In planning my trip to NYC, I tried to preplan as much as possible, while trying to stay flexible in preparation for any and all things Covid. I planned my Friday afternoon/evening at the Met due to its advertised later hours (8pm but changed to 9pm by my visit). I selected the Brooklyn Museum for my Saturday afternoon/evening as a comparison to the previous days Met visit and it advertised an 8pm closure (tickets were pre-purchased as recommendedfor 4pm to give us plenty of time to see the special Warhol exhibit).
Pretty much upon entry the visit fell apart. We had our vaccine cards checked at the door and waved in. There's the ticket counter but no real direction for those already holding tickets. I went to the ticket line anyway (it was short) where I was able to grab a paper map. I flashed the ticket on my phone to the guy at the counter who just pointed me over to the side and up the stairs. No one checked our tickets entering the gallery. We went up stairs not really sure if we were in the ticketed part of the museum yet or not (we were).
My wife and I both studied the paper map. After five minutes we gave up, it's pretty much blank with just a vague description of the basic exhibits on each floor. Many areas on the map are marked off indicating vast swaths of the museum are empty. We found the elevator and one stair shoved in the back corner and went up to the fifth floor for the Warhol exhibit. We were checked in here and went in. This was about 4:25, after arriving to the museum for our 4pm time. Given that the website said it closed at 8, we found it odd the exhibit had signs saying last entry at 4:30.
The Warhol exhibit was pretty decent. We exited it around 5pm back into the rest of the museum and stumbled upon the European paintings that were strangely not on the map. After winding thru it the staff start to yell out that galleries are closing in 15 minutes. This is at 5:15.
We start to follow the rest of the confused crowds back to the first floor where my wife went back to the ticket desk to ask about museum times. She showed them their own website on her phone where it said closing time was 8pm; they told her that must have been for the special exhibit....huh?
So at this point, the staff is (literally) yelling at everyone in the lobby to get out of the building, that the museum closes at 6 not 8. We ended up outside at 5:45, with a couple hundred other confused patrons, wondering why we were out on the street at 5:45.
So the website is incorrect (appears they finally fixed it the week after). While I didn't expect them to allow us to stay until 8 if they really did close at 6, to at least be somewhat apologetic about their error would have been nice.
So between a pitiful map...
Incorrect times on the website that threw off my plans for the trip....
Not really getting to see anything in the roughly hour and fifteen minutes we were in the building....
Having everyone out of the building a full 15 minutes prior to actually "closing".....
Whole areas of the building empty....
I've heard they have a nice collection (though I wouldn't know as I didn't get to see any of it) and it's not overwhelming like some of the galleries at the Met, but based on how they run the place from my one experience I don't think I'd go back or recommend anyone make the effort.