I’ve spent a great deal of my life in NYC. My parents work together in the city and I would spend my summers traveling in with them to answer phones and play secretary for their company. After work everyday, my mother and I would go on adventures through the city and do all sorts of things. I’ve walked every street in Manhattan, seen Broadway shows, cheered at parades and walked through the museums. But what haven’t I done? Ventured into the Empire State Building, the very symbol of New York! When I realized that it was one of the few important places I haven’t visited in NYC, I decided to take action and buy tickets for my boyfriend and I to go.

Online tickets range from about $22.00 to $55.00 dollars for adults (ages 13-61) depending two factors. Firstly, there are two floors, the 86^th and 102^nd floor. You can see just the 86^th floor for about $22.00 a person or bump up the price to $37.00 and see both floors. The second factor is the choice of waiting in line or buying express pass tickets that include both floors and allows you to cut the expected long lines for $55.00. Being a paranoid individual, and fearful that long lines would ruin the experience, I opt for the $55.00 tickets and decided to make them my Valentine’s Day present for my boyfriend.

The night of Valentine’s Day came and after dinner in a small Mediterranean restaurant in lower Manhattan (if you’re in the mood for Mediterranean, a closer option to the Empire State building for you could be Ole Kebab), I forced my boyfriend in a cab and told the driver “33^rd and 5^th please!” it was already 11:45 PM but since the Empire State Building’s Observatories closes at 2:00 AM (last elevator ride up is at 1:15 AM but you can stay till 2:00) we had plenty of time. When we got there the building was quiet and only had a few wanderers around. The man behind the front desk told us to take the escalator up the stairs and follow the signs. We went up and followed a maze of hallways! It was a long walk where it seemed lines would have formed. We got the front of the line immediately (express passes are definitely not necessary for late night visits!) and after walking through a metal detector, made it to the first elevator. Up to the 86^th floor we went! When we got there, it was unbelievable. From up there you can see EVERYTHING. Even Brooklyn! All the lights reminded me of when you’re on a plane overlooking a city at night and everyone is fighting to look out the plane’s windows to see the city. It was magical and because it was Valentine’s Day, it was very romantic. There were only couples around us—which I’m sure isn’t normally the case. We ventured outside and because it was mid-February the wind was furious. As we turned the corners the wind would come from a different direction and we would scream and laugh and huddle together to fight against it as a unit. Then we went to the 102^nd floor where it was amazing but there was no outside to go to so it wasn’t the same as looking out from the 86^th floor. So as a struggling student without money to throw around, go experience the empire state building; just learn from my mistakes. Make sure to go at night when the tourist crowds have dispersed so you won’t need an express pass and if you’re really tight on money seeing just the 86^th floor for a special occasion is worth the $20.00 on its own.

Jackie Aqel

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Out On The Town. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.