Top of the Rock

Since I’ve visited New York City quite a number of times in the past, there’s not a lot of tourist spots that I’m yet to actually do. One of the newer places that opened up last year was the viewing platform at the Rockefeller Center. Called Top of the Rock, it’s an impressive multi level viewing platform that seems like it will hold a huge capacity of people. If anything, I’m impressed by the ticketing and lining system – you can either book times online, or buy them in person (with the latter, it’s more likely you’ll have to buy for a later session) and then you go up whenever it’s close to your session.

Sunset at Top of the Rock

You have to queue again to get into the elevator but the waiting theatre has some interesting mini-clips about the building and its surroundings and you it cycles so you don’t see the same clip twice. When you actually step into the elevator, lights and music play as if you’re about to jump on a ride but at least it makes the trip go faster. When you finally get the top, you have three viewing platforms you can choose from, and amazingly you get almost uninhibited views of all over Manhattan since they use plexi-glass like barriers to block people instead of metal bars. You can stay up as long as you like but we decided to go just before dusk so we got to see everything with the sun and then after sunset with all the lights of Manhattan lit up.