We thought it might be crowded because of the holiday, so we hustled and got there by 10:00 a.m., when it opened. Unfortunately, dozens and dozens of kids' parents had the same idea as us, and we had to wait it a pretty long line just to get through the doors. Not a good sign.
They had a couple of pretty cool exhibits. My kids' favorite was the "beehive," which is a really cool play area with balls...they have tubes running around that the kids can put balls in, and a couple of tubes even suck the balls straight up! Dax could have stayed there all day, but unfortunately, about 27 kids were behind him waiting to try the sucky tube, so we had to move on. There was a play house area and some other fun little kid stuff downstairs, including some water tables (crowded) and a play farm. Here we are riding on the big fake plastic horse!
Upstairs the exhibits seemed to be aimed at a little bit older kids, but we couldn't really tell too much because 5 or 6 kids were clustered around every exhibit so we couldn't really do much. Arden waited in line to sit at the "news desk" so she could pretend she was on TV:
Then Preston took the girls outside to wait in another line to see the helicopter exhibit. This was pretty cool, but we have been inside bigger and cooler helicopters at the Air Force museum (which is free).
Corbie was sooo excited, and as I walked up she was shrieking "Hew-cotter! Hew-cotter!" at the top of her lungs. 
Maybe we have a future pilot on our hands! (Although, if you have to be a pilot, my sweet Cora, please choose airplanes. If something goes wrong with an airplane's engines, they have wings and you can hopefully glide softly to the ground. Helicopters, on the other hand....well...if the engine goes, they are pretty much just big rocks with spinning knives on top. Just sayin.).
Overall, the kids had fun, but I was expecting a little more for how much they charge. A lot of the museum seemed like an oversize nursery to me (play kitchen toys, dress-up outfits, and even a bunch of puzzles in one area for the kids to play with). I was expecting more science-oriented stuff since it is a "museum"...maybe we just couldn't see those exhibits through the crowds? Even with our 2-for-1 coupons, it cost us $25.50 to get in (they charge $8.50 for everyone, even for 1-year-olds and parents). If we had no coupons, it would have been over $40, and that is just ridiculous. And it was waaaaaaay too crowded, and looked like it was only going to get worse as the day went on.
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So, my advice for you moms out there who haven't been to the Discovery Gateway would be to be SURE to find a coupon and try to go when it isn't crowded (does anyone know when is the best time to go? Leave me a comment if you do!). If you don't have a coupon or only have time on the weekend, I say skip it. For that much money, there are tons of other places that I like better, like the zoo, the aquarium, the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, or even Jungle Jim's or Boondocks. This is just my humble opinion. When we left the museum at lunchtime, at least we didn't have to go far for lunch! I just had to be sure to drown the kids in hand sanitizer before I let them touch any food, which made me feel like a good mom until I noticed Dax was chewing gum (see previous post).
2 comments:
Too bad it was so busy.
Is the Gateway where they took some of the stuff they used to have at the Children's Museum? If you ever make it to St. Louis for a visit, they have a science center with lots of stuff for kids that is FREE. They also have a children's museum that is really good, but pricey, called the Magic House. I'm sure Brynn, Kohl, and Chase would love to show them to you.
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