TOURIST LINED UP ALL DAY TO WATCH THE BALL DROP IN TIME SQUARE!

Revelers wearing party hats and 2011 glasses packed Times Square last night as confetti rained down and a crystal ball dropped into the New Year for a once-in-a-lifetime New York experience.

"It's awesome!" German nanny Katrina Luther, 19, squealed as she stood among the celebrating crush in the Crossroads of the World.

"It's indescribable," her friend Barbara Windish, 18, exclaimed just moments after midnight. "It was definitely worth it."

The buildup to the big moment began hours earlier, as revelers from across the globe staked out real estate for the event.

"We wanted to cross it off our bucket list," Charlotte Cooper, 25, said.

She and her friend Melissa Castrogiovanni, 17, parked themselves against a stage cordoned off by police barricades at 46th St. and Broadway at 9 a.m.

The Clinton, N.J., duo vowed not to budge from the coveted spots until 2011.

"We are not leaving," Castrogiovanni said.

They were prepared for near-freezing temperatures and no access to bathrooms or food after 6 p.m. just to say they had spent a New Year's in Times Square.

"We went to the bathroom at 8:30 a.m.," Castrogiovanni said. "We said goodbye to the toilets."

But at 3:30 p.m., as the crowd swelled and police lined up, they also said goodbye to their choice location. Cops booted everyone inside the cordoned section to do security checks.

Castrogiovanni and Cooper ended up a block south - still close to the ball drop, but farther from the entertainment.

By then, the New Year's Eve revelry was ratcheting up. "Happy New Year's" cheers and noisemakers swept through Times Square.

Some of the partyers were decked out in costumes, while others flashed cardboard signs that included: "THE BRONX Faith Hope Love," "Hello 2011 Alaska" and "Happy New Year to Our Troops."

There were also foreigners showcasing their country, carrying Brazilian, Canadian and South African flags.

Yoshi Watanabe, 30, bravely bared his body to the elements while dancing for dollars. The Tokyo native was dressed in a vest, a belly-dancer's miniskirt and pharaoh's hat.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime event that I wanted to do," Watanabe said.

Canadians Alicia Flood-Phillips, Rebecca Kruger and Tanya Coutts were also spending New Year's Eve in Times Square for the first time.

"Why wouldn't you want to come?" Flood-Phillips, 23, asked. "They don't have anything like this in Canada."

She and her friends added a little sartorial touch from their homeland: lumberjack hats and mittens from the Vancouver Olympics.

By 8 p.m., some pizza delivery guys figured out they could make a killing off the corralled crowd.

They were slinging pies for $20 a pop and people behind barricades were gobbling them up.

Greg Packer, 47, a retired maintenance worker from Huntington, N.Y., ate an entire pizza. It was his eighth New Year's Eve in Times Square.

"I love it," he said. "I mean, everybody from all over the world comes just to watch a Waterford crystal ball. It's great."

As midnight neared, a gaggle of Marines stationed at Ballston, N.Y., were rocking out to Rick Springfield.

"I'm from Wisconsin, so this is pretty crazy," said Petty Officer William Hokenstad, 21. "I'm not used to so many people."

Bianca Trevino, 21, of Fort Bragg, N.C., was clutching a sign high above her head and mouthing the words to "Backstreet Boys" songs as the band performed.

The sign read:

"Gas for travel $300

Gloves hats and socks $25

A Times Square New Year's Eve with the Backstreet Boys: priceless."



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