Skydeck Chicago — Attraction in Chicago

(Overview and Facts): For those who don’t know, the Skydeck is essentially a giant glass box you can stand in to take in the view of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. 103 stories up, the box offers extraordinary views of the city in three directions, including straight down towards the city below. There are five boxes, or ledges, each with clear glass about 1.5 inches thick and can support up to 10,000 pounds. When maintaining the ledges is needed, they can retract into the building for easy cleaning, including under the ledge. It’s complete with a gift shop and a station of where you can pick up physical printed copies of photos taken of you by the staff. (Price): Though the views are very beautiful, reserving a ticket for basic entry is… pricey 😬. For an adult, the price for one ticket is upwards of about $40, and one for a child is around $30. Because Chicago is a place where there are lots of family activities, tourists will likely bring their family along. For big families or groups visiting the Skydeck, the cost can rise fairly quickly. Also, photos taken by the staff members can be picked up physically at the end of your reservation, but picking up two photos (at least for me) cost more than $20 and is completely separate from the charge for the original access. This is why I’m personally deducting a star, but you can decide for yourself. If you’re a photographer or love city views, this may be worth every penny, but it might be expensive to others. I’ll also explain the process of check-in so you can better decide if this is a good place to visit. (Process Step 1 — Check in) We ordered our tickets online, and a barcode was made available on my phone. Once you’ve tracked down the barcode, find the elevator in Willis Tower and choose one that goes to LL2 (keep in mind this is below the main floor). Check the nearby displays to see if tickets for your reservation time are accepted, and then go to the check-in counter to display the code(s). A staff member will scan each one (if applicable) and allow you to pass through to security. (Step 2 — Security and Pictures) For safety, the team checks bags and people to ensure nothing crazy happens 100 stories in the air. If you have a bag, you’ll be directed to feed it into an X-Ray machine, and anything in your pockets or objects that aren’t in your bags will be set into a plastic bin temporarily. Then you’ll walk through a full-body metal detector in a similar manner as you would at an airport. You can collect your bags and items when you’re done with your check. You can walk through a photo shoot and have a picture taken of you (this is NOT for security reasons) and you’ll be handed a postcard. Then you may proceed onto the exhibit. Note you’re still on LL2, but you’ll go up soon. (Step 3 — Exhibit) There’s a brief walk through an exhibit that displays the history of Chicago, such as common foods, music, the L-train system, a fire, and famous people. There’s a bathroom in the exhibit. (Step 4 — Elevator and Navigation) At the end of the exhibit, take the elevator up 103 floors (which takes a minute). To get to the ledges, turn left after exiting the elevator and follow nearby signage. On your way there, you can also explore a gift shop and freely look out big windows over the city. Note these are average windows and are not the ledges. (Step 4 — The Ledge) You may now wait in the line for entrance to the ledge. A staff member will direct you to go to a specific one when it’s your turn, and will prompt you for the postcard that was given to you earlier. They’ll scan it, then direct you into the ledge. A photo will be taken that you can pick up later at the photo station after you get off the elevator down. After the staff member takes a photo, you have approximately 90 seconds to take your own photos or view the city from above before you must exit towards the elevator down. Staff members will time you via an iPad mounted to the wall by the ledge. If you want more time, you can rejoin the line. (Step 5 — Exit) Follow the line towards the elevator...

This place is amazing. It humors me that the place was built to hold long lines, because the whole walk to the elevator was a museum of sorts. The place seemed to show some history of the building and of Chicago itself. You enter a building with a beautiful interior. (Shown in the last picture) You then go down 2 pairs of escalators into the area where you purchase and scan tickets. Once there, the attraction begins. You begin walking your way to the elevator, crossing, entering, and discovering new rooms as you go. Each room is its own museum exhibit, in a way, showing an insight into every aspect of what Chicago is. One room talks about food, with amazing illusions like making one slice appear whole with mirrors. Other rooms explained the history and impact of music in Chicago. Others explained other parts, like the subway trains. Others were simple gallery walks. But even those felt mesmerizing. Lastly, you finally make your way to the elevator, where you are escorted in. This is no ordinary elevator, however. The walls of the elevator are actually screens, and the turn on, beginning with a shot of the Great Chicago Fire. Speakers begin to play a presentation of the building, beginning with the Chicago Fire and how its construction started. Note that the elevator goes up at extreme speeds, and the air pressure quickly affects your ears, so have chewing gum or something to help at your disposal. As the presentation ends, so does the elevator trip. Now is one of the exciting parts: Seeing Chicago from such heights. I'll be clear, Chicago looks beautiful even from ground level perspectives, but this sky high view was something else. This view was so dazzling, and the Sun setting really took it to the next level. After that you have the choice to go onto "The Ledge”, a glass box placed outside the boundary of the building. This is the most boring, yet most anticipated part. Waiting for you turn is excruciating, even with the knowledge that every party only gets 90 seconds for pictures. After that, you wait in another line for the elevator, and the show's over. I like that the anticipation built from the ground up (pun intended) from the bottom is so perfectly capped with the views from the Skydeck and The Ledge I can't help but leave a high rating. I fully and wholly recommend this to someone willing to take a journey and a few pictures at...

We really enjoyed our time at Skydeck! It does seem a little pricey, but it's worth the experience.

Upon entering after your start time, you will walk through a museum of history and fun interactive Chicago locations that you can take pictures with before you get in line to ride the elevator. Kinda cool to read about the building in addition to other popular places in the Chicago downtown area.

We went on a Thursday at 1pm and it did not seem very busy.

Riding the elevator up to the 103rd floor only takes a couple minutes. They will pack as many people as possible inside...

When you reach the top they have snacks and other items for sale. You can walk around as long as you want and view out any of the windows besides the ledge.

When you get to the ledge, there will be a total of 5 ledges you can walk out on. Don't worry about the 60-90 seconds on the ledge. When we were there, they gave every group 2 minutes on the ledge and you can go as many times as you want!

They form two lines. I would recommend to go to the farthest line as it is a line for 2 ledges, as the other line is for 3 ledges, so it takes longer. We were easily able to go 3-4 times and we only waiting maybe 15 minutes or so.

When you start at the very beginning with the virtual experience, they will take your picture and give you a card. Keep the card. When you get on the ledge, they will want to scan it and then take your picture on the ledge too.

As far as pictures go, I would highly recommend to buy the photo. For $30 you get a couple prints in addition to the digital copies and if you want more prints, they're like $10 extra.

It's nice to buy the picture as they will have proper lighting to light you from the front as the outside is so bright. It was pretty cloudy for themes part and then it started to clear up a bit and the sun came out a little. Either way, worth it to get a nice picture if all you have is a cell phone.

You can see what the photo looks like as it is watermarked in the top left corner. All other photos in the review were taken with a Canon r5.

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