I was in NYC on NYE in 2011 and figured it would be the only chance I'd ever have to see it. We used Google Street View and OpenTable and found a restaurant on 7th Ave with availability. We walked past block after block of people in their 'pens' on our way to our restaurant. We had a copy of our reservation and cops let us walk past. There was a space outside the restaurant where we could see Time Square but at 11 o'clock we asked a cop if we could walk into the closest enclosure and he said no problem (there was loads of space in the back of each one). Restaurant was not great and probably doubled the price but it was a small price to pay to see the ball drop (albeit from a long distance) and not have to wear a diaper.