Unpopular opinion: free museum days in Chicago are actually the worst time to go

Last month I took my niece to the Field Museum on their free admission Thursday and we spent 40 minutes just getting through the coat check line. I get that free sounds great, but you cant see anything when theres 2,000 people crammed into the same three galleries. Three years ago I paid the $25 ticket on a random Tuesday and walked straight to the Sue exhibit with maybe 15 other people around. Has anyone else figured out that paying a little extra actually saves you the whole afternoon?

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1 Comment

reese_lane2914d ago

The coat check line is the real reveal here, not the crowd. People who go on free days bring bags and strollers and all this stuff they would never haul on a paid visit, so the whole building turns into a storage warzone. I went on a free Monday once and the dinosaur hall was fine, but the elevator wait was 10 minutes because everyone had a cooler or a wagon. Paid days force you to travel light and move fast, which honestly makes the museum better. The ticket price is basically a filter for people who actually want to look at bones instead of treating the place like a mall food court.