One of the main attractions of New York City is the One World Trade Center, which was created out of the destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. The building is quite stunning with all the monolithic glass reflecting off the sun and spiraling into an octagon structure at the top. I highly suggest purchasing your tickets before arriving to ensure access to the building. I purchased the all-inclusive admission ticket for $63. With this ticket you’re allowed access to 360-degree views on the observatory deck, priority lane for security, elevator, and exit, a digital skyline guide, flexible arrival with a private elevator, and $15 off any drink or shop items. When you arrive at the building you will take an escalator down to the basement. After your ticket is verified you will take a small tour through the history of the World Trade Center transition into One World Observatory.
After your short walking tour, you will take an elevator to the magnificent observatory deck on the 102nd floor. The elevator in itself was so freaking awesome! The walls are computer screens and it gives off the illusion of being outside and they take you on a virtual history lesson of the area. They start back in the early 1900s on how New York City looked like and end with the completion of the tower. When the doors open, you will be lead into a dark room to watch another video length of the room. I know you thinking, when are you going to see outside? I felt the same way, but the buildup is worth it, I promise. You watch a 2 to 4-minute video on a life journey, but soon as the video ends the wall slowly raise and you see you are sky-high, literally! You take a short walk to grab the tablet that you use to give you a virtual tour of the city from above. Once you familiarize yourself with the tablet, place the device at eye level and it will recognize city landmarks and tell you a brief history about that building. You get 360 views of the whole city! Take your time and soak in all the views. Hopefully, the day you visit you have clear skies. Don’t worry if you don’t because they give you 7 days to visit with your ticket if you have inclement weather.
After we took the tour of the deck, we decided to use the $15 off discount ticket for the restaurant. The restaurant was so beautiful but so damn expensive! I know why they give you $15 off. With that being said it is New York so that put things in perspective for us. Cocktail drinks started around $18 and up, but I will say they were good. My friends and I only ordered appetizers because we wanted to eat real New York food, but in New York, you can’t drink without eating food. Hence the reason for the snack food. One cool note was the head chef came out and made sure we had a great experience. Honestly, I don’t regret spending over $100 because I’m all about the experience! I don’t think I would eat there again, but I’ll 100% visit the deck again.
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