Polly Woodside — Attraction in Melbourne

This restored museum maritimr relic, originally built in 1885 in Belfast, Ireland has occupied this prime city location for ages, sandwiched between Melb Convention Exhibition Centre (MCEC) & major thoroughfare - along the riverfront dining & lively hub of Southbank Promenade. As such, on a busy prime location, it should be open on all weekends, not just first Sun & a Pirate themed day for kids on 3rd Sun of the month. Tickets can be purchased on the day or book ahead. Check website for open days to be sure.

The kids who were there today looked pretty engaged & entertained. If it had more immersive experiences on offer - definitely attract more patronage.

Below the deck cargohold is fascinating but overall not enough labelling to explain what items are. Visit the museum style area upon entry first to be informed before exploring the ship - i did it in reverse. Good mobility is required to get around obviously.

A short video presentation on the workings inside the ship, actual navigation & the painstaking restoration would be good given the attention span these days for reading info boards!

Spent almost 2 hours but that's my interest in Melb's past & history. One hour shld do. Opens at 10.00 am. There's a guided tour for kids & families at 11.30 am.Toilets onsite & some...

Booked my kids birthday party here. It was ok I guess. We were more dressed up than the pirate which is kind of sad seeing as we threw something together in ten minutes and they're charging 500...also the whole thing was geared around safety "ahoy me hearties don't walk here ...here..there...anywhere there...all of that is off limits" gets tired after ten minutes. The ship is tired. And at the end the presenter just left. No goodbyes. Maybe that's the pirates creed! If we had paid 200 bucks I wouldn't care. But its premium price. The party is really just a tour of the ship but the website says songs and stories. Lol. Nope. If the kids had been a year older or would have been a disaster. Book for 5 or 6yearolds only. GET A NEW PIRATE. A cranky dude in a stripey shirt is lame. And sing a damn song. Do a shanty. A hornpipe....

MY EXPERIENCE: -I didn't realise how helpful and important the ship was to workers in the 1900's -there was a mini museum, informative about the ships history -real life ship was very tall and had many artifacts and replicias of what the ship would of looked like -you found out from the rooms that the captain was treated way better compared to the workers -you can go downstairs to visit the captain's room (its somewhat eery but interesting) -I did see a worker getting young kids involved on the ship -only criticism (I'm not sure if this was available) to have a tour guide explaining the history for adolescents, adults, elders -definitely an extremely inquisitive place for...