|
NEW YORK CITY ATTRACTIONS
A dedicated page for New York City area themed and touring attractions of note:
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(5/26/2026) New York - Who Wants To Tour Jim Henson's Creature Shop?
(1/3/2026) Three Casino Resorts Now Approved For New York City
(12/21/2025) Bridgerton Afternoon Tea Coming To The Empire State Building
(8/30/2025) New Skyscraper Project To Include Intamin Drop Attraction
General News - (5/26/2026) Fans of Sesame Street, The Muppets, Fraggles and any other Jim Henson creation, do take note! According to the latest news, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is now offering tours to the general public! It will cost you though…
A ticket for the approximately 80-minute tour will start at $150 per person at the Creature Shop, located in Queens, NY. Your tour will include some exclusive photo-ops with several characters, and a live puppetry demonstration from an actual Henson puppeteer, along with other surprises along the way.
Again… note that the new tours are only at the Queens, NY location, as the California Creature Shop is still closed to the public, and right now it looks like they’re only doing tours on Saturdays.
(1/3/2026) When you think about going on a trip to a casino... New York City isn't exactly the first location that comes to mind, but that's about the change.
Just before Christmas New York City granted Genting’s Resorts World a full casino license to expand their current site at the Aqueduct race-track site. The current casino facility opened in 2011 and is connected to a 400-room Hyatt Regency branded hotel that opened in 2021, with the casino being mostly restricted to slot machines (but no traditional table games). The new approved expansion will allow Genting to turn the site into a fully “integrated resort” project, expanding the casino itself to become one of the largest in the US, as well as their hotel capacity by adding an additional 1,600 hotel rooms, with convention/meeting space, and a 7,000 seat concert/performance arena and more. The site is also currently connected to the local rail system, making it easy for passengers from the nearby JFK airport to visit.
With the license in hand, Genting expects to be able to expand their current gaming offerings by Spring 2026, adding more slot machines as well as finally being able to bring in traditional table games as well. The timeline for the full expansion is expecting to be complete by 2031.
If that wasn’t enough, two more Casino projects were also approved to build entirely new projects:
Bally’s Bronx, a $2.3 billion resort project at the Ferry Point golf course that will feature a hotel, but won’t be ready to open until 2030.
Hard Rock Metropolitan Park, a $5.3 billion resort casino project to be built next to Citi Field as a partnership between the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the owner of the New York Mets. This large scale project will include two hotel towers, a concert venue as well as 25-acres of public park space. Look for it to open sometime in 2030 as well. It’s worth mentioning that this project is also a short hop from New York’s LaGuardia airport.
 |
(8/30/2025) I had not heard about this one until this week, but it seems a new skyscraper under construction in New York City is also planning on being home to a new thrill ride. The uniquely shaped 52-story skyscraper will be called The Torch and is now under construction at 740 Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, about a block away from the popular Times Square area. Foundation work restarted earlier this summer to prepare for the structure that will feature a 825-room hotel and above that a outdoor observation deck that will also include a “drop ride” from Intamin within the central column that will feature transparent viewing panels of the cityscape while you rise and take a 300 foot plunge.
(1/9/2025) An interesting post on Instagram suggests that construction work in New York City on the building at 218 West 57th Street may be for a new “immersive” production of Phantom of the Opera. This matches up with comments Andrew Lloyd Webber made during the Fall 2024, that he was working on plans for an off-Broadway “immersive production of Phantom” to open in 2025.
(10/3/2024) SkyLift, a new attraction at the top of the Rockefeller Center tower has now opened, lifting guests even higher into the sky for an unparalleled 360º view of the New York City skyline.
(6/24/2023) While New York City isn’t known for having thrill rides, other than those at Coney Island’s Luna Park, it seems a company has gotten initial permission to build a thrill ride in Times Square. According to the local news, the NYC Dept. of Buildings has already approved the plan that would see an observation platform built at the top of a tower on a building that would also feature a 300 foot freefall ride on the side of the tower.
The concept has stirred up a bunch of locals who are opposed to the project and a public hearing has been scheduled. For the moment however, the project was approved to move forward and would be completed by 2027 if allowed.
|
