Waiting for the Empire State Building observation deck is one of the least pleasant experiences in New York City.

In the best of circumstances, it takes at least an hour. You wait in line with tourists clutching wads of $100s they got at JFK. Many of them come from continents where lines are not treated with the kind of systematic order Americans are used to. You can watch the gears turn in people's heads as they look for openings where they can cut. Meanwhile, the hucksters who work for the building bombard you with pitches for worthless extras (including but not limited to: pay more to cut the line, buy an $8 map, rent an audio tour, buy a Citypass good at a couple of 2nd-tier museums, buy a tour bus ride, buy a helicopter ride, ride the "similar to Imax" skyride simulator, and of course, get your photo taken in front of a greenscreen backdrop). When you finally buy the ticket, you can't help but feel like you're getting hosed. Prices are up to $34 for the 86th floor and the 102nd floor mooring mast, a new option which you'd be crazy to refuse. And right now, the whole place is under construction, so as you pace slowly through a maze of rope lines on the 80th floor staging area, you have nothing to do but stare at unfinished walls and bare wires and lights dangling from the black ceiling overhead.

Why? Why? Why? This is why:

$34?!?! When I went to the ESB, I paid $7!! Granted…it was 11 years ago….

Your review of the Empire State Building experience showed up in my Google Alerts this morning because you mentioned CityPass. I can't speak for the Empire State Building, but I can tell you that if you had a CityPass in your hand when you arrived at the Building, you would have avoided the entire lower floor and its many distractions. You could have saved a couple of hours, depending on the time of year, and simply waited for the elevators to take you to the 80th floor.

With a CityPass, your view would have been the same, but you would have received a complimentary audio tour. You would also have access to Manhattan's most popular museums and attractions. The Statue of LIberty and Ellis Island Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art make up New York CityPass along with the Empire State Building. Collectively these museums house 500 million artifacts and art.

You paid $34 to see the Empire State Buidling. For $40 more, the rest of these museums, clearly not second-tier offerings, are included. Users have nine days to visit all attractions, and, the booklets are transferable for anyone to use within the nine days from the first date they are used at the first attraction.

CityPass is available in other cities where skyscrapers and viewing towers are included. I hope you give CityPass a try next time. You might see something you really like in one of those museums.

Dude, they're checking the blogs! I soooo gotta write about this.

Fair enough: Citypass has the big three New York museums, which definitely aren't second-tier. I was confusing it with another pass I've seen advertised on the subway.

Citypass could improve its reputation by making sure it's not associated with the ticketing process at the Empire State Building. The people who run the ESB are poor stewards of the brand. If they pitch something to me, I am less likely to buy it. I'm also likely to associate it (even accidentally) with second-rate ripoffs.

I find the observatory at Rock Center much more efficient — with timed ticketing — and the view isn't all that different.