Things to do at Navy Pier
There's plenty of entertainment value at Navy Pier!
Many top city attractions on the pier include live outdoor music, the starting point to some of the city's best lakeshore cruises, tours and boat rides, interactive games, shops, and cultural attractions. Here are some of the top things to do at Navy Pier below.
The Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Experience cultural performances at its finest with several theater spaces indoors and outdoors that produce as many as 19 plays and 650 performances a year.
Theaters include the Jentes Family Courtyard Theatre with 500 seats and three seating levels designed to mirror England's Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre or the Yard. This new stage features "towers" that allow performances to have varying sizes of audiences from 150 to 850 ticket holders. Watch for a lineup of performances, including Shakes Fest, All Is Well That Ends Well, and modern performances like The Notebook: A Musical. Find out the lineup of stage productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre here.
Chicago Children's Museum
Make it a family day at the Chicago Children's Museum for all-day fun on three floors of hands-on, interactive exhibits. There is something every child, including babies to toddlers, Ages 4-8 years and 9+ years. Exhibits include
- The Dinosaur exhibition, where children become little archeologists and discover bones.
- Budding artists can hone their creativity at the art studio while they paint, sew, sketch, sculpt and mold a variety of masterpieces and designs.
- Within the museum is the Chicago Fire Department-sponsored exhibit called "Play It Safe," a space that allows kids to dress up as a firefighter, drive the fire truck, and put out a "fire."
- Kids can climb and play on the multi-leveled Cloud Buster - a 37-foot kids zone where participants climb, crawl, leap, and traverse through the structure, including the section "Apartment" that resembles a real-life apartment.
- Scale a three-story schooner from the cargo hold to the crow's nest.
- Make a big splash in a squirting, pumping water playground (raincoats provided!).
- Tinker with real tools and materials in the ultimate DIY maker space.
- Construct a skyscraper, fish in a river, shop in a grocery store, and much more.
Visit the Chicago Children's Museum website to discover all the activities and exciting program calendars.
The Centennial Wheel
It's a show-stopping centerpiece of Navy Pier that thrills riders year-round. The illuminated 196-foot-high Ferris Wheel seats over 500 people at a time, towering over Chicago's scenic shoreline and Navy Pier. Look west to get beautiful views of the Chicago city skyline and east for views of Lake Michigan.
The Centennial Wheel is perfect at sunset or after dark, especially in the summer time when you can catch a fireworks display on Wednesday and Saturday nights from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend or the biggest fireworks showcase on New Year's Eve. (Note that 360 CHICAGO is an ideal vantage point to watch the Navy Pier Fireworks from above.)