The Rink at Rockefeller Center opens its 90th season, with a 34-foot Kenny Scharf creature next door

Ice skating is back in Midtown. The Rink at Rockefeller Center opened for the season Saturday morning, marking 90 years of skating at Rockefeller Center, ABC7 reported.

The first skaters hit the ice at 9 a.m., according to the station. Rockefeller Center says skating on the rink has been a New York tradition since 1936.

Tickets and getting in

• Price: General skate tickets start at $22, according to Rockefeller Center. A VIP skate, with a 60-minute session, priority entry, skate rental and a heated lounge, starts at $131.
• Hours: The rink is open daily, ABC7 reported. Rockefeller Center says detailed seasonal hours will be posted soon, so check before you go.
• Entrance: Skaters enter on the Rink Level under 30 Rock, next to Daily Provisions, from 49th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Elevators are at street level on both 49th and 50th streets.
• Rules: All guests need a ticket, including non-skaters; chaperone tickets are sold for adults accompanying skaters. Children under 6 must skate with an adult and children 7 to 13 must be supervised. Phones, cameras and personal belongings are not allowed on the ice. Rentals are available, and free lockers hold small items.

A giant orange creature in Center Plaza

The rink shares the spotlight this month with a new public art installation. Art Production Fund and Rockefeller Center opened Kenny Scharf's Scary and the Dancers! on Oct. 9. Its centerpiece is a 34-foot inflatable figure in Scharf's hot-orange and cobalt palette, a riff on the Halloween lawn inflatable, ringed by six "dancing" sculptures modeled on the air dancers found at car dealerships. The fund calls it the artist's largest sculptural commission to date.

The show spreads across the campus, with Scharf works in the lobbies of 30, 10 and 50 Rockefeller Plaza, an installation of his Cosmic Cavern in vitrines at 45 Rockefeller Plaza and more than 100 artist-designed flags on the center's flagpoles. It is on view through Nov. 1.

Families can join Art Sundae, a free children's workshop where kids paint planters inspired by Scharf's characters, from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, Oct. 10, 17, 24 and 31, according to Art Production Fund.

What's next

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is scheduled to arrive Nov. 7, according to ABC7 and Art Production Fund.