WEEK 13 - NEW YORK - saturday 24 july 2010

today we awoke to the hottest day in new york of the week. our room is unbelievably hot, but its hotter outside!
joseph got a giant pretzel for breakfast,but alas, it was yucky!

we grabbed breakfast at dean and delucas [let down, the food was nice, but the staff were more concerned with gossiping than taking your order and thanking you]

we headed to NBC studios and did the 9.45am tour. it is SO cool! definately worth the money. our tour guides were really lovely, professional and made it so much fun, and didnt mind you asking questions. they even let two people do the news and weather report [the girl in our group who did the news should have a job, she was amazing!]

i had planned to go shopping after the tour, but its so hot i cant concentrate, so we just went back to the room and slept, which i felt a bit bad about doing, but i know im going to come back here in the spring sometime, with a bit more spending money, so its all good.

in the afternoon we headed out for some late lunch and discovered some markets. we got overpriced lunch which want that nice, and joseph tried deep fried oreos, [not an experience to be repeated!]

in the evening we headed out to the empire state building. compared to the rockerfeller center, it was a big fat let down. we had to que for an hour and a half, with nothing to entertain you while you wait. nothing on the walls to read, no brochure, nothing.
then as you are about to head up in the elevator, they try and sell you a head set tour thing for $6, or a brochure explaining the building and the view for some ridiculous price. why would you pay to get in, and then have to pay for information on what you are seeing?! cant they just include the cost of a pamphlet in the price?
so we go up the elevator, only to discover there is ANOTHER que to go up the next 6 floors to the look out point. FINALLY we make it up there, and its really crowded. we managed to get around and photograph the city lights, the view is really neat at night.

then we had to get back down. we got the option of waiting in line for 30mins to go down 6 floors in an elevator, or walk the stairs in 5 minutes, so we took the stairs, and then waited 40mins to get down the final bit.

we had free tckets to go on the Sky Ride, which we didnt feel like doing after all of that, but hey, its free, so why not? WORST idea. it is so tacky, out of date and BORING! the tickets are usually $27, and if id actually paid for them, i wouldve been demanding a refund.
they tell you the sky ride is 4 artists impressions of NYC.
so you go through the entry gate, and wait on a sloped floor with no chairs for 20 minutes.
then you get let through to this area with ugly grafitti on the walls that are trying to look like buildings, with tube tvs set into the walls, with the top ten things to do while you are in NYC, which was really just a paid advertisement, since it didnt include the rockefeller center. and the graphics, oh the graphics! horrible thick lines boxing in the stuff, tiled horrible pictures, red outlined  white font of Courier, with a drop shadow [yes! a drop shadow! against a charcoal background. nearly impossible to read, and so early nineties design that it hurts! [discovered this whole presentation was made 15 years ago, and it seems it has never been updated].
next they take you to another area, where, still standing, you watch another video, which was so crappy i cant even remember what it was about, but i think it was just more touristy advertising crap.
next you get to go on a motion master ride, where the whole platform moves as one, not each individual chair, so i felt really seasick by the end of it, and it was just crappily filmed helicopter footage of NYC, that needs refilming in HD, seriously, the quality was so awful.

i know i sound like a grizzle pants, but after the rockefeller experience, where going up the top was only a dollar more, and you got a free brochure, and then you got a guided tour for $10 [we had a half price voucher] for a 90min tour with a real human being, you go to this place, which is supposed to be an amazing artists impression of new york, and all you get is advertising thrown in your face, and horrible motion sickness that put me off my dinner, all for $27, you feel very ripped off.
so id recommend the empire state building for the view only, but go when the crowds are low, or buy an express pass, and i highly recommend doing the rockefeller tour, SO much better, and if you do the tour, the person will take you up the top afterwards and you can skip all the ques :)