Like all of the city’s observation decks, Top of the Rock offers timed-entry tickets. It adds a free weather guarantee, allowing visitors to switch their entry times and even dates at no extra cost—a big plus.
But prospective visitors must navigate a murky online maze of fees, with a range of entry prices ($40–$61 for adults, slightly less for children and seniors) with no clear explanation that the differing prices aren’t for types of tickets, but are simply based on the time and date chosen. Nowhere on the site is there a breakdown of what price applies when, perhaps because this is dynamic pricing, meaning that a surge in consumer interest automatically causes the entry fee to go up. Frustratingly, you don’t see the entry fee until the very end of the buying process, after you’ve purchased all the extras.
After fiddling around with the system for a good half-hour, I discovered that the starting price of $40 only seems to be available before 10am. After that, the price toggles between $41 and $58 for the rest of the day, except during the photogenic hour before sunset (golden hour), when the admission charge reaches an eye-watering $61.
Could you buy a pass for a 9am entry, and then switch it, using the weather guarantee, for a later time and date without paying more? With possible savings up to $21, it might be a good hack, but I don’t know for sure whether this would work. I couldn’t find details of the guarantee anywhere on the ticketing site.