We had intended to just spend half of the day here. Instead, we were there when the gates opened and left when it was closing. Be sure to do the tour of the island (pilot area), the talks about both how the caught the planes and set them off. Those fill in so many of the blanks. We toured the main level and the lower level and that was our whole day. There were docents all over the ship, many of whom had served on the USS Midway. They had so much to share.
A personal tip. I would highly recommend buying the Explorer's Pass through Go City. That was what we used for admission. You simply need to figure out whether you plan on visiting, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 7 of the attractions available through that package. When I added up the admissions individually for the things I wanted to see, it totaled $352. A seven event ticket cost me $147 for those 7 seven attractions.