Holiday Activities In NYC!
One of our NYC Christmas traditions is that we always go and visit the tree in Rockefeller Center! This year, we decided we would go ice skating too! We’ve been ice skating a few places in the city (like Bryant Park and Pier 17) but never Rockefeller Center. Mostly because it’s the most expensive place to ice skate in the city, but it’s also the most iconic! To be honest I thought it would be super overrated, but we had so much fun ice skating at Rockefeller Center!
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I don’t know how it’s done most “normal” years, but for this year at least we bought our tickets online for a certain time slot. They are spaced out all day in certain intervals to allow for social distancing. I would recommend getting tickets for evening/nighttime if you can so you can see the tree all lit up! When you check in they give you a color coded sticker for your group time slot and this is how they track how long you are allotted on the ice. For a one hour adult reservation plus a skate rental the cost was $50.
The staff both on and off the ice were very helpful! There are free lockers on site you can store all of your stuff while you skate. They do allow you to take your phone out on the ice if you want. One of the guys working on the ice was offering to take photos for people. I have to say he took it very seriously, kneeling down to get the best angle and even switching to the wide angle lens on our iPhone pro to get the whole tree behind us!
For viewing the tree this year you are not permitted to get as close to it as in years past. They have set up a “tree viewing area” that overlooks the ice rink. They closely monitor the amount of people able to access the viewing area at one time and once it’s your turn you have 5 minutes to take all of the photos/videos you want! The tree got a lot of bad press this year but she got her glow up and she’s looking really pretty!
Also, I think it goes without saying, but masks are required at all times at the skating rink and the tree viewing area. They take your temperature before allowing you to access the skating rink and we felt very safe with all of the protocols in place.
Have you ever been ice skating at Rockefeller Center or is it still on your bucket list? You can watch more in our Vlogmas video below!
-Ash