My first night there, I wanted to be back to my room by 10:00 (because I’m officially a little too much of a Castle fan-girl, and needed to see the season premiere). So, after reading recommendations that the Empire State Building was really neat after dark because you had great views of all the lights, and multiple people saying that had gone around 8:00, and there was no line, I decided this would be the thing to do to get me back to my hotel in time.
I was able to walk there, up Broadway and 5th Ave (have I mentioned how nice it is to be able to walk around a place at night, and feel safe?) And guess what. There was a queue. A fairly long one. But, we have a DVR at home, and I was there, so I waited.
The queue snakes through the second floor room before you get anywhere near the elevators. I’m pretty sure they do that so that anyone with a fear of heights is already completely motion sick by the time they anywhere near the elevators, and therefore won’t care about the heights. And I’m really not sure why the line took so freaking long to get through. But, we finally found ourselves at the 80th floor, with six more floors to go, and a half hour wait for those elevators. Fortunately, they opened the emergency stairs, and you could climb the six floors if you wished. So much faster than waiting for the elevator, and it was kind of cool to see the guts of the building.
The views were indeed amazing, but the crowd was a little irritating. I really don’t feel like I stayed up there long enough for the $25 I paid, but it was a really neat view, and a very NYC tourist experience. (And I got back to my room with four minutes to spare, so that worked out well in the end.)