This was a last minute decision as we didn't expect to be in the area. The line at the box office was pretty long, so we just bought tickets online instead. I don't think I was prepared for just how much it cost. I would have gotten a discount if I had my NBC Universal employee id on me, but I didn't. However, even had I gotten the discount I'm not sure the price is worth it.
The pros...
- Elevator ride was kind of neat.
- The views are fantastic, from all three included floors
The cons...
- They take a digital picture of you or your group before you hop onto the elevator, which is kind of neat, but of course an added expense to the already expensive tickets. We didn't buy.
- The crowd. Even though there were many people up top, it was manageable on the first two levels. The third level (floor 70) was another story. It was packed full of people who were just camping out along the entire perimeter, blocking any chance of anyone else getting an unobstructed view of the surrounding city. Not a single person moved from their spot while we were up there. This was around 6:45 so it was the sunset experience. I'm guessing everyone was just waiting for that, even though the sun wasn't visible so the sky and lighting at the time wasn't even interesting. Seeing as we wouldn't get any photo ops, we descended back down. A shame really since that's the only area where there is no glass obstructing your picture taking.
Overall it was just an ok experience, hence my rating. I don't know how much the other area observation decks charge, but this seemed really expensive to me for what amounts to an elevator ride and the ability to occupy some space high up for a bit of time.
I don't think I'd recommend it. The view is great, getting to see upper Manhattan on one side and lower Manhattan and icons like the Empire State Building on the other. But they need to fix the blocked traffic on the top level. Don't let people just camp out for an unlimited amount of time. And just include the digital pictures with the tickets.