😆To those who were considering coming here, I hope this comment finds you well as I highly recommend you guys to come here. (Sorry it’s rather long and comprehensive)

Point 1: The staff treat their patrons kindly and equally

• When I was booking for the museum, I noticed on the website that they were opened on the day that I was intending to go and happily booked it w/o much thought into it. But, later their manager, Matt, contacted me about the closure on that particular day. Instead of canceling on me, he told his staff to continue to take my family and I on a guided tour of the place and offered to postpone it to a later date or even just cancel and do a full refund.

• On the day of arrival, my LNER train got delayed from 8 to 9. Then, the train I was on stopped due to a technical problem. We were delayed for 1.5h in total.

• Personally, this meant a lot to me. One, it is rare for museums to care this much about their patrons (maybe I’m just traumatized) to set aside time to take their patrons on a ‘private’ guided tour, especially when they had to go out of their way to do it. Two, we were traveling there on a day trip from London, and it would have been a huge hassle and letdown if it was cancelled or not opened on that day. It was certainly something I was looking forward to see and I was glad they delivered. After contacting the manager, we decided upon the guided tour and was excited to be there. Third, they were kind enough to wait for me and told me on email that it was very understandable and we’re still looking forward to having us.

Point 2: The tour was informative and very educational.

• Well I did have the luxury of having 2 of the staff to guide on the tour, especially on a day there was literally nobody.
• The staff took the time to explain what my family and I found interesting, told us the relevance and importance even some of their theories on the more mysterious artifacts. This provided such a personal touch, and it was definitely above and beyond than what I expected.
• We ended up having some quick quizzes and some chatter and my family and I really enjoyed every second of the tour.
• Shoutout to the staff for the educational and fun moments we shared.

Point 3: The museum was really interesting and was brimmed with exhibits.

• From medieval Vikings exhibits, religious influences, greek and Roman exhibits, to the prehistoric exhibits, there were so many floors to explore.
• It’s no British museum, but still has many once-in-a-lifetime type of exhibits.
• I shall let you find out the wonders of the place on ur own, cause no spoilers. But be sure to ask the staff as I’m sure the staff will be so happy to share their knowledge with u.

Summary: In my very humble opinion, to really recognize what makes a museum staff and experience special and memorable, is how they deal with difficulties or situations of similar nature. It is when they are ‘tested’ or had situations like this, do we know the culture and personality of the museum staff.

And they delivered. Every step of the way. And made it such a special and enjoyable experience.

With that being said, I highly highly recommend the museum. I have never gave a more deserving 5 star rating before but this takes a huge chunk of the cake, and will be the one of the main highlight of my time in Europe.