[2024] A Review of the Museum of Illusions in Cleveland

The Vortex Room was my personal favorite illusion!

A decorated wall with the Museum of Illusions name on it. This is at the end of the museum in their downtown Cleveland OH location at 200 Euclid Ave Ste 130 Cleveland OH 44114.

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After a marketing representive from the Museum of Illusions was impressed with my article addressing whether Cleveland is worth visiting, I was invited to attend the opening of their new location in downtown Cleveland for free on May 31st, 2024.

A huge honor-- especially considering that the company has currently 40+ locations worldwide!

The exhibits at this family-friendly funhouse are a psychedelic delicacy-- enthralling for guests of all ages! My best friend who accompanied me to the museum had a wonderful time, as did I. We will both visit again.

Most of the illusions are astonishing. There were a couple I didn't find that captivating.

As someone whose city travels frequently include trips to museums, here is my honest review of the brand new Cleveland Museum of Illusions location!

IN THIS ARTICLE...

[2024] A Review of the Museum of Illusions in Cleveland

Admission fee & location

For their downtown Cleveland location, the Museum of Illusions picked an ideal spot!

The Museum of Illusions in downtown Cleveland OH is only about a minute's walk from Public Square and a few minutes walk from other popular downtown Cleveland destinations like Playhouse Square and Corner Alley. — The museum is only about a minute's walk from Public Square.

The museum resides at 200 Euclid Avenue at Suite 130-- only about a minute's walk from Public Square.

It is also a couple minute's walk from other popular downtown attractions like Playhouse Square and Corner Alley. It's a hub in the city that receives a bountiful amount of foot traffic. A highly convenient location!

The entrance to the downtown Cleveland location of the Museum of Illusions on their opening day Friday May 31 2024. — The entrance off Euclid Avenue to the museum on their opening day.

To purchase tickets for the Cleveland location, you can either buy tickets online or purchase them during walk-in. Tickets are a couple dollars cheaper if you buy them online.

The Museum of Illusions requires you to pick a time when you will visit. However, one incredible option they offer is their Flexible ticket, which grants you the freedom to enter the museum at any time offered during the day!

My friend and I both selected the Flexible tickets, especially since we were commuting from Detroit, which is about a two-and-a-half hour drive, assuming no traffic nor stops.

The Flexible ticket, whether bought online or at walk-in, costs $32. For an adult (13+) ticket with a specified time, the ticket is $24 online or $26 at walk-in.

Review of the museum

One of the first exhibits you see in the Museum of Illusions in their downtown Cleveland location is this Nicola Tesla exhibit. The eyes follow you everywhere. — Just like the Mona Lisa, his eyes always lock with yours wherever you walk!

The Museum of Illusions is a hybrid of a self-guided and guided tour. At every exhibit, there is a museum employee standing by who will explain in detail the illusion you're about to see and where to stand to best experience it.

The first illusion we saw near the entrance was the Nicola Tesla exhibit.

It's a very simple exhibit to participate in. Just like how pretty much everyone knows of how the eyes of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting always seem to follow you, same with the Nicola Tesla exhibit.

The kind gentleman who was standing beside this exhibit explained to us the reason the eyes always "follow" you is due to its concave design-- meaning it curves inward-- whereas the human eye is convex-- curving outward. Pretty cool trivia!

A two person kaleidoscope exhibit. Image is of author looking through one side of the kaleidoscope at the Museum of Illusions in downtown Cleveland — A two person kaleidoscope exhibit. My friend took this fun picture of me.

The exhibit to the left of the Nicola Tesla was a giant kaleidoscope. Like several attractions in this museum, this one is best experienced with two people-- so I'd highly recommend bringing at least one person with you when you come here!

The viewport is large enough for you and your friend to stick a smartphone inside and capture some fun videos and photos!

A simple enlarged variation of a children's toy and yet, one both my friend and I really got a kick out of.

A chair illusion exhibit at MOI Cleveland. — I am NOT sitting in a chair. Yes, you read that correctly. Find out why below!

The next exhibit is best experienced with two people. One person stands at a spot marked on the floor and another person sits in the corner. To the person standing, it appears as if the other person is sitting in a chair.

However, it is not a chair. The other person is only sitting on a rectangular box and the other pieces are arranged further away from it. The different sizes and calculated distances of the other pieces from the box create the illusion, when standing at a certain angle, of a chair!

