Thanks for the tips so far.
A question for all of you then; for ice skating in Rockefeller center is there a lengthy line? I suck at ice skating, but it seems like one of those things that should be done if possible…
Depends on the time of day and what day of the week. Weekend days are pretty crowded. If you can go during the day during the week the rink is really empty. I walk by it sometimes on my lunch if I go to the bookstore.
There is aloso a nice skating rink in Central Park. It’s a much bigger than the patch of ice at Roc Center.
Staten Island Ferry – still free, pretty good views of Lower Manhattan and StatLiberty
Also visit Macy’s to see what may be the last wooden escalators still in use.
cheaper too
The Guggenheim has an exhibit, running currently, on the Aztecs. I’m not sure how that fits into the program of what I always thought was a modern art museum, but I’d still like to see it.
To the OP: It sounds corny, and I can’t vouch for its effectiveness as my trip there won’t be until May. But if I were you I’d grab copy of the current New Yorker magazine; they always have a lengthy section in the front about what’s happening in NYC.
Using the buses not be so bad for us tourists, though, since we can see more of the city from a bus than from the subway. Though obviously I’m looking forward to seeing and using the subway, if only for its sheer stupendousness as a public works project.
Naw, man. Back in '99, Rudy personally went down into the sewers and took care of the CHUDs, albino alligators, mole people and Superbowl toilet backups.
This’ll sound odd for a visitor, but I actually don’t have a huge desire to go up to the ESB’s eighty-sixth floor observatory. I’ve been in tall buildings before.
Rather I’m more intrigued by the idea of seeing its presence at street level, as well as the artwork in the lobby. Those are aspects which are rarely seen when the ESB appears in movies and so on.
At street level the ESB just looks like shops. You don’t enter them through the lobby, they’re just streetside like any other building with shops in the ground floor. True story: I once worked for 5 weeks in the ground floor of the Empire State Building before I even noticed. One day I was at lunch, and I thought… hmm… 34th street near Herald Square, Empire State’s around here somewhere… (looks up) Oh!
I live there too.
Listen to his first sentence.
Weather hasn’t really been condusive to outdoor skating. We’re at or around 50 today and tomorrow. It should cool down and maybe you can get some skating in on Saturday. And despite Central Park being larger and cheaper, Rock Center is a nice touristy thing.
For some inexplicable reason this little vignette reminds me vaguely of some Monty Python sketch involving Gumbys.
I used to cut through the Empire State Building on the way to work. Never once dawned on me to take the elevator up to the top. Wasn’t til after I moved out of NYC and spoke to others around the world did I find out that not once ever going to the top of the building was considered odd.
Thanks for the help everyone. I’m leaving tomorrow morning and while it’s apparent from the weather that the ice skating is out there is another thing that came to mind.
What about the Coney Island Cyclone? I wouldn’t mind riding the most famous rollercoaster outside of a Disney park in the world, but does it run this time of year, is it a lengthy trip out there to do it, and is it worth it?
You can skate at Roc Center or the park. The ice is man made. You won’t have one of those magical moments where it starts snowing and you fall in love but you can skate.
Astroland is the “park” that operates the Cyclone. They aren’t open this time of year but if you visit NYC in the summer it is worth a trip. 60MPH on that little track is really fun.
Two Words: David Letterman.
and it’s free! Since you don’t have advance tickets though, you’ll have to wait in line. Get to the Ed Sullivan Theatre early.
Real New Yorkers never look up. That’s touristy. 
You really don’t see much on a bus except the front of buildings and taxis and people. Subways are much faster uptown and downtown. Crosstown, walking is faster, and you can stop in to interesting stores.
There are a lot of small museums also. Get a copy of *New York and see if there are any exhibits you’re interested in. The Carnegie Library is beautiful inside, for instance.
Plan. If you go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, decide which things you want to see and which things to skip.
The UN has a nice tour, but the lobby is good also. I don’t know if it as accessible these days as when my father worked there.
And there is nothing wrong with Queens! I’m from there, and the place treated me just fine.
If you really want to see Letterman just wander through Times Square between 1PM and 2 PM. If you walk from 46th to 48th street on the west side of b’way (across the street from TKTS) and keep your ears peeled, you’ll most likely hear an intern handing out tickets to see that evening’s taping. I can’t guarantee they’ll be there every day, but I’ve heard someone handing out tickets pretty consistently in that area at that time for a few weeks now.
W
Actually, the show I’d want to see taped is the Daily Show, but I was afraid that my trip was so last minute in preparation (I wasn’t sure until last week if I was going) that I didn’t get tickets. And now I have my Thursday plans pretty much solid and they don’t tape on Fridays.
I’m off in about seven hours, I’ll check back in with the thread afterward to let everyone know what I did wind up seeing and what I thought. Thanks everybody!