Explora Science Center and Children's Museum of Albuquerque — Attraction in Albuquerque

My husband and I attended their Science of Beer Adult Night last Friday (June 20th). We were disappointed from the get-go. First, we bought $40 VIP tickets ($40 each) and according to their site the VIP price included admission 1 hour prior to general admission and a commemorative cup. Here I was thinking it would be a glass cup, but it was a plastic cup (ick) made to look like a large solo cup. I have paid VIP admission at brewery events and wine events, and they always included a glass cup/stein so that's what I was expecting, and I know Explora isn't a brewery, but for the cost it should have been the same glass cups they were giving away as their prizes for trivia and their raffle. Next, we arrived around 6:45 (6:30 was admission time for VIPs) and they didn't have a single map of the special activities/guest brewery locations available until around 7pm. That's sad for Marble and Santa Fe as they were tucked out of sight upon entry and likely didn't do as well business-wise as Rio Bravo that was set up right at the VIP entrance. When they finally put out maps, they only had the downstairs map downstairs, and same for the upstairs area: why not post both maps at the entrance for ease of finding things? They weren't even handing out paper maps with detailed descriptions for the beer themed activities. We wanted to attend the bread-making with beer activity/talk, but never found it (yes, we could have asked, but it was not happening in the space indicated on their map). They had "Beer Talks" going on in their theater area (these weren't listed on their site's advert), with no description of the contents of these talks. Explora should provide more descriptions of the themed activities for all their Adult Nights on their website and upon entry, as each event we have been interested in this summer (this one and their Retro Recess) could have had more in-depth and transparent information about themed activities: more of a draw that way. Now, with their AC also not working on the night of the event it would have been nice to have a partial refund offered (and lowered general admission for those folks), or a first beer pour free voucher, something to offset the uncomfortable environment, but all we got was lame hand fans (that we could "decorate" ourselves, we were told by the person checking us in). And why not set-up portable ACs throughout the museum?? Lastly, I have loved Explora in general as an adult for so long, but many of their regular activity areas were missing materials, didn't work, or were oddly redesigned. The puzzle area is not as cool as it used to be and doesn't have much table space anymore. The cable bike wasn't available that night either, which was disappointing. Another suggestion is they could have jazzed the event up by playing music. Lastly, perhaps a bit nit-picky, but the cafe area wasn't cleaned after their regular hours and was our best choice for seating to eat our food as it was way to hot to eat on their patio. Not worth the $40 we paid, unfortunately, and the reason for saying not to buy tickets in advance. If we attend another adult night, we will not be doing the VIP tickets again unless they really make it a...

Now this may be an unpopular opinion but it is just that...MY opinion, so please take it with a grain of salt. The museum is great, but I gave it 3 stars based on my own experience, it may be different for you, but let me explain. Recently we took our neice and nephew here for my nephews birthday. I have to admit, the ball maze as you walk in is quite mesmerizing and aside from the water fountain is definitely one of the coolest things in this place, also the water tornado and the underwater bubble ring blower are very fun too. The place is fun for the kids, and can be for adults as well but I feel that a teen-ager would be the best age demographic for this museum, and though the intention of Explora is a good one, to get young children to understand scientific reasoning is a losing battle, which is unfortunate because 99% of the children who were at the museum seemed to be 10 and under and had no attention span nor did they care about the reasoning for each of the experiments they were playing with or that there even was a scientific reason for the experiments. I witnessed many parents just sitting on their phones not at all interacting with the kids or helping them understand the reason that the things they were doing had a scientific explanation behind them. Therefore there was just a lot of young kids making messes, being destructive, and losing attention for what they were doing very quickly. Explora is a cool place but the parents need to spend some time showing the kids what the purpose is and why its fun. It may be a fun place for families and im glad my neice and nephew had fun, but neither of them nor I wish to go back to the museum a second time. But please go try Explora for yourself at least once and definitely encourage your teens to go there and learn because they will more than likely gain a better understanding from this museum than they would at school. Explora is a great place,...

Wonderful place for children!

My children can't get enough of the place. They love the bubbles and the water activites, playing on the playground, the sand area, the toddler room, and Monday story time for toddlers...there's loads of activites and new things to touch, feel, and DO.

It's a smorgasbord of scientific interactive fun from physics to geometry, to aerodynamic forces, to shadow play, to perception (mind's eyes), and electricity, to personal interactive drawings that can be scanned in and projected onto the wall, to large building blocks, to arts and crafts, and so much more...including ending the day with buying a scientific toy at the gift shop. Great for little and young explorers!

But most of all, they love the science classes. From the Summer camps to the semester programs, we get to participate with them and watch their consciousness grow as they interactively learn WHY our world is so wonderful and HOW it works by manipulating various objects and forces as well as make new inquisitive friends and mentors.

Hence, whether it's the museum, or the new Brillante Early Learning Center or new X Studio for teens and young adults...the vision is that a child can play and grow a particular passion or passions into a serious STEAM career.

As parents, we share that vision and find it matches well with our desire for a quality education through play.

The staff is always super friendly and helpful.

We've been...