The New York Hall of Science would be a very fun place to take your family for an educational outing, but I have to say, DON'T go during the week during the summer months. We recently took our kids there because my son loves science, and we were very dissapointed in our visit. There had to be over 10 camp groups there all at once. I'm sure it was more. They completely overtook the place. We don't mind waiting our turn for an exhibit, but it's not fair when we are waiting a long time and kids cut ahead of you. This happened at almost every exhibit we tried to see. There is absolutely no supervision at the exhibits. My husband went over to an employee to complain about the cutting in, and his response was that he didn't know who was in charge of the camp groups and walked away. I think that an employee should be in charge of a certain area and make sure that everyone has a turn. Lunch was a disaster with the cafeteria filled with the camps, and I almost choked on my food when the leader of one of the groups blew his loud whistle right near me to round up the kids. I wish they could let the groups eat in a different location, or less groups at one time. I've been in a lot of museums and places where camps visit, but I never saw so many camps at one time as I did here.
I was so upset that I immediately wrote to the Hall when I got home. Robert Logan, the Sr. Vice President of Visitor relations, wrote back to me apologizing and said it's been a problem for a while that they are trying to solve and that they are trying to stake out special times for families. He suggested that families visting call them first at 718-699-0005 or check their website at www.nyscience.org about hours suggested for family visits during the summer months. I haven't checked yet to see if they added that information yet. He also offered to reimburse me for my visit, and I took him up on the offer.
Otherwise, when the groups are gone (and that wasn't until around 3:00 or later) it's a really interesting place to spend a day. You'll find yourself playing with all the exhibits because almost all of them are hands on. My younger daughter really enjoyed the Preschool Place for kids' 6 and under. My son seemed to like the exhibits he got to see. Every year they have a different exhibit on the top floor. This year it was called CSI: Crime Scene Insects. We weren't very impressed with it though. It was supposed to be about how insects help solve crimes, but there was too many pictures of dead bodies decaying and maggots for me, and I walked out. I heard they had a really wonderful exhibit last year about the human body though.
more