Dinosaur-Quest

I thought this place was pretty cool and if your at the mall I would recommend stoping by. It’s only 8 bucks with a promo they got going on and we were there for about an hour and a half. They got some dinosaur stuff and videos. There is also some ice age and sea animal stuff. It’s pretty informative and the paleontologist was there when we stopped by so he had some interesting facts to talk about. The best part was the mini golf. It seemed like there were quite a bit of people going just to play minigolf. I’m not huge on dinosaurs so the minigolf was my favorite part. Overall it was cool.

Dinosaur Quest is more of an exhibit of model dinosaurs. It would be interesting for a kid maybe in the 8 to 12 year old range. Dino Quest is located inside of Rivercenter mall upstairs close to the movie theater/​department store side. It’s on the expensive end of kids activities once you figure in parking, so I would say only venture in if already in the area. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way again.
The exhibit has models of all different types of dinos and the types of vegetation that they would live in. A word of warning on the back room with a screen: there is a continuous reel of two dinos basically fighting to the death, which is not the best for the little kids. Think nightmares for a couple of days and tons of questions about dinosaurs trying to eat us. Anyhow, an older kid wouldn’t be as phased and may find it entertaining. Another note is like what the other review said about the gates. It’s only velvet rope style, so definitely take the stroller for the little kids. The whole thing took maybe 30 minutes, but it could have been longer if I would have had the time to read the displays.
I do appreciate the idea of something educational being placed in Rivercenter mall, and for a tourist staying in the area it could be worthwhile.
When finished go downstairs there is an awesome kiosk that has chocolate dipped bananas!

I took my 4 year old grandson and he had a great time. He enjoyed watching the videos that were all around and seeing the life size dinosaur bones. Great way to spend the day out of the hot summer sun

Huge disappointment. We took our 3-​year-​old son, who loves dinosaurs, and we were out in 5 minutes! It is a boring exhibition in a crappy room, it looks more like a section of an itinerant expo. Among the most aggravating parts of the visit, was that the few skeletons in exhibition are surrounding by a tall fence. So if your child is shorter than 4 feet (like mine), you will have to keep him in your arms at all times.
When were were leaving I asked for a refund (30 dollars to enter that room is a rip off), they denied; the manager did not want to come outside, and the cashier lady just said she could not do it.
In conclusion, expensive, shabby exhibition, not well-​suited for children shorter than 4 feet

I heard about this place through a friend, and when a deal on Groupon popped up, I jumped to get it.
My boyfriend and I went to redeem our passes this past Friday night and the experience was quite disappointing. Despite working downtown, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where it was until we just happened to pass a sign in an abandoned storefront window near the Alamo, letting us know it was inside the mall.
Upon entering the mall, there is no signage directing us to this place, either. I did not get the impression that they had recently opened, but I guess it has been so long since Rivercenter Mall has updated their directories and maps, that this place is not on it. Oh well. After wandering for several minutes, we located the place.
Only to find it completely dead on a Friday night, at a mall, downtown. I guess seeing that it’s an educational place, this isn’t too unusual. However, we were literally the only people there. The one lone employee was a bored looking teenager who directed us behind the curtain and informed us that it would take anywhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours for us to see the exhibit.
First off, «exhibit» is probably not the correct term for this place. As you walk in, the space is literally a shell of a former store, with conference-​hall bars and fabric separating the areas with different dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs, by the way, are all fake– no real fossils here, from what we could tell. The informative plaques were a little vague, but there were TVs with looped info clips spaced throughout the area.
This is also a very «unique» part of the visit, as some of the video clips are god-​awful CGI renderings of dinosaurs in the wild, typically killing one another. Some of the other videos, though, are of a wacky looking guy giving an informative speech about the dinosaur fossils– the exact ones you’re looking at BEHIND the tv itself. In other words, the screen shows a recording of a guy on site giving his speech. Later, we noticed a sign by the entrance letting us know that the «paleontologists» were only on site specific times and days. Yes, paleontologists. I’m sure.
Anyway, the real kicker was the rows of uncomfortable conference-​center chairs set up facing a projection screen, which was playing a looped clip from the History channel. I couldn’t actually tell if this was a legal copy or not, as it simply looped over and over again without any real credits or citations, other than the H logo in the corner.
I guess this was some failed paleontologist’s low budget attempt at having a museum. Props for the effort, but I can’t really tell that any effort was really made…
The dino fossil-​statues are set up straight on the carpet and bordered by what appears to be crumpled trashbags, and they are not integrated into the space at all. No effort was made, as in a zoo or pet store, for example, to recreate any sort of environment around the dinos, either.
They are lit up by some basic, bright spot lights, and you are made to keep your distance by a series of waist-​high metal fence-​type structures that are covered with plastic netting. It really just looks like a wannabe paleontologist inherited a stockroom full of conference center furniture and decided to use them to make his dreams come true.
So, to summarize, it’s basically an empty store with dino statues, spotlights, and some fabric curtains.
Do not waste your time unless you happen to be one of those people who watches the SyFy channel and genuinely enjoys the low-​budget movies with crappy acting.