Review: CAT Visitors Center in Peoria, IL

Recently, I took a quick day trip to Peoria and visited the Caterpillar Visitors Center with my son and my parents. My dad has worked for CAT in Decatur for many years now.

It's very fairly priced. For CAT employees, it's FREE! Way to go, CAT. I always appreciate a company that can appreciate their employees. Children 12 and under are also FREE! I'm impressed. It's usually just kids under 3 or something like that. Regular admission is $7. That's still not bad. Seniors (55 and over) are $6. For the 4 of us, it cost $13. I'd say that's a heck of a deal.

We spent a little over 2 hours here. The parking garage that lies below the visitors center only costs $0.50 for every half hour with a maximum of $5 per day. That's not too bad either. There is also an entrance to the Riverfront Museum from this parking garage. I've never been to the museum, but if we'd planned on spending more time there, it sounds like that would have been a good day (going to both). Our total for the day at the garage was $2.50.

After you pay for your ticket, you are welcomed into the bed of the MASSIVE 797F Mining Truck. You watch a quick video and exit out the other door.

From here, you can see the entire open area with all the trucks in it. It's pretty cool to see all of them from up above.

When you go down the stairs, the first thing you see are the HUGE tires of the 797F Mining Truck you were just in. They're something like 14 feet tall and weight around 14,000 pound (I think). Here's a great photo-op.

If you turn to the right, you are taken on this long winding hallway that covers everything from the history of Caterpillar to the envision of the future. There are a couple of interactive things on the way. My son enjoyed designing his own CAT truck. There's even another place to sit down and watch another quick movie about the company. Some people might find this section a little boring, but it's not too bad. I found it to be mildly entertaining. There are employees that walk around and can answer questions for you. I'm pretty sure at least some of them (if not all of them) were retired CAT employees. How cool is that?

Once you reach the end of this winding tunnel, you've finally arrived at the coolest part of the center (especially if you ask the kids). This is where the big trucks are. Before you really enter the big room, there is actually another little room under the huge 797F Mining Truck where you can watch 6 different shows (you get to choose which one to watch). Then you move on to the rest of the trucks. You can get up in the cab and pretend like you're driving. It's very neat. The size of these machines are something to marvel at. Especially since most of these are very small in comparison to the massively huge trucks that CAT produces. There is yet another room where you can watch a movie on the wall closest to the stairs. They even have the Nascar vehicle and bodysuit the driver wears. There's also a place in the back corner where you can pretend to drive a CAT truck. The simulator is very neat. Your goal is to cover the pipe with dirt. And let me tell you, it's harder than it looks. Good Luck!

After you go back up the stairs (or elevator) to leave, there is a store where you can buy clothing, hats, keychains, shoes, EVERY CAT TOY IN THE WORLD, etc. Okay, I might be exaggerating on the toy part. But seriously, I told my son that he could pick out a toy and he was looking for like 20 minutes. He wanted EVERYTHING. It was cute though. He finally chose a mining train. Good choice in my opinion.

Overall, we had a good trip. We visited on a Monday in January so it wasn't too busy. I'm sure if you went during the summer on a Saturday, it would be quite busy. You might want to think about that when planning your trip. We all really enjoyed ourselves and we would definitely consider going back. If you're already in Peoria, IL for some reason, it's a good way to waste a couple hours.