The experience is worth 5 stars, however, the entirety was 4 stars for me. We had so many questions going into this. There should be some type of brochure to hand out with info on how the experience will go. Unless of course there were some and we just didn't see them. So here's the info I have for anyone with the types of questions we had!

You will purchase tickets on the bottom floor either from a kiosk or a ticket booth. Kiosk is faster but not the most user friendly. A lot of times selecting what you want it hard and you have to keep going back. The prices are a bit much. Especially the expedited passes. Which to be ho est is not worth getting after you have all this info. After purchasing tickets you will be able to browse a gift shop, with items and souvenirs that cost more than a nice dinner for two. We bought zero souvenirs. You will then wait in a large area for your time slot to go up. Once your time slot is on the screen you will get in a very fast moving line where someone scans your tickets. The biggest question we had was that the ticket booth said this is a timed experience. We didn't want to miss anything but had no idea how much time we would have before it all even started so we felt rushed. DON'T RUSH! There is no need to. We did rush because we were worried we wouldn't have enough time for everything. You can 100 percent take your time with everything, except for the actual skydeck. Which I will get to.

Once your ticket is scanned you will go for a lengthy walk through hallways and rooms covered in info about Chicago and it's history and the tower and some pretty cool facts. If you go fast it's about 10 minutes. If you go slow you can take all the time you need reading everything and learning. After you make it through the info section you will wait in a line to board the elevator. On a busy Saturday we waited about an hour. You will still wait even if you have expedited tickets but will get to pass the long line.

Once boarding the elevator, with a very uncomfortable amount of people that just doesn't seem safe, the elevator is covered wall to wall in screens that tells you how fast it travels and other info. It's a smooth ride that only lasts about a minute.

Once you reach the top its all windows. You can look out, take photos, take your time, take in the view. Buy more overpriced souvenirs, chill, and enjoy. You may be a bit disappointed by the guy that cleans the windows because when we went they looked awful. But I would assume it's very difficult to keep those windows clean on a regular base.

After this 360 view of the city you will then wait in another line for the actual skydeck. Since the elevator only holds so many, the line isn't all that long. We waited about 30 minutes. They will tell you to step onto the skydeck and they will take your photo so fast that you didn't even know where the camera was. And then they will place 4 people at a time In each sky deck, where they pick what corner you get (which sucks for a photographer because we know what lighting is best for which corner. You then have 90 seconds to take as many photos as you can while you're in the skydeck box. But don't worry, if you want more photos you are allowed to get back in line and do it again! This is the only timed part they refer to. Everything else is done at your own pace.

That's basically it, once you're done you get a little bit more viewing and then wait in a short line to hop back on the elevator to go down. It's a quick ride down and a quick walk out. No waiting.

Overall it's definitely a really cool experience and I'd suggest at least doing it once! The price could definitely be a little cheaper especially considering large families who are here as tourists, who have already paid for large hotel rooms and ridiculous priced parking.