Empire State Building

Having visited NY twice previously and used other viewing platforms to see the Empire State Building, with the new glass viewing platform on 102nd floor we thought it worth a whirl.
My main complaint is the lack of supervision when queuing to go from the 88th floor to the 102nd floor using the elevator. There were numerous adults skipping the line (queue). There were many families with young children, standing inline patiently, however several couples just walked to the front. They were never confronted by staff. If there was more staff supervising this could be managed better and the problem be eliminated. My group (4) and others felt frustrated and annoyed. This made the trip
It cost almost $90 to go to both viewing platforms, its just not good value for money.

The check in was relatively fast, there was not a line because the visibility was low that night. There were many workers but it seemed like we were an annoyance asking for help when the ticket reader wasn’t working and letting us through. The lady yelled over to me “scan it to go through” and I said it’s not working and she rolled her eyes and said scan it. I asked if someone could come help us because it wasn’t working. We paid extra for skip the line and the “red carpet” and were not treated very kindly at all. The view from the top was pretty great but trying to get up there was extremely frustrating and made us want to immediately leave. When you pay over $200 to look off a tall building you at least want the staff to be helpful when their scanner isn’t working. Made us not ever want to come back and be really irritated at the money we spent.

First off, we did not see the advantage of paying more for a "avoid the line" ticket. The Red Carpet does not extend throughout entire tour.
My husband and I wanted to experience the Observation Deck of many favorite movie locations for ourselves, so together with another couple we purchased $40.00 tickets online for a Thursday afternoon just after New Years. We did expect some wait and we also expected a smooth experience. It was a smooth experience for those with a LOT of patience. This is not an experience for young children. Once we got onto the first elevator to the 80th floor we waited to get a spot at one of the windows to catch a view. Then the unorganized (no designated/corded line) wait for the next elevator to the 86th floor observation deck where the magic of movies happened seemed to take forever! Again the volume of other tourists lined up around the deck (which appears MUCH wider in the movies) made the experience less than romantic. The staff was attentive once you got close to the elevators and exits.
So our bucket list item was checkedglad that's over!

We went on a Sunday and surprisingly there was NO line. I heard you can stand in line for 45mins to an hour. Staff are very helpful. Tickets was $45 each. If you plan to visit NYC and want to do more than 3 attractions, I recommend purchasing the city pass. you'll save money that way. The security process is kinda like the airports TSA. Basically everything off onto the bin, only thing is you can keep your shoes on. NO Glass bottles are allowed. You'll walk through the exhibit with lots of displays for you to take photos, read and watch. Then you'll proceed to the elevator which take you up to the 80th floor. While in the elevator it'll show you a small imax video of the process of building the empire. On the 80th floor you get the view of the entire city. You have an option to go outside for a better view too. They do have heated lamps all around to keep you warm during winter. To go up to the highest floor 102. its an additional cost. For me 80th was good enough. I'm sure its the same view. The experience was ok. I wouldn't pay to go again. Not worth the money.

When booking tickets for the Empire State Building I upgraded to the VIP package which included the express line and access to the 102 floor. Always a risk as you don’t know how busy it will be but luckily on this occasion the queues were huge and the risk paid off. Fantastic views from the top, we were lucky as we had a clear day. Also worth seeing it during the evening, New York looks stunning lit up. All in all a wonderful experience.

The Empire State is absolutely the most iconic representation of New York. I know for others it will be the Statue of Liberty, Central Park or even Times Square, however, for me it's the Empire. We had to wait a number of days before our visit due to bad weather. When the weather was clear enough to promise great views our family, and many others, queued for our visit. Despite being quite busy we flowed through the exhibition areas, security and the ticket area. The staff were friendly and courteous.

One glitch in the matrix was that to go to the top of the attraction you had to pay more money. Not something a family want to hear for an already squeezed holiday budget. We paid for our visit using a city pass so potentially missed out on the ticket options that would have informed us of the extra charge.

Like most attractions in US Airport security screening applies, which in this day and age should be a comfort to all despite the additional time it takes to process through same.
Once through security things moved fairly seamlessly with the opportunity to browse in the pictorial and video gallery or to proceed directly to the lifts to the 80th floor. Lift very smooth and you would hardly know you were moving. Good picture ops on 80th floor through windows however you can go up to 86th floor by lift or stairs and that floor is open to the elements with possibly better picture ops but fairly chilly with wind chill when we visited in early January. It was possible to go up to 102nd floor but I think this required an additional ticket (and possibly additional payment). Overall a good experience and would recommend it .

The Empire State Building is as iconic as ever. We were there late afternoon on a gorgeous February afternoon over the winter break (ski week in California). Loved loved loved the upgrades and the view from 102nd floor was even better than the lower floors. I want to say it was worth the upgrade but wow! $77 per person?! We also went to the World Trade Center and paid $20 per person for a similar experience (although admittedly, I thought being outside made ESB a tad better).

One tip - we didn’t purchase skip the line or the priority tickets on the ESB website and didn’t need them at the time we went (around 3pm). Happily no lines.

The Empire State Building is a "must see" in NYC. We opted to go to the 102nd floor. We bought the express pass which was greatfor awhile. At first we really did get to bypass the lines, and it didn't take long at all for us to go to the 80th and 86th floor. However, once we got to the elevators to go on up to the 102nd floor there were some issues. My husband and I were standing in line to get on the elevator, and we should have been next. A gentleman walked up with 6 guests and told the guy working the elevator that they had express passes, and so they were put on the elevator in front of us, and we had to wait. uhhhhhh, we had express passes too, AND we were already in line. We found that very annoying, and when I said we had the pass, we were told that they were "taking care of everyone". Some other people had the express pass and asked about it, but they were told just to get in line because they were "taking care of everyone". So, it seems that while some employees honor the express passes, some others just take care of everyone regardless of the price you paid for the extra ticket.

Overall, we enjoyed the views and the experience.

We visited soon after the new exhibition has been set up on the 2nd floor. It’s brilliant! There are fantastic wall screens showing builders at work on the construction with rivets flying all over the place, displays showing the development of the site and there is even a massive King Kong hand that you can stand in and looked panicked while your loved ones take photos. But the exhibition is, of course, simply a way of keeping yourself busy before ascending to the Main Deck to take in the incredible view. The lifts up from the 2nd floor to the Main Deck are a work of art in their own right by the way. We used a CityPASS to visit. With the CityPASS you can go twice in a single day, but we didn’t have time to go twice so we went mid-afternoon and it wasn’t too busy. The discount you get from the CityPASS depends on how many other attractions you combine it with, but if you visit quite a few places you can make a decent saving on the normal price.