Hubblo Immersive Dome Review: What To Expect, Cost, And Whether It’s Worth It

The Hubblo is similar to the Illuminarium immersive experience. If you’re wondering about that experience, check out our Illuminarium review.

Hubblo Immersive Dome: Everything you need to know

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What Is The Hubblo Immersive Dome?

The Hubblo Immersive Dome, at its most basic definition, is a traveling projection screen.

The screen is a large igloo-like structure, similar in shape to the Sphere in Las Vegas, except the Hubblo only fits about 30 people inside of it and can be set up within a room in a theater or entertainment venue.

You recline on gravity chairs, which lock in place for safety, and look up at the projections on the screen around you. It’s similar, in a way, to a planetarium.

Unlike the Illuminarium, which is a 360° projection, the Hubblo falls a little bit short of that. It was sold to us as a 360° dome in our ticket’s description, but it’s not because there’s no images on the floor. The screen is all around you — on both sides of you, in front of you, behind you and on top of you, but not beneath you.

The Illuminarium experience we did was, in part, a projection of the moon. So, we were able to walk around on the moon’s surface, step on moon rocks, and watch as they exploded under our feet. We also walked through snow and left our footprints behind.

The Hubblo doesn’t offer that experience.

What To Expect When You Go

You walk inside the opening of a dome, which in a way feels like you’re walking into a camping tent. At least, that’s how I felt.

You choose any of the gravity chairs to sit in, which you’ll be seated in for the entire duration.

Choose wisely.

The people sitting in the front row really needed to stretch their necks to see all the way to the very back. We sat in the last row, next to the entrance/exit. For the experience, I thought it was the best seat. However, before it started, I did get bumped into a couple times because entering the dark dome was a little disorienting for people.

The experience has a set start and end time with a fixed runtime. So, you need to get there on time in order to see the entire movie.

Other 360° immersive experiences have a projection that plays on a continuous loop so you’re able to enter and exit those at any time.

Our Hubblo Experience

The choice of projection varies based on what’s available and what your theater chooses.

Ours had something for everyone. There was a baby songs experience called Bebe Symphonique, one where you experience the Northern Lights and a day on mars, and one where you’re on an African safari followed by a trip to see a solar eclipse.

The one we attended was the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.

For ours, the album played start to finish while projections were on the screen.

The Dark Side of the Moon is one of Pete’s favorite albums, so he was really excited to hear it in this capacity. But, he was a little bit let down, if I’m being completely honest.

The sound isn’t really great because the emphasis is placed on the visuals. Which is fine if you’re checking out elephants in Africa. It’s not so fine if you’re listening to an album. So, there were nuances in the songs that Pete knew about that he couldn’t hear.

For the casual listener, you’re not missing those nuances. So, for me, I didn’t really miss anything in that sense. But visually, that’s another story.

This album came out 50 years ago, way before the design of Hubblo. Of course there’s no actual video to go along with it.

So, it’s just random images of space and a recreation of the album cover while the music plays.

I thought it was fine, but Pete really thought it was lacking. He was hoping that it was way more Pink Floyd-related.

If we wanted to, we could have just played the album in our garage while projecting random videos from our home projector and had a very similar experience for way less money.

Cost And Value Breakdown

If you’re wondering if the Hubblo is worth it, well, it depends.

It’s similar to the Sphere in Las Vegas, but on a very, very small scale. Since most people don’t have the opportunity to go to Las Vegas, this is a fun way to get a similar experience without the expensive airfare.

But, for what it is, it’s very expensive.

We paid $35 each for the Pink Floyd experience, which was just about 43 minutes because it’s restricted to the album’s length. So, it was about $1 a minute.

That’s pretty expensive for what it was.

I understand that there is a large expense to bring this type of operation worldwide, so I do understand the reasoning for the price. But, still, it’s a lot of money for something that just felt underwhelming.

For what it’s worth, I know people who went to the Sphere in Las Vegas and had a similar feeling.

When there’s not a concert, the Sphere is used as a movie screen. Right now, The Wizard of Oz is playing and tickets are around $120.

A couple of our friends paid that price to watch a movie there. When they went, it was about climate change. They said the projections of the planet were pretty cool but the experience was very short, very preachy, and not worth the money.

That’s not to say all immersive experiences aren’t worth it. I’ve loved the Illuminarium. Pete too. It’s one of the top things that we did in Las Vegas.

That admission price was exactly the same as what we paid for Hubblo and it was way more worth it.

But, Las Vegas is hard to get to. So, if the Hubblo stops in your town and it’s your only opportunity for a immersive experience like this, definitely go. Have the experience. Just set your expectations accordingly.