New Year’s Eve 2020: Revelers line up for Times Square ball drop
They’ve got 2020 vision.
Thousands of bundled-up revelers have begun streaming into Times Square on New Year’s Eve, ready to bid adieu to 2019 and ring in the new decade.
Twins Erica and Kendra Carson drove nearly 24 hours from Bowmanville, Ontario, and arrived at the Crossroads of the World at 8:30 p.m. Monday to stake out the perfect spot for the ball drop.
“I have always watched it on television but to see it in person, to join in the countdown, people getting excited, screaming with all the people and the confetti falling all over us, it’s going to be very surreal,” said Kendra, 22.
The sisters — who, like everyone else, will be penned in until after midnight thanks to tight security measures — plan on curbing nature’s call by taking “little sips of water,” Kendra said.
Cary, North Carolina, resident Nicole Wilson, 47, and her daughter Sierra, 19, came armed with adult diapers.
“I’m pretty cozy. I feel comfortable wearing it,” the mom said. “We have shivered so much, it’s like we are very hydrated. I’m not losing my space.”
Sierra added, “I am not going to be drinking anything. I was in the marching band in high school so I am used to it.”
The bleary-eyed mother-daughter duo said they’ve barely slept since 11:30 p.m. Monday, when they got in line for the festivities.
“We pretty much sprinted from Penn Station to get a good spot,” said Nicole. “We’ve been camping out — no hotel. We slept 20 minutes here and there sitting up.”
They weren’t the only ones lacking shuteye.
Kiila Armwood got on line promptly by 10 a.m. Monday and endured the day’s dreary weather, sitting on the sidewalk just to secure her spot.
“I have not drank anything. I’m not planning on doing so. I don’t do public bathrooms,” she said. “I have not been eating. I’ve been chewing gum all this time and I don’t feel hungry.”
Still, Armwood said, “I’m energized. We’ve been singing and dancing all night. I did not sleep.”
Unlike last year’s New Year’s Eve washout, temperatures Tuesday will peak at about 48 degrees with cloudy skies during the day, then drop to 34 at night with a real-feel temp of 29.