“The standing operating procedure out there is different,” she said. (The Shedd is extending all memberships by four months.) Demand for those relatively few time slots remains to be seen, but Coughlin said she thought people would be understanding. Illinois Resident Free Days have been postponed. Tickets are being sold in advance, not at the door, with timed entries on the hour daily 9 a.m.(Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune) If you go: Susan Allen feeds a beluga whale fish during a training session at the Shedd Aquarium on Friday, Jin Chicago. “We knew the Shedd would do a good job keeping us safe,” Julie Chan said. “It’s nice not to feel so elbow-to-elbow,” he said. His family were museum members and had visited a number of times before, including in summers this was their first Phase 4 outing to an indoor attraction. Asked what brought them to the Shedd on the first morning it opened, Andy Chan laughed through his mask. If you still want absolute solitude, go look at the river fish. ![]() ![]() “You could backtrack but really nobody ever did,” she said.Īndy and Julie Chan of Northfield found a quiet spot with their young children by the rivers exhibit. But that’s not as out-of-place as it seems, Coughlin said, the Wild Reef exhibit has always effectively been one way, with the elevator guiding where guests enter. Staff members carried large signs, crossing-guard style, only with the message “Ask Me.” Every individual hall and exhibit was marked with a linear, one-way path with an entrance and exit. More than a dozen visitors gathered close to the otter tank, a zig-zag of ribbon showed visitors how to wait for the Wild Reef elevators and some narrow hallways were at rare moments a bit like supermarket aisles. Indeed, reduced capacity did not mean empty, even with the Shedd’s 276,000 square feet of public space. (Sea Star Touch and Sturgeon Touch are viewing-only.) On Friday, after a couple hourly-admission groups had been let in, it was one of the Shedd exhibits to draw a crowd, relatively speaking, with several dozen visitors lining the long tank and a half-dozen groups and families waiting in socially-distanced line. Outside in a tent on the aquarium’s south patio, Stingray Touch is open, weather permitting, with guests asked to wash hands before and after. Friday, we’re told, was Annik’s first birthday. That was Mauyak with young Annik, still a darker gray. Dolphins and Beluga whales glided by just under the surface, one in a tight pair, a calf with its mother. On Friday, it seemed a bit like overkill with just a few families clustered up by the water’s edge. Walking paths in the sunlit space were tightly controlled, with stanchions marking Enter Here and Exit Only, with every other row of seats blocked off and dolphin decals on the stone benches showing visitors how to social-distance. The Abbott Oceanarium, where the Shedd previously held its dolphin and aquatics shows, was still open but without the shows. The Shedd will operate at 25% capacity, with timed entries capped at 375 people an hour previous capacity was 12,000 visitors a day, or about 3,000 at any one time.Įarly Friday, that meant open hallways, a murmur of voices and a chance to see the sharks in the Wild Reef exhibit without looking through handprints on the glass. ![]() ![]() “If you’ve been here before, especially in July, you’re going to notice the difference,” said Shedd president and CEO Bridget Coughlin in an interview earlier this week.
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