Entries about rockefeller center

Most part of this day was dedicated to shopping. Yet another warm and muggy day along the Streets of New York and it was even worse down under in the subway system. But it was still worth the effort to go down in the overheated subway and ride a few stations than to walk the same distance along the streets. We entered Port Authority Bus Terminal and just as last time I was here (3 years ago) it was not easy finding your way to the right gate. The bus terminal consists of 6 floors on which busses leaves from four of these floors. There are totally 223 gates to choose from, so you should definitely make sure to be there in time avoiding stress. My brother Danny and I found our gate with 10 minutes to spare. We had purchased return bus tickets with Gray Line but you can get to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in other ways too.
The bus ride took about an hour and upon arrival at Woodbury we went straight to Visitor Center to collect our discount coupons (included in the Gray Line bus ticket). A well needed map is included as well, which is needed since the shopping area is big! There are 220 stores to choose from and all are at ground level, so you will be walking a lot if you want to visit every store. But on the other hand, there is something for everyone. For example, more common brands like GAP, Aéropostale, Reebok, LOFT and MaxMara and if you want to spoil yourself there are Dior, DVF, Gucci, Michael Kors and Armani… and of course Calvin Klein

As a Calvin Klein freak that store was a must I must have spent like an hour and just wallowed. But who wouldn’t have done that with regular discount and additional 45 % off? I can tell you that the suitcase I had brought was quickly filled up after that visit
It’s obviously not just shoe and clothes shops in the area, also a lot of dining options are also available. McDonald’s, Vegetarian Food, Tacos, Pizza, cafes, ice cream and so on. One definitely does not have to go around hungry, that’s for sure. All and all, my brother and I were there for about 4 hours, but it was enough for both of us to visit the stores we wanted. So, it was just to bring the now well-filed suitcase and sit down in the bus for a ride back to New York. Depending on when you take the bus back you must bear in mind that you may end up in the middle of New York’s rush hour, so you must ensure having time marginal in case you have somewhere to be after the shopping. Once back in the city, we went down to the subway to get back to the hotel.

During the afternoon we used our tickets to Empire State Building that we had bought in advance. These tickets are not specific for one day or time but are valid for one year from date of purchase. I had made sure that we had gotten tickets for observation deck on the 86th and 102nd floor. However, it’s not certain that you get to visit the top floor due to weather or wind, and then you don’t get no money back (access to the 102nd floor costs $20 extra per person). Therefore, we had made sure to visit the building on a nice day with great views and almost no wind. But at this particular day the elevator between 86th and 102nd floor was out of service due to “mechanical error” as they said, but we would get our money back for our prepaid tickets. We were lucky anyhow, now when we couldn’t visit the top floor.

Well up on the 86th floor you will get a fantastic view of New York. As a recommendation you should visit a cloud free day during day hours. Thanks to the 360° view you will see Central Park, East River, Brooklyn Bridge, Hudson River and Statue of Liberty among many things.
We ate at Wendy’s before sunset and now we had time scheduled (8.15 pm) for Rockefeller Center and its observation deck Top of the Rock. These reserved tickets are booked for a specific time and you can’t access the building prior that time. But I needed to use the restroom so the guard was nice enough to let us in earlier.

The observation deck was crowded and just as the sun had gone down, we all stood there waiting for Empire State Building to light up. Eventually a guard came and announced that Empire wasn’t going to be lighted up tonight due to the terrorist attack in Istanbul. That was one of the highlights during the visit at Top of the Rock, to see Empire State Building light up, but that wasn’t the case this evening. We got a little disappointed though. But we still got great pictures of New York and the millions of lights light up the city during at night.
The evening ended up in the top roof bar at our hotel with a Mojito drink each.