Discovery Museum and Planetarium

Took my 9 year old boys and my mother today, and the museum itself is quite good. Having done the «real» ropes courses next door many times, my kids were bored with the mini version, but I bet it’s a big hit with younger kids. There was an excellent photography exhibit of Nikon contest winning microbiology photos which my mom and I really enjoyed. The kids enjoyed a number of the hands-​on exhibits, such as the one where you drop a ball and try to arrange to bounce plate and hoops so that it goes through the hoops. You can alter the trajectory and the hoops, which are at several different heights. We also enjoyed trying to make an earthquake-​proof house out of Lincoln logs and flat pieces of wood, and building a nano-​carbon tube. The nano-​exhibit was good, as well as unique, though it good be even better. All 4 of us enjoyed trying to jump 10 feet to dunk a basketball, though why there is a basketball exhibit in a science museum is a puzzle. The «dares» and «double dares» were good ways to challenge creativity, but there were no tips or answers posted if you couldn’t meet the challenge, and not a single staff person or volunteer on the floor throughout the museum. The «cafeteria» is still a bunch of tables and 2 vending machines with mostly candy. We were told by the ticket seller that the planetarium show was very good, so we went, along with everyone else. What a joke! No stars (ha ha) for that! First of all, there was no age recommendation, so people brought young kids who talked, screamed, and yelled constantly, even when asked multiple times by the staffer to be quiet or leave. The «show» consisted of the staffer indicating fuzzy constellations with a laser pointer («and here is Ursa Major’s long tail, see?»). Furthermore, the seating, which was installed just a few months ago, was terrible. The seats had high backs that did not recline at all, and they were aligned in rows so that unless you sat in the back, you had to keep turning around in your seat! Completely nonsensical. I have never been to a worse planetarium show, and in fact cannot imagine a worse one. At least half the people left before the 20 minutes was up, including us. It is so sad, because the facilities are there– it wouldn’t be hard at all to make this a fantastic museum on par with Norwalk’s Stepping Stones. Doubt I would take my kids back unless we got rained on at the Adventure Park next door (which is awesome).

For how inexpensive it is and the fact it is never crowded, its a deal. Small kids, under 10 I would say, have plenty to do here. It’s a small place so I’m not sure what some people expect.

Eh, the website looked like it was more than it really was. I took my 2 yr 9 month old and she only enjoyed the space part and the smallllllllll play area upstairs. The cafeteria consists of a vending machine and a lot of tables. I didn’t get the memo to bring your own food. The website was misleading. I will say she was free and it only cost 10 bucks for me. Annoying because I drove an hour to Bridgeport to go there.

If I could give it zero stars I would. This place needs a major investment or market itself differently as to not disappoint visitors. Took children 2 – 4 and they were bored!

I would give this place a 0 – 1 experience. We went today with kids ages 2 – 4. It was an awful experience. Their website looked great! It said it was geared for kids ages 6 and under. It also said there would be a show at 1pm with big bird and Elmo. Also said there was a cafeteria with lunch items.
The kids were bored. It needs serious renovations, and the big bird show was on a small projector screen. The cafeteria consisted of many tables with one vending machine. The ropes/​adventure course in the back of the building looked like fun, but the museum was definitely a waste of money: would never go back. Kids were disappointed.

the age of the reviews here compelled me to submit a review at least to update on recent upgrades. I have been several times recently and am now a member with my 3 and 7 y.o. I went once several years ago when the prior reviewers portrayal was accurate but now they have improved. they have added an indoor replica of the outdoor adventure park (ropes course etc) for kids to tackle, an aviation exploring section where kids can make and launch their own paper helicopter, rocket and airplane. also they have a nice local industry exhibit (Sikorsky, Bridgeport auto, etc). so the main floor is nicely upgraded. the bottom floor is about the same but maintained; the focus is space exploration and the planetarium. they have a mars rover car with camera you can operate. the room where they had the NASA control room replica now appears to have real computer terminals for some sort of educational purpose. the third floor has sound/​light science exhibits, an infant/​toddler play area, an environmental (conservation) science area, Lego/​blocks area and local sports history exhibit complete with basketball shooting area.
they’ve made many improvements lately so I’d recommend making the trip.

I’ve got to say this museum was a let down. I took my two young kids ages 3 and 5. The best part of the museum was that nobody was there! We had the run of the place which meant they could spend as much time looking at one exhibit as they wanted. Other nice things; the obstacle course off the lobby was fun for my 5 year old and the interactive exhibits that worked were pretty cool.
I would guess that only 10% of the exhibits were functioning. My son was so confused how to make most things work. It looked to me that maybe about 10 years ago, this place was a lot of fun but since then things have been broken and beat up.
We did not get to see the Planetarium. The door was closed with a sign indicating that it would be open at the next show time but there was no indication as to when the next show time would be. Since we were the only people in the museum, I couldn’t understand who was in there. I assumed that it, like most other things, was broken.
It only took one hour to get through the whole museum. I think my kids had fun but for the price that we paid to get in, it’s not a place that we’ll go again.

This place is not that good. Kids will definitely enjoy for some time. And, with CT where we have very few museums for kids, I would give it a 3 star.
The staff is least bothered about the visitors. The top floor seems to be devil’s place. No staff is seen there and with almost no other visitors when we visited, it looked like nobody’s land.
This place has a very small parking area (may be for less than 10 cars) confusing you where to park.
If you have no options in winter and you have to take your kids out to a new place, you can explore this museum. But, have no great expectations and don’t compare with other great discovery museums of USA.

Underutilized resource and in underfunded, essentially depressed environment. Construction of new parking lot is extent of city investment and hopeful major construction adjacent to property is a magnet school, nothing to do with the museum. 30 min can likely cover basics of museum and there is a planetarium so that is about as much as there is.

This place touts itself as being a great science and discovery museum, but it really falls short. It would probably be current if the year was 1972. The lobby looks great, but that’s where it stops. Most of the exhibits are in a time warp, a lot of the hands-​on stuff doesn’t even work, and the planetarium show is pretty amateur. While I’m sure a kid would still enjoy this place to some degree, I’m sure most adults would agree that this place needs a makeover and new exhibits.