House of illusions — Attraction in Upravna Enota Ljubljana

"The entrance of desillusion"

Disclaimer: We did not get to experience the ´illusions´ in the house. Only got up to a strong desillusion at the entrance.

But since hospitality is part of the total package for a tourist attraction, I wanted to share our partial experience, below:

After waiting in the queue for 20minutes, we(2adults, 2kids) were next in line to enter. At that point, it suddenly started to rain very, vèry hard, accompanied with strong gusts of wind and ligtning/thunder.

I kindly asked whether we (and the 4 other brave people still queuing behind us) could shelter/continue queuing in the merch shop, which is also the entrance area. This was denied 'because it would be too cramped'.

I can understand the legal/insurance issues involved in admitting too many people in at the same time, but... 1) there was ample room in the merchandise shop, 2) it was an exceptional situation - storm outside - and 3) chances of an inspector popping up from that tempest seemed slim...

After some discussion, we were reluctantly allowed to stand in the entrance door opening to try and keep ourselves semi-sheltered while queuing.

After another 5 mins of waiting there uncomfortably -like sardines in a can-, we were even 'asked' to 'get out of the door opening' so that it could be closed in order for their airco to work. In other words: "Bye! Go away and enjoy your trip through the stormy, pooring weather!"

Dismissing a family with 2 young children in such a heartless manner and such a context is, in my opinion, a really harsh thing to do. Made us feel like being...

Today, on Easter holiday , we were in this museum, at the very beginning was everything great till the young woman at the reception desk was rude to us, because we wanted to buy two photos for 5€ each , because it was a special offer that day, normally they cost 10€ each, but at the moment we were buying them , we were told ( in a rude) manner that we couldn’t, because at the beginning by buying tickets, we were asked if we would buy photos, but actually we were not asked, the girl told us several times that for sure she asked us , because she asks everyone at the reception/ entrance who buys tickets, we , me , my husband and our son were concerned that we weren’t ask about that !( But we bought tickets with special offer from local information centre ( Ljubljana card) and we couldn’t buy photos with that offer ! at the end , she the girl at desk reminded that she didn’t ask us about photos!!!! Then she told that I was rude , but till that moment I wasn’t! I just wanted to be clear, that we weren’t asked about photos before! She, the girl, just wanted to make us a fool! At the end of the, we got these two photos for free , but our mood was spoiled!)

P.S. And then the question to the local Touristik office, why should tourists buy local card if this card...

"We are sorry to hear you didn't enjoy our museum as most of our other visitors do."

This standard reply given by the owners on bad reviews just shows their inability/unwillingness to properly deal with critics and the attempt to turn the reviews against their visitors to allege that they "just don't know how their museum has to be enjoyed". A very disappointing and unprofessional behaviour.

I was there on 31.08.2022 and found the price too high for the 3 small floors of illusions that had seen MANY hands, as one could tell from the worn out surfaces and objects. Also lots of the illusion related images on the walls are often to find on the internet. The items in the interactive area on the ground floor are pretty used, like the "Tower of Hanoi" which has lost a lot of its original coloring and was just in a "fingered" state. Then there was a Jenga tower with box where one could tell that a few pieces were missing.

Really bad on top of that was the nasty bathroom, which looked like a remain of the eastern block era of the country. With the amount of money they rip off people with this place, they could afford several 1st class bathrooms or a general renovation of the museum!

Just spend your money on better...