Popular Tickets in Empire State Building

We got to the Empire State Building at 11:30pm. Right on time for the last entrance. We were greeted at the beautiful Art Deco Lobby by a friendly guard whom we showed our tickets to. He pointed us in the right direction and thus began our, literal, race to the 86th Floor Observation Deck. It's a long way to get from the lobby to the security check point (which feels like an airport) and the first set of elevators. The employees told us to "keep it moving" about 10 times. Our first stop was at the "Dare to Dream" Exhibit. Mind you, our GetYourGuide purchase voucher said it included an "Audio guide (app download) Spanish (Audio Guide/Headphones)", but we were never given headphones or any type of device for an audio guided tour. Also, our GetYourGuide purchase voucher said the "Sustainability" Exhibit was included, but we weren't able to see it cause we weren't taken to it. We took a second set of elevators to get to the Observation Deck. The view of The City at night is breathtaking.

Great views obviously. A good orientation to the city. I recommend the express pass to those who can justify spending the money. Easily saved us an hour. With quick visits to a lot of sights, it is the only way o would do it again. A little annoyed by people who grabbed a spot and stayed their for 15 or more mins. I have 11 and 13 yr old, etc difficult to get them to be able to see at times. I think that is more of a function of when we went (sunset) and people thinking of themselves then the workers though I did hear one of them say they’d let too many people up. Overall, great experience friendly and knowledgeable staff.

We visited ESB in mid July evening. Suprisingly, there was no ticket line BUT there were very very long lines at the lifts- we were happy we had skip-all-lines tickets. We appreciated them on both lifts up ( to 80 and 86 floor) and of course on the lift down ( here the line was even longer). No waiting we saved minimum 1 hour . I think it is really worth buying especially if you want to see evening/night NY and if you want to enjoy it instead of being stressed.

This was great. Make sure that you tell the first member of staff you see when you arrive that you have the VIP ticket (they call it the Express ticket). They will then give you a wrist band and direct you around all the queues. We got sent the wrong way first ended up in a short queue but it was fine once we got our wrist bands. It was very good being able to skip a huge line on the way down. Our tired children were very grateful.

location is excellent and a great experience, but with general ticket you will queue for long time. We skipped this by spending additional money for express tickets, which allows you to get on top in minutes instead of hours. But the great view is worth it.