By: Tangled Diva
I am a big baseball fan and trying to raise my son to be one too. So, for his birthday this year, I took him (along with my grandmother) to Chicago for the weekend to tour Wrigley Field and watch a White Sox game. While reading a fellow Diva’s article, I discovered that the D23 Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives was on exhibit in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry while we were going to be there (I can’t stress here enough the importance of reading the articles, because had it not been for the article, I would have completely missed this).
In order to go to the exhibit, you had to purchase a ticket to the museum and an additional ticket for the exhibit. There are lots of ticket options that give you admission to the museum and a varying number of exhibits. Museum entry is $17 and the varying ticket options that will allow you to see the Disney Treasures exhibit range from $26-35 depending on how many “extra” exhibits you want to see. The exhibit is on display in Chicago until May 4, 2014.
If this exhibit comes anywhere near you, I highly recommend taking it in. It is well worth your time and money. For those that have been to WDW, it is very similar to One Man’s Dream in Hollywood Studios but on a much grander scale. They say it takes about 40 minutes to go through this exhibit, and I would venture to say 25-30 of those minutes will be spent reading interesting and fun facts about Walt Disney himself, Disney films, the making of the films, the characters in the film, and other not-so-well-known facts about Disney history. It is also filled with Disney props and replicas from some of the famous and not-so-famous Disney films as well as some things from Mr. Disney’s personal collection. One of my favorite displays—Mary Poppins—included the costumes from their outing in the park, the toy blocks from the “Spoonful of Sugar” sequence, the water globe Julie Andrews holds while singing “Feed the Birds,” my favorite, her carpet bag, and more!
I am told that the exhibit is constantly changing, so even if you’ve already seen it, it may be worth a second trip in case they add things or if you missed something the first round. It is so much to take in, that it would be very easy to miss something.
One warning I will give is that it is not extremely kid-friendly. There are things for kids to do—tablets with activities for the kids, Disney trivia, and even a drawing studio where they can learn to draw a favorite Disney character—but it is a LOT of reading. My 7-year old did not like the exhibit at all and could not wait to get out. He practically drug me through the whole exhibit, so I really didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I could have had I not had him with me. In fact, if I had it to do again, I would not have bought tickets for him or my grandmother and just let them stay in the main part of the museum. There was so much that I missed because of being rushed. Probably the only thing he liked in the entire exhibit was Cinderella’s castle made of Legos.
I am so glad that Dreamin’ Diva wrote her Bucket List article without which I would have never known about this exhibit being in Chicago while we were visiting. I cannot seem to find where the exhibit his heading next, but check the facebook page for updates, and I will post there once I find out where it will be next!
* And it looks like the exhibit will continue to run in Chicago until August, so you have plenty of time to go check it out! *
Looks like a great display of Disney history. The lego castle is cool as well. Thanks for sharing!