- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
D.C. Area Babies
Port Discovery Review
We went to Port Discovery (the children's museum) in Baltimore this weekend. We all had a good time, and M absolutely LOVED it. I think it's more of a "fun play space" rather than an educational museum, but that was fine with us. I think it would be great for kids around 16 months (or good walkers) up to 8 years or so. We were there from about 10:30 am - 3:30 pm (minus an hour for lunch), so practically the entire day. (We got lucky and M napped in the car on the way there and back.)
It's divided up into separate rooms/spaces that each have a theme. M's favorites were the tiny tots room (designed for kids up to 3 years) and the water room. The tiny tots room was very spacious and included lots of things to climb on/under/through. The highlights of that room included a large play area with sand, beach toys, and seashells; a wall set up to look like a large lite brite with large multi-colored pegs that lit up when you put them in the holes; and a nature-themed projection on the floor that the kids could interact with. There was also a reading nook, a pretend train tunnel, and a (fake) butterfly pavillion.
The water room included an elevated "river" with lots of water toys, small fountains, a cloud with rain, and lots of buttons and spinners that would make the water do fun things. There was also an area where kids could put together plastic pipes to make water shoot out in different directions, and another area with bubbles. The museum provided rain jackets and crocs for this room, which was nice.
One of the coolest things in the museum is a huge 3-story play structure for kids to climb on/over/through. That's more for older kids, so we didn't explore it much, but it looked like fun.
The other sections of the museum include a grocery store/gas station, a diner, a train, an archeology/treasure room, an arts-and-crafts area, a mystery house, Clifford the Big Red Dog's town, a farm area, and a quiet reading/playing/art room. There was more, but we didn't have time to do it all.
The cons: It's crowded on weekends. It's also not cheap, especially considering the Smithsonian museums are free. There is no food on-site (which I didn't know until we got there), but you can pack your own food and eat it in their lunchroom. There are also several places to eat within a block or two, and you can leave the museum and go back in the same day.
Bottom line: I think most toddlers/preschoolers/school-aged kids would love it, and it was a great way to let an active kid get out some energy when the weather is bad. I'm sure we will go back.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Port Discovery Review
Yay! So glad you liked it! I'm so impressed that you spent so long there. That's great.
We had a great time at the Please Touch Museum and Smith Play Place in Philly this weekend. I'll post a review in a few days after I get caught up at work and home.
I'm looking forward to hearing your review! Did you like it better than Port Discovery? PD has so many mixed reviews online (which kind of surprised me, honestly, because we had a great time), but the Please Touch museum seems to be universally loved.
The Museum is nicer and MUCH bigger than Port Discovery, which is good and bad. There's just so much to do and lots of space to do it in, with lots of room to run and frolic. However, with so much space and so much going on, the LOs were tired after about three hours. It was also starting to get crowded, and after chasing them for 3 hours, DH and I were sweaty, tired, and also ready to go. But, you could definitely spend an entire day there, especially if you went to the story times and puppet shows.
The really nice thing about PTM is that it's all geared toward the 5 and younger crowd, so there weren't a whole lot of big kids running around, trampling the toddlers. However, it's very expensive. It's $15/person, including all kids over 1 year of age. Then, parking is $8, so it cost us $68 to go for 3 hours, which is a lot. I think you can park on the street for free, but when we got there, it was snowing, icy, and windy out, so we just went right for the parking. However, despite the cost, we were still really glad we went. Just the look on the LOs' faces in the Alice and Wonderland display was worth it.
I'll post more info when I collect my thoughts, but those are the basics.
Thanks for the write-up! This sounds like a must-do!
Thank you for the great review!
And as a hint for the thrifty moms, Port Discovery is usually included in the September Museum Day (free admission). I haven't been yet, so I don't know if it gets really crazy.
This has me sold! We have such a hard time figuring out how to wear J out on cold/rainy days.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
We were at Please Touch on Sunday! What day were you there? How funny. We loved Please Touch. We left for home from the museum and both kids slept the whole way. I took a nap too.
We were there on Saturday. It would have been funny if we were both there on the same day. I always think when I see kids that someday I'm going to recognize some of them from siggy pics.