A visitor plays with a deck of cards at the Museum of Illusions in downtown Seattle. (Ivy Ceballo / The Seattle Times)

It's easy to imagine the Museum of Illusions as some sort of free-floating mirage, but it's no illusion: It's real and a new resident (i.e. not a pop-up) on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Union Street downtown, a few doors north of The 5th Avenue Theatre. I popped by just before its opening on June 28, to see if my eyes were playing tricks with me; here's a report.

What is it exactly?

Part of a fast-growing global chain of privately held (i.e. for-profit) museums, the Seattle MOI is one of nearly 50 Museums of Illusions worldwide. It is the chain's first U.S. West Coast location, though a San Diego MOI is opening soon. Founded in Croatia in 2015, the MOIs are immersive museums that combine science, entertainment and photo ops; the exhibits include holograms, illusion rooms, tricks with mirrors and lights, a giant kaleidoscope and a really quite unsettling Vortex Tunnel (more on that later).

Is the Seattle Museum of Illusions identical to every other Museum of Illusions? Like a hall of mirrors?

Not entirely; each MOI has a slightly different lineup, though many popular exhibits will be the same. Two of the exhibits at the Seattle MOI are customized for our city: The Reversed Room, where you can take a picture in an upside-down environment, is made to look like the monorail (though you'd think they could have stuck the Space Needle into the scenery out the window), and the Building Illusion is, I'm told by an MOI publicist, "designed to represent the likeness of a traditional Seattle building." (I guess it sort of looks like it could be in Pioneer Square?)

Is it expensive?

Yes, but in the neighborhood of what you'd pay at Seattle Art Museum, Pacific Science Center or that Harry Potter pop-up last winter. Tickets start at $32 online for adults (13 and older), $27 for children 5-12, $29 for seniors/military; tickets bought in-person at the museum are $2 more. Teachers, with identification, get in free, as do children 4 and younger.

How does it work?

You pass through a doorway marked "Enter the Illusion" (for the record, all the doorways are real) and then walk through a series of hallways, with exhibits on the walls, in separate small rooms or nooks, and in display cases. There are about 60 exhibits, ranging from simple trick-of-the-eye graphics on the wall to elaborate immersive experiences, several of which are sufficiently intense as to have warnings posted (i.e. no high heels in the giant kaleidoscope, don't step up to the Infinity Portal if you have balance problems, only those in good health should enter the Vortex Tunnel). The museum is fully accessible for those with disabilities; three steps lead up to the entrance, but a nearby elevator is available for anyone who needs it. And while there's a lot to see, it's on the small side as museums go -- you can probably easily tour the whole thing and walk through the "Back to Reality" doorway in well under two hours.

What's it like?

There's quite the buffet of illusions here, and as with all smorgasbords, some offerings are more appetizing than others. A lot of the exhibits have to do with the tricks that mirrors can play, and some were fascinating: I loved the Infinity Dodecahedron, which lets you gaze into a series of mirrored pentagons seeming to reach endlessly into the beyond. And the Building Illusion, which through clever 45-degree mirrors lets visitors seem to be climbing on the facade of a building like Spider-Man, provides some fun photo ops. Others feel a little more mundane: The Cloning Table, in which you sit at a table with five versions of yourself, will seem familiar to anyone who's looked in a dressing-room mirror. (Which isn't to say kids won't enjoy it.)

Apart from the mirrors, I was intrigued by the play of light in the RGB Room, where different patterns on the walls were illuminated by changing the ceiling lights, and by a very charming hologram of, for some reason, Paul Newman popcorn. And the Vortex Tunnel ... well, be sure to read all the precautions before you enter. Basically it's a dark passageway in which the walkway is still, but projections around it are spinning -- causing you to think, and to physically feel, that the walkway is spinning as well and that you're about to be turned upside-down. It's quite the mind blower and left me, after two trips through, a bit shaken, but in kind of a fun way.

Is there a gift shop?

Of course there is a gift shop, where you can buy random things like Nerf balls, socks with Ehrenstein illusions on them (and yes, you will learn what an Ehrenstein illusion is) and weirdly long pencils.

Who's it for? And is it fun or just an illusion?

That depends! If the price, and the general corporate-ness of the experience, isn't off-putting, then yes, there's plenty to enjoy here, particularly for those not prone to motion sickness. Kids who love magic tricks and the Science Center, in particular, would likely get a kick out of MOI. If this isn't your thing ... well, Seattle Art Museum is just blocks away.