Unforgettable Holiday Magic: My Enchanting Night with the Radio City Rockettes

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Being a local in New York City has a lot of advantages. One of them is enjoying all the shows in Broadway and Off-Broadway, especially during the Holidays. In all the years I have lived here, I enjoyed going to live shows mostly during the Broadway Week, but during the Holidays I have only been to George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker in the Lincoln Center. Having gone to Rockefeller Center this season, I was captivated by the Radio City Music Hall and what it has to offer. So I looked up their website and The Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes. I was surprised how cheap it was compared to other shows, paying $60 for each ticket including the service fee for one of the cheapest seats on the very back of the auditorium. The entire transaction is done through Ticketmaster.

They sent me the tickets and downloaded them into my Google Pay Wallet, which seems to be one of the only ways to show the virtual entrance.

Radio City Music Hall is close to a plethora of subway trains and stations so getting there is easy, the only problem is the crowds. I picked the 5 PM show thinking it would be less crowded compared to the later one, but tourists and local were just packing these blocks.

After passing through an airport like security, I went for the first time into this building and I was in awe of the beauty of it. The Christmas tree shaped chandelier, the decorations, the colors, everything looked like it was going to be a great night. I had 30 min to spare, so I decided to buy some drinks and popcorn.

I walked upstairs to the food carts but most of them were closed. Like, how does this happen? In a full show, only one cart was selling food upstairs. The view of the main hall was very cute though.

While I was trying to find a place to buy food I took a peek on where I was supposed to go into, and I noticed there was a pre-show happening. So I would recommend you to go in advance if you do not want to miss it.

I finally did the line in the only food cart upstairs, and after my friend arrived we bought popcorn, some sodas and a hot dog. It was not as expensive but got the plastic popcorn bucket as a souvenir. One thing is you should forget about any Skymiles discount published in their website because they would not take it. They would take the Chase credit card discount tho, so it was a little bit cheaper using that card.

At the line to get food, the group behind me could not shut up about the lack of organization of the entire thing. By not having food stands open to the public, it woulld force them to ditch the lines and just go into the show, or at least that is what they were complaning about. We then rushed to our seat on the very top of the teather, and oh surprise, there was a 3D show at the beginning. Nowhere no one had told us to get 3D glasses, so we had to go back out to get these glasses. We could have missed at least 10-12 min of the show.

I was in shock with how much people were on this show, I did not know this venue was as big. I have been to multiple other teathers in the city and all looked compact, but this one was big. The show finally started and it was entertaining from beginning to end.

[SPOILER ALERT]

If you do not want to know anything about the show, skip these few paragraphs until the end.

So, I did not read ANYTHING about this show or saw any videos. Which it is unusual for me, because I like to investigate first before I commit to pay for a show or anything really. But, I had no idea this was a Santa Claus centered show, basically sprinkling some New York Empire State vibes and some Nutcracker ballet too. But what I was not expecting was the recreation of the Nativity and the birth of Jesus in general, including the Three Wise Men. I turned to my friend and joked about saying “this seems like indoctrination lol”. But I guess that is the real meaning of Christmas, so I let it pass and enjoyed it before the big end of the show started with everyone in scene. One thing I did not enjoy tho, was the public. It seems because the show can get very cheap, some people that are not used to go to these types of shows got in and had little respect for the other attendees. Right in front of me, a whole family of tourists were getting up and changing seats for about 1/4 of the show, one of them was on the phone the entire time even. At the end it is not the show’s fault, but instead of forcing people not to take videos or pictures, they should also enforce better behaviour.

Regardless, I had a nice time and it went really fast. The 1 hour 30 minutes show goes so fast and it is very enjoyable. Would I go again in the near future? Probably not. I might go there is the tickets continue to be this cheap and I have family or friends in town, just to escape of the cold for a bit. Now it is time to eat.

Against all the odds and after having decided to go to some fast food place, while walking on W 51st Street between 6th Ave and 7th Ave, we encountered a newly opened Singaporean Food court. Are you kidding me? We jumped so fast inside and were overwhelmed with all of the options to eat from.

The Singaporean Hawker Market was packed and it was kind of difficult to find a seat but we were able to find a table. I ended up getting some Filipino chicken on rice. It was delicious.

After the feeding it was time to say goodbye to Midtown so I decided to walk around and see some more Christmas decorations.

The area is definitely the spot to see all the lights.

Finally, some remarks:

• The show is very fast and very cheap, spending one hour thirty minutes sharp in it and around $60 for each ticket.
• Food can be a bit expensive but I did not see security enforcing food being brought into the building.
• Be sure to ask for a pair of 3D glasses and be early to see the pre-show and beat the lines at security and the food stands.
• Be patient with the crowds and attendees in general.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions.