We'll be in NYC soon for a Christmas vacation. We're looking at going skating at Rockefeller Center on a Friday or Monday night, during one of the later sessions (sometime between 8:30 PM and 12:30 AM). How hard is it to get in to skate? Are we looking at an endless wait in line? Should we just go up to Wollman? There's just something about being at the Center with the tree!

There's an 8:30PM-10:00PM session and another one from 10:30PM 'til midnight. Admission is $15.00 for adults and $9.00 for children. Skate rental is $7.00. I have seen long lines at all sessions. I think it holds only about 150 skaters at a time.

The last time I stood and watched the skaters there, I laughed a lot. To be honest it was incredibly crowded on the rink (and yes there were still long lines waiting, apparently they only let so many on at a time). The real problem was there were a lot of smaller kids and even adults who clearly weren't skaters. So anyone who could skate was having a very rough time trying to skate around all the people falling down all over the place or moving at snail's pace, holding hands and blocking everything. I suspect that it is not the best place to go if you really want to ice skate. But I get the idea that you might want to do just to be doing it there!

Go before noon and as soon as it opens is the best time.

We are wondering the same things Gtravel. My daughter is bound and determined to skate there at night, but I thnk we'll try for a morning session. Does anyone know what time they start in the morning? If there's a session from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., and a person arrives at 9a.m., does he have to wait until 10 for sure or do they let new skaters on as earlier ones leave? (I'm assuming a lot of the skaters are really just there for the experience and after 30 minutes may have had enough.)

The rink is so small and so crowded, unless your goal is simply to check it off your list of things to do, go up to the much larger rink in Central Park.

Acording to http://www.nyctourist.com/xmas_rockice.htm it opens at 8:30AM on weekends and 9AM on weekdays.

Call 212-332-7654 for the current schedule and other questions.

Keith