Navy Pier launches immersive Chicago FlyOver experience
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Viewers climb to the top of the Board of Trade building as part of the new "Believe Chicago" experience. Photo courtesy of Flyover by Pursuit
Chicagoans and visitors can now fly over the lake, swoop down Tribune Tower and zoom through Buckingham Fountain, all without leaving their seat in Navy Pier.
Why it matters: It's all part of the "Believe Chicago" FlyOver experience, destined to become a hit with tourists and locals — even skeptics like us.
- The company has already opened FlyOver venues in Canada, Iceland and Las Vegas.
How it works: Visitors reserve tickets ($5-$25) for specific times, show up at the old IMAX space and take in the 30-minute experience in three parts.
- Pro tip: CPS students who present an ID at the box office can score $5 tickets through April 30. Other student groups get $10 rates.
Part one: Soft music plays in a video gallery while guests in the same time slot gather and watch images of neighborhoods, suburbs and landmarks.
- My favorites featured taqueros at Maxwell Street Market and bitter melon gardeners in Chinatown.
Part two: Visitors enter a round pre-show video chamber showing breathtaking cityscapes and a narrated short video that culminates in a performance by the Soul Children of Chicago.
Part three: Guests enter a theater with a 65-foot spherical screen, wind, mist, scents and moving seats that make you swear you're flying over skyscrapers, through The Bean, behind an Air Show plane and inside Navy Pier fireworks.
- I'm still recovering my voice and trying to uncurl my fingers after a virtual ascent up the Board of Trade building that plunges onto LaSalle.
- The film lasts just 9 minutes. I spent 8 of them screaming or "ooh"-ing.
The verdict: This love letter to Chicago offers one of the coolest and most exhilarating local attractions I have ever seen.
- Watch our behind-the-scenes experience here.