It is so jam packed with people during the winter holiday season! I came here 3 times before I could actually get in at a reasonable time. Waiting at this time is over 2 hrs unless you want to pay extra and they will let you skip part of the lines. Most of the tour is waiting in a line...so if you like standing in lines on your visit to NYC go here, you can waste a lot of time:). When you are still in line they will corral you to a cheezy photo booth and peddle your photo to you after the tour for $20. The only thing I can remember from this lackluster attraction is the lines and Kevin Bacon's narration during the skyride. I had the New York pass, but otherwise everything would have cost $56 including the skyride. ah, everything was just not worth it. This is not the way to see NewYork.

The lighting of the building for such events as celebrating 60 years of communism is an event that should have never taken place. This is a world known building and it stands on ground that stands for FREEDOM. Let China light their buildings in China because they practice such a lifestyle. If the Chinese who live in America want to celebrate then they should do so in their country for we do not believe in such a lifestyle here in America. No one ask you to come here and you are free to leave.

* My husband and I both loved the view from the 86th floor. You can see so much from the top of the Empire State Building and we enjoyed getting the perspective of the city. We happened to be there on a day that had near-perfect weather, and since the view from the 86th floor is out-of-doors, around the building, it was great. * It was a waste of money to pay extra for the 102nd floor. It doesn't add anything and it's indoors through plexiglass. * We're happy we paid the extra for the audio tour, which is geared to 6 stop-points around the perimeter of the 86th floor. There are no stop points on the 102nd floor.) We found some of the audio to be excess blabber, giving details about the narrator's upbringing -- I guess that was supposed to add atmosphere but we found it uninteresting -- but the audio also gave good information on the views from all 4 sides. My husband and I paid for 2 audios, and that was good -- even though there aren't earphones, it would have been very hard to hear if we had shared one audio machine. * It was a big-time waste of money to buy the map. My husband and I went yesterday (Monday) at about Noon. I was brought up in NYC but was at the top of the Empire State Building only once, when on a class trip as a kid. I didn't remember it at all. We hadn't planned to go, but there we were in NYC looking at New Yorker Magazine to find out which museums had exhibits of interest, and it suddenly occurred to us to go. We're really glad we did. The lines didn't bother us -- actually from the time we entered the building to the time we left, it took about 2 hours, which didn't seem excessive for a popular tourist attraction. Part of the fun of it was that going was spontaneous for us rather than planned.

The lines never end! By the time you get to the top you wan't to kill yourself...

The employees were playful but only with each other. The were inattentive to their customers. Upon leaving one of them actually was upset that I walked with a cane and slowed down his line and when another employee said that was not cool he said why should I care I'll never see him again. So if you are disabled or injured bare in mind you are not welcome at the empire state building. Thanks for ruining a one in a lifetime experience. The Rock's observatory glass at the top instead of metal grates anyway so I would recommend going there instead.

There is a line for everything. Buying tickets, security, then you have to take multiple elevators, and a line for all of those... and when we went it wasn't as "busy" as usual. What upset me is that you are forced to stand in lines even if you don't want to buy something. For example, we didn't want to buy the headphones for the audio tour, yet we had to stand in line for it. There was no way around it. We didn't want to buy a map, but we were forced to stand in line for it. We didn't want to take pictures, but we had to stand in line for that as well. The man that is in charge of the pictures, is very-very rude. We waited in line for the pictures (had no other option), when we finally made it to the front, we asked the camera man if we could opt out of the picture (i didn't want to take a picture because that meant we were going to have to stand in another line at the end, just to pick our pictures, then another line to pay), the guy told us no problem. When the manager saw we didn't take a picture, he accused us of skipping the line. He started YELLING at us, pointing his fingers at us. He was so loud, just about eveyone turned their heads to look at him! He had such anger in him. (we didn't skip the line!). When you get to the top level, the windows are full of finger prints and smudges, so you really don't get a great view of the city through the windows, especially at night, since you have light reflecting off the windows. Don't wast your time. If you choose to, be prepared to spend more time standing in lines, than actually looking at the city. And yes, when you are finished, you will stand in multiple lines to get back down...i think its about 4 different elevators that you have to take.

We made the mistake of visiting the building during a (super fun) trip to NY in December. We waited in line probably for 4 hours or more, and after endless lines that drag very slowly through various rooms and floors, we found ourselves among so many people at the top, that it was very hard to find a spot to enjoy the view from. Besides very crowded, it was very cold and windy up there, and... already getting dark - we had planned to see it during the day, some 5 hours earlier! I have various suggestions to the greedy and disrespectful managers of the building: do advise the public of the waiting duration, and do limit the numbers of visitors per day, so everyone has a chance to actually enjoy the view. We'll not visit the ESB again or recommend it to anyone.

I loved the Empire State Building... The forthought that went into the building is absolutely amazing, the observation deck gives a wonderful panorama view of the city an river. Even if you have to wait in line it is worth it...

Lines that seem to never end--very deceptive length of wait (multiple stops). Heavy crowds at the end--the result may be enjoyable, but the cost, wait, and overall time spent make this one of the worst values in New York. Never again!!

It is a much better idea to go to "The Top of the Rock." This is what they call the observation deck at Rockefeller Center. It has 3 floors of viewing, all of which are outside. You'll get a unobstructed view of the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, all of central park and all 5 boughs behind a 7' plexiglass wall. Why wait an hour and pay more to view the city from inside the Empire State Building when you there is practically no wait here. You can reserve a time slot online to get to the front of the line if you want to go at a busy time. Also you get a free .mp3 download that is an hour long and tells a lot of interesting things you would never know about "The Top of the Rock" and all of NYC.