US East Coast Day 3: NYC: Rockefeller Center - Top of the Rock, Nintendo World Store, Colbert Report Taping, Times Square

On Jan. 14, 08 my friend and I headed out to the "Top of the Rock" observation deck on the top floors of the GE Building at Rockefeller Center.

The tickets for going up to the "Top of the Rock" were pretty expensive. One ticket per person was $17.50. The tickets were "timed" so you had to arrive at your scheduled time printed on the ticket. We bought our tickets online and printed them out (seems to be a recent trend in tourism now). We decided to go to the observation deck at Rockefeller Center versus going to the one at the Empire State Building because I had read reviews on Trip Advisor of how crowded the the observation deck at the Empire State building was. And besides wouldn't it be better to see the Empire State Building instead of being in it? (I had been to the Empire State Building when I was a kid but now have vague memories of it...)

January is a nice time to visit New York and other popular tourist cities, because there are almost no crowds. We almost had the whole observation deck to ourselves:

Model of Rockefeller Center at the lobby:

Photobucket


New York skyline:

Photobucket


North towards Central Park (its that big):

Photobucket

East looking towards Brooklyn:

Photobucket

South looking towards the Empire State Building and the Financial District:

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Rockefeller Center:



Photobucket

Photobucket

Picture of me taken from the NBC Store:

Photobucket

Skating rink in front of Rockefeller Center:

Photobucket

Photobucket



Photobucket



Photobucket

Nintendo World Store:

Photobucket

Some interesting displays inside the store:

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

FOX News Channel Building (2008 is an election year):

Photobucket

Near Rockefeller Center, the "Diamond District", a place where lots of diamond retailers are located, notice the diamond shaped street lamps:

Photobucket

The diner seen on "Seinfeld":

Photobucket

Further north is Columbia University (you can't even go inside the library because it requires a student ID). The library:

Photobucket

Radio City Music Hall at Rockefeller Center:

Photobucket

That day while we were walking around the Rockefeller Center plaza we met people handing out tickets for the Late Night with Conan O'Brian show taping. We were told to come back to Rockefeller Center at 3pm to line up to get the tickets. Usually to get tickets to tapings without reservations would require lining up very early but because there was a snowstorm up north in Connecticut lots of people cancelled which freed up seats.

When we came back at 3pm they gave us a line up number of 50. Based on previous experiences from my friend he said there was no way we would get in because they usually only let 20 people from stand by in. (We actually had reserved tickets to Conan O'Brian for the next day). While we were there we met other people who told us that the people in charge of the Colbert Report were also handing out tickets.

We decided to take out chances and went to the Colbert Report studios which was in the middle of nowhere between some commercial buildings.

The taping for the 30 min show took 4 hours. We entered waiting area where everyone was to be searched at 4pm. Entered the actual studio at 5pm and then his opening comic did his comedy routine for a long time, about 1.5 hours maybe. After the taping ended it was about 8 pm.

The unimpressive studio of the Colbert Report:

Photobucket

After that we decided to go to Times Square:

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

The Toys R Us at Times Square, there is even a ferris wheel inside:

Photobucket



Photobucket



Photobucket

Taking the subway back:

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

0 comments: