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Roller skating returns to Rockefeller Center for the first time in decades

Roller skating returns to Rockefeller Center for the first time since the 1940s 01:48

NEW YORK -- So long ice. It's time to roll at Rockefeller Center! Roller skating is back for the first time in 80 years.

A roller rink hasn't taken up the plaza since the 1940s.

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Roller skating in Rockefeller Center in 1940. New York Public Library

Rockefeller Center has been transformed into Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace, named after a disco style skating rink in Los Angeles from the 1970s, CBS2's Cindy Hsu reported Friday.

Andrea and Selena Alfonse have been skating since they were four. 

"We love skating so much," Andrea said. 

"It's literally the best time," Selena said. 

Hsu found some first timers who have fallen in love with the sport. 

"So what's the best thing about skating?" Hsu asked. 

"Probably that I go fast and - I don't know how to explain it, but it just gives me this good feeling," said 9-year-olld Camilla Danus. 

The same goes for roller skaters who've been doing this for years. Kassity Flores and Melody Olivera say this is their exercise.

"You use every muscle in your body. We've done it for, like, up to five hours, sometimes. When you're having fun it doesn't feel like a work out," Olivera said. 

The rink is open seven days a week, and until midnight Thursdays through Saturdays. Tickets are $20 for adults and $12 for kids.

You can skate through October before it eventually transforms back into ice.

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