I have lived in the Chicago land area for my entire life, yet like most Chicago natives I had never been to the Sear’s (always and forever) Tower! Making an outing to the Sears Tower became much more enticing after seeing the pictures of the new Sky Deck. Since the whole event is about as touristy as it gets, there are a few things you should know before buying tickets:
- Check bargain websites for discounted tickets. Tickets are $20 per adult but be on the lookout for discounted tickets and pricing through bargain websites like Living Social and Groupon. I bought our tickets on Living Social at a slight discount so we spent $15 per ticket as opposed to the normal $20 pricing. You can buy tickets there as well. Unless you have bought the more expensive ticket ($45- the Fast Pass) even if you bought your ticket ahead of time, you will still have to wait in line with everyone else.
- You will wait in line and actually enjoy it.Even if you do not see a line outside the building you will wait in line for 2 hours. Matt and I went on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and felt naively optimistic about our wait time since there was no visible line when we walked up to the building. Normally, when I walk by the entrance to the Sky Deck the line flows out of the building and down the street. However, we ended up waiting in line for 2 hours in an intricate line that flowed through the building. The wait time actually went surprisingly quickly since the line flowed through galleries with interesting facts about Chicago and Chicago history. We even got to watch a short movie about the history of the Sears Tower. All in and all, although the wait was much longer than we had expected it was surprisingly enjoyable.
- You will wait in another line once you reach the 103rd floor to go out on the Sky Deck. Once we reached the 103rdfloor observatory, we were surprised to see that we would have to wait in line again to walk out onto the Sky Deck boxes. The wait for the boxes was not very long, but we still waited for about 15 minutes to step out into a Sky Deck box.
- You will not be alone. All the pictures taken in a Sky Deck box make it appear like you have the whole box to yourself. Not the case. The lines filter about 3 different people into the Sky Deck Boxes at a time. If you go during the weekend, you will likely be standing in a small area of the box and then have to leave after about 5 minutes to allow someone else to step out.
- You will be more impressed than you had thought you would be. I was surprised by how high up we were. It was very cool to look down at the Trump tower and see how much the other buildings paled in comparison to the Sears Tower. The view was totally different than anything I had seen at the Trump etc. just because you are looking down at everything. The Sky Deck is also more amazing than I thought it would be. The cleanness of its design really adds to the scare factor of the whole experience. I looked down and my stomach dropped. I did not look down again…
- You can eat Pizza here! For $100 per person you can purchase the “Pie in the Sky” dining experience where Giordano’s Pizza provides you with a 3 course catered menu after hours at the Sky Deck Ledge. To book your date night here, click here.
