Last Updated on June 16, 2026 by Adrienne
My daughter absolutely loves penguins, so as a recent birthday gift for her we headed to Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium to do their Penguin Encounter, where adults and kids ages 6 and up can meet a few of the aquarium’s Magellanic and Rockhopper penguins. At $100 for adults and $90 for kids (as of 2026), this isn’t a cheap experience, but for non-members it’s a decent deal, since aquarium admission is included and that can cost up to $45 per person. You can explore the aquarium at your leisure before or after your animal encounter.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect and whether we’d actually get quality time with the penguins in a way that didn’t seem to be stressing them out, but overall we had a really great time and it was a lot of fun for both us and (seemingly) the penguins, who appeared delighted to hang out with all their new friends and show off for us. This post outlines everything to expect during Shedd’s penguin encounter.
You’ll need to purchase tickets through Shedd well in advance, since this experience does sell out. At your designated time, you’ll meet and be led to a behind-the-scenes keeper area, where you’ll get suited up. For the penguin encounter this just means changing out your street shoes for tall rubber boots, washing your hands and stepping in a sanitizing liquid so you don’t expose the penguins to germs, but they have other animal experiences such as the beluga encounter that require more gear.
After we were all geared up, we were led into the room where we’d meet the penguins and the zookeeper gave us an introduction to penguin behavior and also how we should behave once the penguins were in the room. Then the penguins waddled in! Participants in animal encounters vary based on how the animals are feeling that day so they can never predict the exact animals who will be involved in advance. We met two Rockhopper penguins, Bosco and Edward, and one Magellanic penguin, Monte. We weren’t supposed to touch them (outside of a designated petting opportunity) but they were very curious and came up to us.
They gave us water bottles to mist in the penguins faces – apparently they really enjoy it, just like kids playing with a garden hose. 🙂
After watching the penguins walk around and play for a little bit, we got to see the keeper feed them some fish and then she put one on her lap for us all to pet and take pictures with.
All told, the experience took about 45 minutes and was a great way to get up close and personal with these adorable birds. I highly recommend this for the penguin fan in your life.
