The first time I saw this aircraft carrier docked at New York City I was driving along 12th Avenue heading downtown. It wasn’t until my third visit to the city that I got to experience how deeply mismanaged this attraction is. The security procedures are only for show, the staff don’t really care if you have college ID to qualify for the discount, and there’s no canopy for waiting in line in the rain.
The line to the submarine is long and has no estimated wait times posted. Despite buying timed entry tickets there is still a sizeable crowd inside, taking away from the overall experience. The ship is poorly conserved with worn out slippery surfaces, a rusty flight deck, and a lack of original deck markings that are the icon of aircraft carriers. There are panels on maintenance and repair along the corridor to the toilets, but that’s exactly where their minds were when thinking about museum upkeep. A travesty.
The hangar elevator works and they offer rides on it, but they just take you back up to the flight deck. It’s a missed opportunity to transport guests efficiently to the hangar level below. The Space Shuttle Enterprise is equally poorly conserved. The ceramic tiles aren’t original, the nozzles are covered up, and the canopy is too small to allow guests to take any meaningful photos. The Concorde sitting outdoors is just a shame.
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