The Vortex Room at MOI Cleveland. — Imagine the encompassing walls spinning. This is inside the Vortex Room.

Moving forward, I am intentionally going to go out of order and feature some of my favorite attractions in the museum. The first one? The Vortex Room!

Look at that picture above. The blue walls are constantly rotating. Because of this, when you walk on the platform, it feels and even looks as if the platform is moving too! Your balance is really thrown off! You can't walk a straight line! Feels like you're drunk.

Even standing in my signature angled hands-in-pocket pose was rather difficult to maintain! I loved it!

This exhibit does have a warning to avoid if you are prone to motion sickness.

head on a platter illusion at MOI Cleveland. — What could happen to me if I wrote a terrible review! Kidding.

Like the comical and fun "head-on-a-platter" illusion, several of the illusions in the museum arrange mirrors in a very clever way.

Below is an image of the "Cloning Table" that make it look like I was playing a game of cards by myself. I imagined myself as Daniel Craig's rendition of James Bond in the 2006 film Casino Royale when he plays Texas Hold'Em against the film's villain in Montenegro.

A cool illusion using mirrors to create an illusion of someone sitting with multiple versions of themselves from different angles called the Cloning Table at MOI Cleveland. — Unlike the Bond film, I wasn't able to order a Vesper!

Perhaps the most fun room using mirrors was one of the museum's "Infinity Rooms". As the name suggests, the mirrors are arranged in a fun way to where you see seemingly infinite reflections of you in the space in the room!

You walk in a room and the museum employee closes the door behind you so the entire room is all mirrors! After spending just a few seconds inside and moving around, I had forgotten which mirror was the exit!

And that's all part of the fun!

One of the Infinity Rooms at MOI Cleveland. — My friend Nina and I inside one of the museum's "Infinity Room"'s.

This illusion looks like a bottomless chasm. I stood and arched over a large glass structure with my phone pointed down. Here is the picture I took:

An illusion of a bottomless hole at MOI Cleveland. — Good thing I can't fall down this!

Here is the last illusion I'm going to give attention to in the article-- one involving 3D printed letters. When you stand and look at the letters at one angle, it spells out a word. When looking from the left...

3D printed letters at MOI Cleveland. — The word 'MAGIC' spelled out with 3D printed letters.

... but then, you walk slowly to the right, and you see the word:

Between exhibits, there are plenty of smaller decorations on the wall with optical illusions. Many of them will trick you into thinking lines are curved when they really aren't or that objects on the painting are moving when, again, they're not moving.

Here are other miscellaneous accolades I have for the Cleveland location: the staff were all very friendly and informative. The museum was clean. They even gave you free brownies when you left the museum-- though, I'm not sure if this was just for opening day or not!

You'll have to let me know if there weren't free brownies!

Overall, my friend and I spent about a good 75 minutes in the museum. Worth every penny!

Author at the end of the museum at MOI Cleveland. — A fun picture you can take at the end of the museum commemorating your visit there!

Is what's shown in this article every illusion you'll encounter in the museum? Definitely not-- I'd rather not spoil the whole experience for you. These are just my personal highlights.

In the introduction, I mentioned there were perhaps two or three illusions I didn't like that much. Rather than devote any additional time to criticize them, I just omitted them as well from the article.

Just because I may not appreciate something doesn't mean another visitor will think the same. I'd prefer to not say anything negative further about a company who welcomed me in free of charge and who provided my friend and I a memorable experience!

About the Museum of Illusions

The first Museum of Illusions is a relatively new "edutainment" museum chain, having opened its first location in Zagreb, Croatia in 2015.

Over the span of just under a decade, the Museum of Illusions has catapulted itself to being the world's largest privately owned museum chain. The chain has 40+ locations on four continents, with many more locations in the process of being opened.

Conclusion

Once more, I would like to express my gratitude to the marketing department of the Museum of Illusions for extending this gracious invite to me!

To those traveling within the United States, the company has locations in several major cities, such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Las Vegas, New York, and Orlando.

I can honestly say I will be a patron of this company again-- and most likely in another one of their locations!

Have I convinced you, your friends, and family to come visit the Museum of Illusions in a location nearest you? I sure hope I have!

Thank you for reading! Like... seriously. So many people just skim sh*t and don't read anything past the headline. You're one of the good ones!

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