Museum of Illusions — Attraction in New York

Upon arrival,

Me and 3 others asked to purchase tickets. Cashier told us that we had to purchase tickets online. Me and my friends proceeded to do that. While we were navigating the website, another person comes in asking to purchase tickets for their family. The same cashier who told us we must purchase online, proceeded to attend these customers by getting them tickets at the register. Another family came in and the cashier once again got the tickets for them at the register. We feel like we were wrongfully serviced. And the other employee was being rude telling us to move out of the way when we were asking about how to navigate the website because it kept glitching. She asked if we were ordering tickets, and before we could respond she say “you guys are in the way and if you are not ordering tickets, you need to go outside”. Which is funny because we were told we couldn’t order tickets at the register to begin with. I was trying to ask for help, but apparently, that’s not an a part of your customer service requirements for your employees.

That’s the first thing.

Additionally, this place has NO structure or organization. There should be employees at each interactive exhibit. We waited for 30 min, for people in a single exhibit. If there was direction the process would be way better. There’s unattended children running throughout the entire facility. It’s like a daycare center. Parents just let the children do whatever they want. I didn’t read online that this was a children’s museum. If it was, I would have wasted $135 on a horrible experience. It’s overpriced and you can’t enjoy a single exhibit.

This place is humid and smells of damp and dirty armpits. That’s probably because of all the kids running around unsupervised stinking up the place. There was also women twerking and and dancing in front of children… the best way to say it, this place is mad ghetto for a NYC museum.

Not that it matters to the company, but I won’t be returning. Waste of my money and time. The customer service...

Considering the price, I expected more. Though far from a bad museum, necessarily, it is a rather lackluster one, especially considering the relatively steep entrance fee. I struggle to think of why someone in New York City, the city with some of the best and most illuminating museums in the world, should choose a relatively stock museum like this. If you have kids, and they love illusions, tricks of the eye, MC Escher paintings, and the like, by all means take them here. They will enjoy it. When I went, the museum was already quite crowded, and families were flocking and racing throughout the relatively cramped confines, a lot of kids and teenagers genuinely excited by the mind warping illusions they saw. Even though the museum's presentation is a little disappointing, to the point that I think a skilled amateur could have done a better job assembling the museum layout, I don't want to fully discount and experience that clearly meant a lot to the kids enjoying it. Then again, I do have a few caveats. The biggest one is, again, the price.

If you have kids, they will need tickets, and so the museum can become rather expensive. For larger families, the family ticket is probably the best option, but that costs a grand total of $75, quite a lot for a tiny museum contained in a rather stately old building that used to be a bank. The small size of the museum is the other major caveat, especially considering that many of the illusions require that one move around, which is not always possible in a relatively claustrophobic space. There are 40 different illusions present, which sounds like a lot at first, but it really isn't, and I doubt even the most enthusiastic children would want to spend more than an hour...

I would say really save your time and money on this one. Upon entering you stand in line and they scan your ticket and give the bracelet. … cool it seems organized. Then when you go in they tell you go left or right. You will get to the illusions no matter what. That’s when the chaos begins. It’s so hard to even spend 2 min at each attraction because it’s so crowded and the number of people is insane. Then the staff do not regulate it what so ever. We were taking a picture in the illusion which is the whole point of this museum when a group of teens walk right in to the room and ruin our photo. Mind you I’m there with my two teens and husband and staff say nothing to them and standing right there. It’s too crowded. There is a no food and drink policy but there were crackers in the illusion on the floor for some reason. Also we won’t get started about how bad the bathrooms are. The smell coming from them. Also no toilet paper ? I went there for a family day with my teens and when we left they both rolled their eyes… stating that place was not worth it mom. I 100 percent agree. This place is not worth maybe 5-10 a person let alone what they are charging. There are much better museums in New York. Also the illusions that are on the wall and not rooms are either broken or impossible to get to look at because some one is going to shove you out the way when trying to admire it. I wouldn’t return overall or...