Bubba woke up so excited for the day! The first thing out of his mouth, when he woke up was “It’s going to be a big day!”
We could see Shedd Aquarium from the 13th floor of our Hilton hotel. This only added to the excitement as we got ready for the day. Little did they all know that we had plans for walking the little more than a mile, since our car had been tucked away into a city parking garage.
Media tickets were provided by Shedd Aquarium for us to come experience. As always I do my best to represent the opinions of each person in our crew that attended.
When we arrived at Shedd Aquarium, we were very happy to have digital tickets. We highly recommend going this route, and purchasing your tickets ahead of time. Not only is there a discount for purchasing in advance, you will also skip a significant line of people waiting to purchase tickets. {2020 Covid Update: You MUST have a time reservation prior to arriving at the aquarium.}
If you chose the City Pass option, and are going to use one of your entrances for the Shedd Aquarium,
you will need to wait in a separate City Pass line in order to redeem your ticket.
If visiting Chicago anytime other than the summer, you will likely have jackets and other things to store away in a locker, do yourself a favor, and budget a locker and save your arms and back!
As soon as you enter, and head off to the right, you will see the Caribbean reef. This giant fish tank instantly drew in all three kiddos. There were all sorts of different aquatic life living in this aquarium. Probably the most famous is Nickel, the green sea turtle. I was instantly drawn to her myself, because it appears as if she is swimming in a peculiar fashion with her hind end straight up in the air. She is a rescue acquired by the aquarium in 2003, so she is no stranger to the spotlight.
Bubba enjoyed watching as sharks, and stingrays swam by. He also pointed out that there were big fish, and little fish. He also made it very clear that he wanted to see more sharks!
Before doing anything else, if you want to see one of the big shows in the Abbot Oceanarium, you need to head downstairs for your tickets included with your admission! At the bottom of the stairs, you will find several kiosks in a hallway. You will need to scan your admission tickets, either on your mobile device, or physical ticket, depending on how you entered. This will allow you to get a reserved seat for the whale and dolphin show later in the day. These are free, but do require a reserved ticket, and do sellout early in the day. When we arrived, we had a choice between the 2 o’clock and 3:30 show. We chose the 2 o’clock show as it fit into Bubba’s nap schedule a little bit better.
Since we had been up for quite a while, and the kids chose swimming over a traditional breakfast, we thought it would be best to fill their bellies before we started to explore the aquarium much deeper.
At the aquarium, you will find many different options for food. On the first level there is a café that overlooks the lake. We almost ate there as it was the first thing we came across, but just off to the side we spotted a sign that indicated that the food court was down one level. When you get to level II, the food court, in my opinion, is not very well marked. Its entrance is located just across from the otter exhibit.
Arriving right around noon, it was unfortunate that we arrived just behind a large organized group. So we did have a little bit of a wait to get our food. When you enter the Bubble Net Food Court it splits off into five different lines, which are a little bit difficult to differentiate when the lines are long. Each window offers a different type of food: Chicago style hot dogs, pizza, chicken bowls, burgers and chicken tenders, and healthy food options. There is also a kids meal option at each window as well, however, the kids meal options are very basic for the price. Though it is nice to have the convenience of a food court, be prepared to pay amusement park prices for all meals here. The silver lining was that if you ask for a chef, you can get your food Gluten Free.
There are also a couple other food stands located throughout the aquarium. As well as an area where you are welcome to bring your own food to have picnic style.
Those of you who travel with littles, be prepared to find no straws available to accommodate your child’s drink. This makes a lot of sense from a turtle conservation standpoint, but it was very comical trying to watch Bubba drink his chocolate milk straight from the carton. We ended up opting for a water glass, and pouring the chocolate milk into the glass, as that is something he is used to drinking from. Many times when we travel, we like to bring along our own silicone straws like these. Honestly this is because so many places are moving in the eco-friendly direction of the paper straw, and if you have ever witnessed a toddler using a paper straw, you would not question this decision.
We did find it very handy that near each drinking fountain, they have a water bottle refill station! This is fantastic for those people who remember to bring their own refillable water bottle like this collapsible travel version!
Once their bellies were full, and they were ready to continue exploring, we headed down to the third level where we found the touch pools as Buddy pointed out, ALL kids like touch pools! In this area, they had touch pools varying in heights, so that all kids could participate in this hands-on experience. Buddy was a little disappointed to find out that all of the items within the touch pools were replicas, and they do not actually contain any real sea life.
However, just behind the touch pools, with a short line, was the sea star exhibit, where you could try to touch many real living sea stars. Bubba was a bit frustrated, because the sea stars in this exhibit are very smart, and stay along the back wall where they know that little hands cannot touch them. (It is hard to stand there watching your child poke at stationary living animals, as gently as possible, without the scene from Finding Dori flashing through your mind!)
