My wife and I attempted to visit the SkyDeck on Saturday, August 9, 2009 in the afternoon. The ensuing experience was like a death march that only finally ended when we fled in disgust after waiting for well over 2 hours, and realizing that it was going to take at least another hour to get on the elevator to the SkyDeck.
Access to the main SkyDeck elevator is set up so that vistors never really know how long the wait will be. The lines started upon entering the building on the main floor. The room was packed and it took at least 45 minutes just to get on the elevator to go down to the basement. Upon exiting the elevator and after a short walk down a hallway, we came face to face with a line, zig zagging across the room, even longer than the one in the room we had just left. It must have contained at least 300 or so people waiting to buy tickets. We had pre-purchased vouchers and were able to convince one of the poorly trained staff that we should be able to skip this ticket line. We probably skipped at least one hour of time doing this.
Once I showed the vouchers to the staff member who took tickets, she became confused but utlimately sent me directly to the ticket counter to exchange the voucher for tickets. I noticed that notwithstanding the nearly 300 people waiting in the snaking line, there were only two people selling tickets -- just like at the Post Office!! Tickets in hand, we were allowed through a door finally expecting to see the elevators, but no.
There was yet another hallway and then two separate rooms that made up a waiting area for the 15 minute movie that is required when purchasing general admission tickets. In the room closest to the theatre there was a SkyDeck male staff member who refused to let people sit on the floor - even though they had just been standing waiting in lines for 1 1/2 hours (us) or 2 1/2 hours (those who also had to wait in the ticket line) - claiming it was due to fire regulations (although sitting had been permitted in the previous room). There were benches available for approximately 10 people along a wall in a room that held at least 75. It took three showings of the movie (another 45 minutes) before we made it into the theatre. The power-happy staff member told everyone entering the theatre to sit up front on the right side of the theatre for easy exiting, which was false-- the exit is on the left.
The movie was actually pretty cool, but it may have just been because I was thankful to be able to sit down after standing for long. By this point, I figured it was clear sailing -- we would exit the theatre, get on the elevators and head to the SkyDeck. However, we exited to see yet a another two rooms filled with another 150-200 people waiting in yet another group of snaking lines. We tried in vain to see whether this was at last the set of lines for the elevator - maybe we would stick it out. But no, it was impossible to tell from where we were. At that point, facing at least another hour wait to get through these rooms, and not knowing whether there were as yet untold warrens of further rooms and lines awaiting us, we called it quits, and went out for a great dinner and had many drinks to try to erase the entire horrrible experience. In reading Trip Advisor today, I note that others have written that there is even a line for the elevator to leave the SkyDeck once you are done.
So, in summary:
(1) the entire physical setup of SkyDeck seems designed to hide how long the lines are and the wait is going to be;
(2) not one staff member at any point during the entire horrible process gave any estimate as to how long the wait was going to be (which I would expect they should be able to estimate based on the length of the various lines);
3) the staff did not seem particularly knowledgeable, pleasant or helpful;
(4) there are alternative admissions programs (CityPass, FastPass) that appears to allow purchasers to bypass the first set of lines on the first floor, the ticket line in the basement and the line for the movie. I do not know if pass holders get priority boarding of the elevators but whatever the cost, it is defiintely worth it to avoid what we went through.
All in all, I would say this was the absolute worst travel related experience I have ever had and that includes applying for a passport at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, which is a whole other story!