The elevator was pretty awesome, but I started getting frustrated at all the other "showcasing" that was involved. It was mostly because I had a 10 hour layover at JFK and decided to spend it at the 9/11 museum. By the time I was done, I had about an hour to get up to the WTC observation deck and then onto the subway to JFK.

The ticket line was short, so I was thinking I'd have plenty of time.

Nope.

Take the elevator up to a room where you gather round and watch this montage video of the city as it beats and pulses (cars driving, timelapses, people walking, etc). The wall curtain goes up and there's the view of NYC. Swelling music. OOH! AHH!

The wall curtain goes down.

"Go into this room!"

Everyone shuffles into the adjacent room and you wait for people to gather.

An employee pulls out an iPad.

"You can rent this interactive iPad that will tell you the names of buildings you're looking at. If not, go ahead up one more flight of stairs to the deck."

This took, like, 15 minutes to get through. All I wanted was to get on an elevator and step out into the observation deck.