MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY AND SCIENCE IN DOWNTOWN FORT LAUDERDALE

FRONT ENTRANCE

SIDE ENTRANCE ACROSS FROM PARKING GARAGE

GRAVITY CLOCK THAT KIDS LOVE BEFORE YOU ENTER

Welcome to the Museum of Discovery and Science. Another great place to go when you come to South Florida. This particular museum is located in Fort Lauderdale, which is in Broward County. It is in the Downtown area across from the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. It is also across the street from a beautiful park on the inter-coastal where you can play, have a picnic, or just enjoy the boats going by.

BROWARD CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Nearby are River Walk, Las Olas, and not it's to far from the beach. This area is great to come and play with your family, with your friends, or for a night on the town. CONTACT ME if you would like to plan a vacation to the Fort Lauderdale Area.

Now on with my review of the Museum.

It has changed a lot over the years. What has remained constant (for the most part) is the walk through aquarium when you walk in, the IMAX theater, along with the kids play and discover area.

Currently the upstairs is housing sections on: flight, health, a small fossil and rock, and my favorite Goose Bumps the Science of Fear.

Lets start with the Goose Bumps! science of fear section. I thought it was great it brought me the most enjoyment. It was very educational for me and fun for my 10 year old. My 3 year old did not enjoy it as he was mostly scared, go figure. He did enjoy every other section of the museum, especially the aviation, aquarium, and play sections.

As you enter, you can choose to either walk trough the aquarium or around it. In this review we will be going through it. Here are the sea creatures: fish, sharks, turtles, and many others. It is like a walk through tunnel that leads to a staircase. The staircase takes you up to the creatures section. This is not it's official name just what I'm calling it.

In the aquarium area there are staff available to let you touch different sea creatures. On this day, we touched a horseshoe crab. They also let you touch other sea creatures and snakes depending on the day and the staff available.

BATS

ALL DIFFERENT CREATURES

PETTING A HISSING COCKROACH!!

The creatures section usually has volunteer or staff members available to let you touch certain non-harmful creatures. On this Saturday it was the hissing cockroach and a millipede. Only my daughter was brave enough to touch the roach, my son and I touched the millipede.

When leaving the creatures section you head down another set of stairs that is about 8 feet from the one you come up on.

After descending down these stairs, if you make an immediate right there is a small section of snakes, turtles, and a rabbit or two. All things native to Florida.

Then if you go straight it leads you to one of the newer areas in the museum. The water area. It is all about water: how the water cycle works, what lives in the water, how the water in Florida has changed over the last 20 million years, and a ride that takes you through the water of the Everglades.

I have yet to go on this ride. It is loud and my son was in one of his moods so we didn't get to go on because I chose to avoid the melt down.

FLORIDA WATER CYCLE EXHIBIT

The water section is also where the otter exhibit is located.

OTTER EXHIBIT THEY ARE USUALLY VERY PLAYFUL

Another of my favorite things about the water section involves prehistoric animals. This is where they show you how the water levels have changed over the last few tens of millions of years and what animals and creatures used to live in Florida. Like the Mammoth and huge sharks. There is a mini dig site where you can dig for bones. Nothing like the Dig Site in Disney's Animal Kingdom but still cute!

DIG SITE

MY DAUGHTER GETTING SQUISHED BY A PREHISTORIC ELEPHANT

PREHISTORIC ELEPHANT

PREHISTORIC SHARK

Really well done area there are other animals not pictured or mentioned here but you will have to go and see for yourself.

At this point there is the Everglades ride to my right that we had to skip.

When we skipped it we chose to go grab a snack. There is no eating or drinking within the museum so we went back towards the front entrance where they offer movie type snacks. This is also where the IMAX theater is located. During the day they show educational movies that are usually spectacular. At night they will also show first run movies.

We ate at Subway, it is located in the corner after you pass the entrance to the IMAX. I'm pretty sure they offer some normal specials but others were definitely not offered.

After we ate we headed upstairs. I like to save the play area for last as I am tired and want to make sure the kids are too lol.

Upstairs we started with the planes exhibit. This used to be an outer space exhibit and still has some remembrances from when it was that. One of them is actually a ride that is extra if you want to go on it. It's a Mars Rover ride and while I have not been on it in a long time I do remember thinking it was awesome as a kid. It was also included in the cost of admission way back then!

The plane area is great for kids there are a ton of flight simulators. I'm pretty sure both of my kids tried everyone of them. We spent the most time in this section they really just wanted to touch everything!

 Then there is another flight simulator that you also have to pay extra for, that only my daughter tried. It was an enclosed thing and you get strapped in like a fighter pilot and that is basically what the simulation is. She was upside down turning in every direction possible. I saw the thing go in circles, it was nuts!

FLIGHT SIMULATOR WE ARE WATCHING FROM A NON MOVING SIMULATOR!

In the back of this flight section is also an open theater where at least once a day they do a show. This time it was a pyro show, yes that was the name, and last time it was a make ice cream at home demonstration.

To the right of the flight area is really what I call randomness it is all of the older stuff from the years that kids like to play with. I say that very literally, some of the stuff in this unnamed section was new when I volunteered there in the summer of 1997! The kids really do love a lot of the stuff there though and of course it is all educational. Weights,  magnets, coloring, and other fun stuff.

To the right of this is the medical/health section put there by Broward Health. Another informative fun area that kids don't spend as much time in. It is great for older kids and adults though. There is a drunk driving simulator that my 3 year old is pretty good driving a fake ambulance, a heart rate monitor, and everything else in this section is for about 8 years old and up. My ten year old went to every station my 3 year old was totally unengaged.

Off to the Goose Bumps section located right behind the health and random sections.

SCIENCE OF FEAR CURRENT TEMPORARY EXHIBIT

This was my favorite. Not because I learned the most but because my ten year old enjoyed it so much. She enjoyed almost everything but especially this section. There were some stations strictly for learning, a walk through scary thing that was broken so we didn't get to try it. Explanations of how fear affects the body, and the kids favorite the test your fear section. This was four different booths where you tested your own fears. I'm not telling you what was in them I think you should go and check it out for yourself. Fun times though fun times from the excitement on my daughters face and the extra hugs from my scared son it was pretty cool.

The fossil and rock section is also upstairs. It is located in the far corner past the elevators. It is small but nice. Again it is nicer for older than say 8 years old.

We are now heading back downstairs and into.... the play section. There is only one way in and one way out so that is helpful when trying to keep an eye on more than one child.

WATER AND BUBBLE PLAY AREA

CLIMBING SECTION

In the play area there are different small sections. There is the bubble and water play area this has been a child favorite for over 20 years and remains very popular to this day. There is the climbing section that monkeys like my daughter love and kids like my son completely overlook! There is the wall building sections that most kids enjoy for at least 15 minutes but usually more. They have an orange section where you go through the orange picking stages. There is a small computer section and a small separate section for really little ones.

Off to the side of the play area there are two more small sections. By this time we were pretty tired and didn't spend much time in them. There is the trash/recycling section and the weather section. Both are great and fun to explore, however, due to being exhausted we skipped over these pretty quick and headed out as we were done for the day!

All in all this is a great museum. You can come as just adults or with the kids and either way it can be a very fun and educational experience. I hope I get the chance to go without the kids soon!

Enjoy.