Rockefeller Center, New York City

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I think it was about $17 per person, but it was money well spent. You climb out of the lift at the top of the Rockefeller tower and the view takes your breath away, not much else I can say ! several levels, go right up the last set of stairs to the very top, no glass shields so better view and photos.

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Now that you're in the huge Rockefeller Complex,the NBC Studio Tour is a great choice. You'll learn about the history of NBC, as well as have a chance to see the studios used for several shows, including Saturday Night Live, Nightly News with Brian Williams and NBC Sports. The historic GE Building houses the headquarters of the NBC television network, its parent General Electric, and its local owned & operated television station, WNBC (Channel 4). The first NBC Radio City Studios began operating in the early 1930s, and tours of the studios began in 1933.

NBC Studios Tour Hours: 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Monday - Saturday and 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. on Sundays; tours leave every 30 minutes on weekdays, every 15 minutes on weekends
NBC Studios Tour Cost: Adults $18.50, Children (6-16) $15.50, Seniors $15.50, Groups (5 or more) $15.50

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Radio City Hall is one of the landmarks in the Avenue of the Americas area of midtwon Manhattan. Radio City Music Hall is one of the first tenants of the huge rockefeller complex was a project of Rockefeller, Samuel Roxy Rothafel and RCA chairman David Sarnoff. RCA had developed numerous studios for NBC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just to the south of the Music Hall, and the radio-TV complex that lent the Music Hall its name is still known as the NBC Radio City Studios (of which i have a separate things to do tips). Radio City has 5,933 seats for spectators; it became the largest movie theater in the world at the time of its opening. Designed by Edward Durell Stone, the interior of the theater, by Donald Deskey, incorporates glass, aluminum, chrome, and geometric ornamentation.

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Rockefeller Center was named after John D. Rockefeller Jr. since I went here for a revisit and took more pictures, I will have more tips here at the huge complex and the top of the rock above. It is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres. Located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1988. It is the largest privately held complex of its kind in the world, and an international symbol of modernist architectural style blended with capitalism.

Always filled with people, Rockefeller Center stretches for blocks. There is plenty to do here: in winter an outdoor cafe is transformed into an ice-skating rink, and there is a shopping plaza with stores, restaurants and bars. The GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza houses NBC, which offers guided tours of its premises, as well as the Top Of The Rock observation deck.

Rockefeller Center at first appears to be a mere shopping area nestled into the heart of Manhattan but the man its named after is perhaps the most famous man of the United States' most intriguing period. Though originally envisioned by none other than John D. Rockefeller himself as the site of an Opera House for the Metropolitan Opera, the Great Depression that ensued after the stock market crash of 1929 caused him to change his plans. By keeping the breadth of the endeavor great but changing it course to a more commercial one, he single-handedly financed the biggest private building project of the modern era and thus entrenched himself in the American psyche forever. When times were at their roughest, J.D. Rockefeller gave the people of the US something to hang onto. This is most eloquently captured in the famed photos of US steelworkers sitting on beams hundreds of feet above New York City when they might otherwise been out of work. Their smiles and high perch a symbol of American optimism and determination against all odds.

Rockefeller Center always has it charms but the only visit that really matters is one at Christmas when the the whole area takes on a Miracle on 34th Street surrealism. After living in the area for many years, I finally got to experience this magical time. It's well worth braving the cold and crowds.

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One of the things I like doing when I visit a new city is take pictures and look at places from above. For me to do this in NYC, I chose Top of the Rock because:

1) you can include the Empire State Building in your pictures
2) there was barely a line of people to buy tickets (like 3 or 4 people in front of me)
3) it was close to my hostel (hehe).

Top of the Rock isn't as high as the Empire State but it offers great views of the city that never sleeps from the 70-story observation decks. You can buy a booklet, for 2 US (Jan 2010), including all the landmarks that you can see from here.

After buying the ticket, there's 3 short films that you can see while waiting to take the elevator (if there's a line, if not you can skip this). You'll then take the elevator to the first stop at the 6tth floor, that has an indoor observation deck and the Swarowski store. The top panel of the elevator is glass and as you go up, there's a small light show that reminded me of being teletransported or taken out of Stargate.

There's 2 outdoor observation decks on the 69th and 70th floor.

As of Jan 2010, a ticket for an adult cost 21 US. One good thing about the tickets for TotR is that they're timed, so you choose a date and time slot that suits you if you buy your ticket online.

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At the 69th floor, there's a room that provides a light show called the Breezeway and it uses motion detectors to follow you wherever you go inside that room. You get a randomly selected color that can be blue, red or green. Sometimes you'd get one color, sometimes 2 or all 3, and the shapes go between a cross, a column or row or a whole wall.

Here's a short video of VT'er VZ-Pam and I "dancing" in the Breezeway (on VT pcg821's NYC page).

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I've seen it on TV and in movies countless times before, but watching the people ice skate in Rockefeller Center was mesmerizing for me. I know there were places to rent skates, but I didn't venture down to see how much. I'm spastic enough and didn't need to break my butt on the ice in public. Still, it was lots of fun to drink my hot cocoa from Dean and Deluca and watch the others.