One bad start tainted our visit. We paid online ahead of time for five admission tickets and five simulations. Once we entered the museum, the lady at the counter was very nice and helpful by communicating to us about the museum and the simulator. She gave us the tip about checking to see how long the wait was for the simulator to decide if we should go first or after our museum tour. Based on the line, we decided to do the simulator first. As we stood in line to wait, the ride operator did not acknowledge our party of five’s presence. A few minutes later, a couple walked right past us to give the operator their ticket. As he took their ticket, I said, “Excuse me, we were here waiting first.” The lady in the couple stated that they were just trying to put their name on the list to ride. I stated that’s what we were trying to do also. The ride operator still took their ticket and asked us to write our names down on his list. (I didn’t think about this part until later, but we were the only ones who had to write our own names on the list…the ride operator wrote everyone else’s names down). After the current riders in the simulator exited, the couple breezed past us and got in the simulator. When I spoke up again to the ride operator that we were there waiting before them, he stated, “Yes y’all are next after them.” 😳🤨🤔 This initial experience put a VERY SOUR taste in our mouths to begin our tour. I can’t definitively say that our race had anything to do with this experience, but we were the only black family in the whole museum during this time.
After the simulator, as we walked toward the opening of the museum, the gentlemen who greeted us were very pleasant and showed us how to pull up the map of the museum on our phones. As we went through the museum, our three children were engaged the entire time and even paid attention during the 15 minute history video. Towards the end of the museum, there is an interactive part that we all enjoyed. The sinkhole exhibit was amazing to see. I loved how they included so much of this major event into the museum.
Outside of the simulator incident, the museum tour was very engaging for all of us. We would give the tour itself 5 stars, but the simulation experience 1 star just based on the ride operator.