Vancouver Maritime Museum — Attraction in Vancouver

Review of the Vancouver Maritime Museum

I recently visited the Vancouver Maritime Museum with my family and was truly impressed by the richness of Canadian maritime history on display. A particular highlight was learning about the St. Roch, the historic vessel that successfully navigated the Northwest Passage. This ship is a national treasure and a testament to Canada’s resilience and exploration legacy.

We also enjoyed the exhibits on Indigenous maritime history and traditional boat-making techniques, which were both fascinating and educational for our children. These displays offered meaningful insights into the craftsmanship and culture that shaped our coastal communities.

However, I was surprised by the museum’s decision to incorporate unrelated social messaging throughout the space. Staff were wearing Pride and transgender flag badges, there were flags throughout the museum, and the scheduled hands-on activity for the day was making Pride buttons.

While I fully support individual rights and the freedom for people to live authentically, I believe museums should stay focused on their core mandate—preserving and educating about history, culture, and science. In this case, I felt the Pride-themed messaging was unrelated to the core maritime content, and it detracted from what could have been a more immersive and focused educational experience for visitors of all backgrounds.

Public institutions play a vital role in helping us understand our past. I hope future programming at the Maritime Museum can better reflect this purpose by prioritizing exhibits and activities that deepen our understanding of...

We went for the family day promotion where admission was free for all. We got there shortly after they opened and the parking lot was already packed (their parking lot is quite small to begin with). However, we were able to find street parking a few blocks away. As it was a public holiday, the place was packed. We've been here a few times before but when the children's play area was under renovation. We were pleasantly surprised that the play area was open and it was definitely the highlight. There are a ton of hands-on independent play activities including dress up, building blocks, and stuffed puppet animals, to name a few. One part of our visit that was quite uncomfortable was a professional photographer who was actively taking photos of kids. Originally I thought they were a parent, until I saw that they were taking photos of every kid in the space. I may have missed a notice saying that photos would be taken on this day but I know many folks who would have an issue with this as not all parents/guardians will give consent to people taking photos of their child. In the gallery room, I believe to celebrate family day, they provided some complimentary snacks. It would have been nice to have had some labels to identify all of the foods for those with dietary restrictions or allergies. The only thing I recognized was bannock. It would have also been nice to know where each of the food was catered from. We were only able to stay for about 45 minutes but overall, we had a good time. By the time we left, there was a line outside that went all the way to the parking lot, probably due to the...

My review is about the summer camp for kids. Overall I am leaving a positive 4 star review. The camp program is interesting for kids, price is democratic. One star is lost, because, unfortunately (for us) the camp has overridden the BC's exemption allowing kids under 12 to not wear a f. cover. This led to an accident that a kid was wearing a dirty one. We also found inconsistencies in the museum safety policies. We had a discussion with the museum management about the accident. I am very glad that the management took this as improvement direction and demonstrated very human behavior during not very easy discussion regarding restrictions and pandemic rules and internal polices. I have a feeling that this is going be improved, turning this camp to a truly 5-star program.

One more human-like example of behavior was when I asked to minimize usage of sanitizers and replace them with hand washing. It was heard and kids confirmed that they were washing hands. This is very different from some places, where kids are forced to sanitize hands multiple times (5-6-more times per day) leading to visible skin problems, but continuing to insist "safety" priority, and not hearing parents. Thanks to the museum for listening to parents and being on...