346 metres is the working view. 447 is a different sky.

The main observation deck — 346 m

This is where most visits should start and, on a middling day, end. You get the city, the lake, the islands, and enough glass to understand the height. The glass floor lives here. So does the crowd. If you only have one timed slot, spend it on this deck. The photograph people want is here, not fifty metres of extra mast later.

The glass floor

Covered on The Machine as a laminate. As a deck experience: it is a bottleneck. People stop, photograph, dare each other, and block the ring. If you dislike queues, look out from the ordinary windows and skip the circle. If you came for the look-down, go early in your slot, not at the end when the next timed group is already stacking.

The upper level — 447 m

Higher, tighter, quieter on a good hour, and more about horizon than street. The lake reads as a plane. Downtown reads as a model. You lose some of the “I am standing over that intersection” feeling you get at 346. You gain weather: you are more in the wind and more in the cloud when the ceiling is low.

Is the extra ticket worth it? On a clear late afternoon, often yes if you care about the horizon. On a hazy or low-cloud day, no — you paid twice to see the same grey. I will not quote the operator’s prices. I will say the upgrade is a weather bet, not a default.

The restaurant

It is expensive. The food is secondary to the rotation and the view. If the ceiling is in, you are paying restaurant money for a wall. Book it as a meal with a view, not as a view with a meal, and only on a day you can see Toronto’s shoreline.