Be sure to check the show schedule for the day when you arrive, it can be found here on the Shedd Aquarium website. Because we had done this, we made a plan to visit the Penguins for their 1 o’clock informational session. The penguins were right on the hallway from the touch pool area, and we arrived a little bit before 1 o’clock. Just across from the penguin exhibit, is a climbing area with rocks and slides, so that the littlest penguin in your group can explore as if they are a real little penguin. This was fantastic timing, as Bubba was starting to get restless from having to hold hands and stay close. He has such an adventurous spirit.
After exploring the Penguin exhibits, we ducked around the corner, into a tiny viewing room underwater where we could see the beluga whales up close! These are some amazing creatures! Again, if you think you are going to make it out of this room without hearing the Oooowee sound that Bailey makes in finding Dori, you are sadly mistaken! (Please tell me that my family is not the only one who spends their entire day at an aquarium reciting quotes from Disney’s aquatic movies!)
Off to the side before entering the Oceanarium, there is a side exhibit about the colors and patterns of the ocean. I personally have now decided that if I ever win the lottery, I would like to have a rainbow aquarium divided by color like this one!
Since we were holding a 2 o’clock ticket for the whale and dolphin show, and the kiosk had suggested that we arrive 15 minutes early, around 1:35, we started to head back up to the second level, where the entrance for the Oceanarium can be found. Though we did manage to find seats almost together, three in one row and two in the row above, arriving 20 minutes early, was not nearly early enough.
Almost the entire Oceanarium was filled to capacity by the time we arrived at 1:40, for a 2 o’clock show. At about 1:45, they did start with a little bit of light education/entertainment, about sea turtles, so even if you arrive a little bit early, you will not feel like you are just sitting and waiting. Food and drink are allowed in the Oceanarium, as long as you are not sitting in the first two rows. This might be a great opportunity to pull out a snack, to get you through your afternoon.
One World, the aquarium show, was fantastic! At just about 20 minutes, it was the perfect length for all of our kids. It featured three beautiful beluga whales, three beautiful dolphins, a completely blind sea lio
n, and a red tail hawk.
The animal trainers do come out after the show to answer any questions you might have down near the water tank while the dolphins continued to show off.
If you remember from earlier, Bubba was very interested in seeing sharks on this trip, yet at this point he was also very close to needing a nap! We talked him into Ergo, and headed for the Wild Reef. The Wild Reef can be accessed via an elevator that is in between the two Amazon entrances.
If you are looking for a souvenir photo of your visits, a photographer does take a photo of your family or group as you enter the wild reef area. The Wild Reef has some amazing floor to ceiling aquariums, filled with all sorts of aquatic beauties. Unfortunately, Bubba was unable to hang with us until we got to the main shark tank, and even though we woke him up when we arrived, later in the day he asked why we never saw the sharks? Here’s the photo Bubba, to prove that you were there!
After having walked over a mile to get to the aquarium, and exploring for about four hours, Buggie and Buddy were starting to hit a wall. However, they spotted the virtual reality kiosk near the exit, and asked if they could participate in that. Buddy pointed out that it got five stars for educational experience, and you all know that I am a sucker for educational experiences.
Instead of just being a virtual reality headset, each person sits in a little pod that has a speaker system within it. During the experience, the entire pod moves around as you supposedly swim through the ocean. There were times that the humpback whale encounters were a little too intense for Buggie, and I noticed that she was turning her head almost all the way backwards to avoid seeing whatever was in front of her. Buddy really enjoyed it, however Buggie said that she would probably not want to go again anytime soon, because it was a little too scary for her.
From a mama perspective, the Shedd Aquarium was the perfect mix of experiences from young to old. There were lots of educational exhibits, including lots of things to read for the older folks. There was a pretty decent amount of hands on experiences for the younger ones as well, to help fully immerse them in the concepts being delivered.
Due to the amount of time we spent exploring, and just the nature of where Bubba’s nap naturally fell, we did not have time to experience one of the 4D movies that are available to watch. Next time, I would look ahead at the movie times to fit one in, probably opting to bring a picnic lunch instead spend that money on a movie experience for the older kids.
Be sure to grab a photo of the Chicago Cityline before you leave the museum campus! With our late arrival, we pretty much closed down the aquarium, and even though we were all pretty tired when we left, I think we could have spent a few more hours exploring all of the exhibits, especially if we added a 4D movie in as well. The conclusion is that Shedd Aquarium can certainly be a full day experience for your family. We felt that three hours would be an absolute minimum to even begin to scratch the surface. This is a great option for rainy, cold, or hot days in Chicago.
