luvsvacation
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 25, 2014
- Messages
- 485
I had posted that we were going to attempt to watch the ball drop in Times Square so I thought I’d come back with an update…it was amazing!! I’ll preface this by saying I can see why people hate it in “normal” years. We spent about 15 minutes being smashed together in one of the pens and I really can’t imagine doing that for 10+ hours! Also we had amazing weather last night, it was in the 50s and dry, I never even zipped my coat or pulled out my gloves.
We lined up around 2:00 because they said they were letting people in at 3:00, limited numbers of people due to Covid. We were about 50 people back in the line when they cut it off and said time square was closed and that was it. They were only letting people with reservations through. We had contemplated Ellen’s Stardust Diner as a backup so quickly made a reservation for that party which was from 7-midnight. My son suggested we go ahead and try to get into the Times Square area even though it was only 3:30. They didn’t even bother looking at our tickets just said we could go right in. Since we had a few hours to kill we started trying to make our way as far forward as we could. It was odd, on some streets there would be barricades up and it was very strict but on other streets we could get through. We made it all the way up to one of the pens way up front, right next to the Times Square stairs the planet fitness stage. We stood outside the pen for about 15 minutes. This was an area filled with police and reporters all doing their filming. We were shocked no one came and told us to move! After 15 minutes a police officer came up to us and she was super friendly and even let us in the pen! We couldn’t believe our luck! We were in and up close! We decided to ditch the restaurant party and stay in our prime location all night. It was a little after 4:00. It was actually pretty interesting because I know they made the pens reduced capacity so everyone could social distance but what really happened was everyone was smashed together at the front of the pen as soon as anything started happening and the rest of the pen was empty. In the beginning we had lots of room and sat down and had some snacks. As soon as any excitement was going on we all smooshed together at the front. I can see how smooshing together and not getting to sit for hours on end would be misery especially in cold/wet weather.
By 6:30 we decided we had had enough of our pen and left to go to the party. Ellen’s Stardust Diner was SO MUCH FUN! For both me and my 18 year old son. They put on a great show and has everyone singing and dancing. I highly recommend it! At 11:50 they let us back onto the street. The people who were in pens were stuck in their pens but those of us who were outside of the pens were able to run up the sidewalks towards the ball drop. We made it to the center of the action in time for all the confetti to rain down on us and it was far better because we weren’t stuck in one place. We kept moving and got to be in the heart of Times Square! It was truly incredible and worked out so perfectly. Our hotel was only a block away, so a quick 5 minute walk. My son headed back right away at like 12:10 but I stayed another 15 minutes just watching everything and taking pics of the aftermath. All in all a fabulous night that would not have happened if we had gotten in one of the original pens like we wanted to!
We lined up around 2:00 because they said they were letting people in at 3:00, limited numbers of people due to Covid. We were about 50 people back in the line when they cut it off and said time square was closed and that was it. They were only letting people with reservations through. We had contemplated Ellen’s Stardust Diner as a backup so quickly made a reservation for that party which was from 7-midnight. My son suggested we go ahead and try to get into the Times Square area even though it was only 3:30. They didn’t even bother looking at our tickets just said we could go right in. Since we had a few hours to kill we started trying to make our way as far forward as we could. It was odd, on some streets there would be barricades up and it was very strict but on other streets we could get through. We made it all the way up to one of the pens way up front, right next to the Times Square stairs the planet fitness stage. We stood outside the pen for about 15 minutes. This was an area filled with police and reporters all doing their filming. We were shocked no one came and told us to move! After 15 minutes a police officer came up to us and she was super friendly and even let us in the pen! We couldn’t believe our luck! We were in and up close! We decided to ditch the restaurant party and stay in our prime location all night. It was a little after 4:00. It was actually pretty interesting because I know they made the pens reduced capacity so everyone could social distance but what really happened was everyone was smashed together at the front of the pen as soon as anything started happening and the rest of the pen was empty. In the beginning we had lots of room and sat down and had some snacks. As soon as any excitement was going on we all smooshed together at the front. I can see how smooshing together and not getting to sit for hours on end would be misery especially in cold/wet weather.
By 6:30 we decided we had had enough of our pen and left to go to the party. Ellen’s Stardust Diner was SO MUCH FUN! For both me and my 18 year old son. They put on a great show and has everyone singing and dancing. I highly recommend it! At 11:50 they let us back onto the street. The people who were in pens were stuck in their pens but those of us who were outside of the pens were able to run up the sidewalks towards the ball drop. We made it to the center of the action in time for all the confetti to rain down on us and it was far better because we weren’t stuck in one place. We kept moving and got to be in the heart of Times Square! It was truly incredible and worked out so perfectly. Our hotel was only a block away, so a quick 5 minute walk. My son headed back right away at like 12:10 but I stayed another 15 minutes just watching everything and taking pics of the aftermath. All in all a fabulous night that would not have happened if we had gotten in one of the original pens like we wanted to!
