It has always been my favorite museum since I was a kid and now my kids enjoy it. By now some of the exhibits on the upper floors are showing their age, but it looks like major revisions are in the works. The special traveling exhibits keep the musem fresh, but the U-505, coal mine, train story, and Idea factory are always stops with the family.

It is away from the loop, which does require a little work to get to by bus or car. Nice parking garage and cost is not bad for Chicago.

Yes the time around Christmas Around the World the museum will be very crowded! Most other times of the year it will not be bad.

First off, something needs to be said about the neighborhood. I notice other reviewers say its "horrible". I need to tell you that its not. It sounds like some people just aren't used to being around black people. Its perfectly safe to visit the MSI-- there are much more dangerous places in Chicago.

But now about the museum itself: it is a treasure! There are tons of fascinating exhibits. The U-Boat is the biggest attraction, but the museum also has impressive model trains, aircraft, tractors, space flight exhibits, and other fun "sciency" things.

The downside is that the special exhibits are usually fairly pricey on top of an already expensive price of admission. A family of four could easily drop $100 if they wanted to see some special exhibits or the omnimax theater. Of course, its all relative-- movie theater tickets and snacks can could also be an expensive outing, but you won't have as much fun and it certainly wouldn't be as educational!

I had not been to the museum since I was 12 years old and decided to stop back on a recent trip. I found that I still had a really good time there and would love to go back with kids. I'm surprised by some of the negative reviews because there is so much to see and do there. We went during the week which meant that there was barely anyone there. Some things are under construction but I still left feeling I had learned new things.

Under no circumstances should you go to this museum any time around Christmas. We went planning to see the Christmas tree exhibit and to leisurly explore the museum....this did not happen. There were 6,000 screaming children running around EVERYWHERE. This is not an exaggeration, a security guard told us that they had over 6,000 children in the museum that day. This prohibitted us from being able to even remotely enjoy the museum. It's also quite far away from the heart of downtown Chicago and not worth the trip. The museum itself is probably nice, if you can go there when there won't be school field trips running around everywhere.