  irregular bus awaits passengers eager to ride the stage coach through “The Big Apple.” The year- round Broadway/excursion merger will surely be one of the most sought-after attractions during the holiday season.

“ ‘The Ride’ is about experiencing the fabric of  New York through the eyes of talented and funny people who love the city and its history – many of whom have chosen to be life-long residents here,” Michael Counts, company founder stated.

 

“You cannot help exiting the bus without singing, humming or feeling the lyrics to the city’s anthem ‘I love New York,” a tourist from New Jersey said. Check out the experience by logging ontowww.experiencetheride.com [EDITOR’S NOTE: I had the pleasure of being among the first group of invited media persons and tourists from around the country to experience “The Ride.” Without any reservations what-so-ever, I can gladly state this is one of the most exciting new New York City attractions that should be experienced by the entire family, friends and visiting out- of-towners. -- Don Thomas, Entertainment Editor/New York Beacon]

New York Post

By Cindy Adams

October 14, 2010

Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride -- not of Paul Revere -- but of the new bus The Ride, which goes in the after noon.

Three new, custom-built, amped-up, rock-star-sized buses, the tallest allowed by federal law, are 13 feet high, 45 feet long, 8 feet wide, with three rows of stadium seating facing massive windows. Each costs $1.25 million, starts at the Marriot Marquis where they have a box office, chugs through the Theater District, has joking, singing male and female hosts, multimedia audio, video and wireless shtick plus street performers interacting on sidewalks.

NYC landmarks become backdrops as you see city dwellers, 3,000 food carts that charge $4 for kabobs and $5 for Rolaids, traffic, Grand Central, Times Square, 13,000 taxis around except when you need one. And there's traffic, Columbus Circle, Chrysler Building, cranky cops, positioned-curbside entertainers like a dancer with a cane, a replay of that WWII sailor kissing that girl, and traffic.

An IMAX theater's worth of equipment -- 3,000 LED lights, 40 video monitors emulating even subway sounds -- gets shoved into the size of a downtown studio apartment and gives you info: 3,328 apartments in one cockamamie neighborhood of Manhattan, Carnegie Hall began in 1891, Central Park's land is worth $528 billion today, and "You can always tell a tourist -- he's unarmed."

With the city a stage, our male host announced every flyspeck, horseflop, garlicky hotdog, panhandling bum between 59th and 42nd. You could almost smell the falafel. He used phrases like "Only in New York, kids, only in New York." He said he loves New York, New York's the world's greatest, nothing's like New York. Then I asked where in New York this kid was born and he said: "Alaska." Not my problem, but to him even Utah looks great.

To catch a ride, log onto experiencetheride.com. I know because for 90 minutes I schlepped around on it. The Ride is a sightseeing bus on steroids.

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