Our Orlando trip was quite flexible and I was eager to visit Orlando Science Center, a favorite of our friends that live nearby. I knew the museum had exhibits for preschoolers but I wasn't so sure what to expect. Boy was I ever surprised! Imagine a science museum virtually ENTIRELY for kids! It was just our luck that we visited on the first day back to school from winter break for Orange County schools, so we had a lot of the museum to ourselves with mainly preschoolers, no tourist hordes and no field trips.
Visitors arrive at Ticketing on the second floor of a four floor facility. The closest exhibit is the incredible KidsTown area, featuring seven hands-on zones for kids ages 7 and under. The first experience is the Orange Grove, where kids pick oranges (orange and green plastic balls), sort and wash them and take them to market. I immediately loved how interactive this exhibit was, with kids actively picking the oranges from trees and using bicycles to pedal them through the conveyor line. The entire experience was completely manageable for my kids on their own, with plenty of seating for adults and a smaller area for crawlers and tots. We easily spent half an hour at this first exhibit but were eager to shuffle the kids along to other areas!
The next area was ClimbTime, a multi-story climbing structure. The upper levels of the structure are a bit shrouded from parental view and advancing up and down the levels was also a bit nerve-wracking for my youngest son. There was a helpful staff member on hand who offered to retrieve him for me but he just needed a little encouragement. For those too small to have fun in the structure there were magnetic tiles to play with at the base.
The next area housed several experiences and my kids made a bee line for Drip Drop Splash, a huge water table area with channels, boats, pipes and flowing water. There were waterproof aprons on hand and hand dryers, but my kids got completely soaked. Our visit was well-timed to a story time at the KidsTown Theatre and my kids enjoyed a story about robots followed by hands-on play with robot pieces. There is also a play area called Toddler Town and an area called Explore It! that we didn't quite get to but looked awesome!
On the same floor there are several interactive exhibits where our kids were able to explore sound waves, electricity, gravity, roller coaster engineering, pulleys, launch air rockets and flight and driving simulators. The simulators were not super intuitive and way oversized for my kids. I also never learned how to drive a manual car and couldn't quite figure out how to get these to work properly for my kids to enjoy.
One level down was the NatureWorks exhibit focusing on ecosystems of Central Florida, with live insects, plants and animals of coral reefs, salt marshes, mangrove swamps and other Florida environments. There was also a live animal encounter with a chameleon during our walk-through. In a cypress swamp exhibit there was a very cool habitat with endless tons of baby alligators and turtles.
The top floor had several really neat exhibits. Our kids jumped right into the Dino Dig with a pith helmet and tools to become paleontologists digging for dino bones and eggs in a child-friendly excavation site. There were several dino skeletons on display as well, but what should have been the highlight of their trip was a bit underwhelming because there was just so much cool stuff to do here. On the same floor was a fun exhibit on Earth sciences with hands-on exhibits to learn about hurricanes, earthquakes, atmosphere and more. My son also loved performing his own weather report in front of a green screen for WFTV Severe Weather Center 9.
I was incredibly impressed with the museum set-up and exhibits. My kids (ages 3, 3 and 5) were comfortable in all of the exhibits. For a child-centric facility, the only thing they were not in love with was the film "Jean-Michel Cousteau's Secret Ocean " shown in the Dr. Phillips CineDome. The experience of seeing the film being set up in the projection room was cool, and the giant domed theatre is something my kids certainly haven't experienced before, but the film didn't really capture their attention like we hoped it would. Thankfully it was only 45 minutes long and a welcome rest for mom and dad.
Visit Orlando Science Center at 777 E. Princeton Street in Orlando, just under 30 minutes from the Disney resorts. For suggestions on the best exhibits for each age/grade, visit the Age Recommender. Adult tickets are $20.95, youth 3-11 is $14.95 and 2 & under are free. The museum has reciprocity through the ASTC Passport Program, so if you're a member of Childrens Museum of Houston or The Health Museum, present your membership card for free admission for two adults and children under 18 living in the household or grandparents and grandchildren under 18 limited to general exhibit areas only.
My family was provided complimentary tickets to Orlando Science Center for this review. View our full FTC Disclosure Statement here.
