The Adventure Park at the Discovery Museum — Attraction in Bridgeport

Went over the weekend and had a blast! I've gone to 2 other ropes courses within the past year, but this one is probably my favorite. The staff was friendly, the courses were a lot of fun, and the whole area has a ton of shade, which makes it much more pleasant than other ropes courses with much more sun exposure.

If you're new to this course, I highly, highly, highly recommend buying the gloves from the store, or bringing your own. The cables and ropes you'll be grabbing will wreck your hands, especially if you go for the higher difficulty courses.

The harness, zipline, and carabiner they provide are good. I'm about 215 pounds, and the double carabiner setup supported my weight just fine when I fell on the hard courses, so you don't need to worry about falling.

Regarding the courses, there are technically 6 difficulties: Purple (easiest), yellow, green, blue, black, and double black (hardest). However, adults are actually not allowed on the purple difficulty unless supervised by a 5 year old.

The main variables that dictate the difficulty are the height of the course, the length of the obstacles, and the difficulty of traversing the obstacles. One nice thing about the courses is that they all have early-exits, so if you find a course to be too scary or too difficult, you can bail.

I did one course for each of the remaining difficulties, so I'll recap them below.

The yellow course I did was very beginner friendly (pretty low to the ground, fairly easy obstacles), and the green course I feel was also decently beginner friendly (fairly easy obstacles, but a bit higher up). If you're not in the best shape, or if you're afraid of heights, I'd recommend sticking with those difficulties.

The blue course was more difficult than I expected, but it was very fun and not overly challenging. It had one obstacle that was scarier than I expected, but I didn't fall on it. I think most beginners would be able to complete it, albeit very uncomfortably, so if you're out-of-shape but want a challenge, I'd recommend it.

The black course was tough, but fun. A lot of the obstacles are scarier than the blue course, and some of them require quite a bit of physical strength to get through. I got winded after some of the obstacles, and I even fell on one of them. If you're out-of-shape, you'll struggle to complete this, but anyone in decent athletic shape should have a blast.

The double black course was extremely challenging for me. A lot of the obstacles felt pretty unstable and required a decent amount of forearm muscle endurance to keep balance. I fell on a few obstacles, and recovering after falling required quite a bit of upper body strength to pull myself back up. Several of the obstacles are also considerably longer than the ones you'd find in easier courses. There was also one obstacle towards the end (where you climb up one the worst ladders ever constructed) that made me nauseous after I did it, and I had to take a 10+ minute break to recover. Honestly, I would not recommend attempting the double black unless you want a challenge AND you're a high-school varsity caliber athlete AND you can do at least 5 pullups, preferably more than 10. For reference, I can do 9 or 10 pullups, and my forearms still got very fatigued during many of the obstacles.

Overall, highly recommended. I'll definitely...

My son and I had arguably the best day of our Covid Summer here the other day. We went at 2pm on gorgeous Friday afternoon. The online reservation process was a breeze and, while there were other families there, there was never even an inclination of us being on top of each other, which was a huge concern of mine, considering...

It was our first time there and, while the video instruction was thorough, it was a bit overwhelming! I was immediately nervous that my seven-year-old son would have difficulty remembering all the logistics it seemingly required for a smooth time in the trees. I had to ask a few questions for clarification myself, and even though the young man helping us answered every question we had with patience and was as helpful as he could be, I convinced myself that my not-yet-quite-at-a-growth-mindset boy would feel inadequately prepared to have fun in what seemed like an extremely tedious process latching and unlatching from rope to rope. We slowly and assiduously went through the practice course. Once. Then my son goes, “Okay. Let’s go on the real course now.”

Uh. Okay...

And y’know what? Because we had the room and time to really get into it, to figure out the the tools of the trade, as it were, he gathered confidence and, by the end of the first “kids” course, he was sold. He understood how to lock and unlock, and he was feeling confident enough in his utilitarian prowess that he was having real, authentic fun!

And fun it was! We sweat, but it wasn’t overly strenuous for the “easier” courses. We laughed, but we also knew we had to focus and strategize to get across some of the obstacles. Plainly said, it was an absolute blast.

Some points to consider:

you will figure it out, so long as you give yourself some time to play and tinker and practice. If it’s super crowded for some reason, I can see first-timers feeling anxious. Might want to ensure your first time is when it’s not super busy to full immerse yourself in the process.

the staff was awesome. We dropped our sunglasses at the top of one of the early courses and by the time we got to the end of it, the same young man who helped acclimate us to the climbing apparatuses at the beginning was holding the glasses for my son to retrieve! Once or twice I heard other people call out “Staff!” and within a moment’s notice, the kids were there and ready to help out (it was nothing crazy, by the way, just needed some audible instructions and reassurance).

it’s so well canopied with tree tops that I can see this being a welcome outdoor activity on even the most sweltering days. I didn’t find bugs to be an issue either, which, for someone like me, is like the top of the heap selling...

We have been visiting the Adventure Park at the Discovery Museum since summer, and it’s been a place of joy and exploration for my son—until today. Unfortunately, he had a distressing experience with the manager that left him heartbroken.

My son was working hard to complete a course at the end of COMMANDO trail. The course was not that difficult compared to other courses on COMMANDO. He tried three times and I was trying to guid him through this. When he was trying the fourth time, the manager came up. Instead of offering any guidance, he abruptly told my son he was “blocking other people” and ordered him to come down immediately. I offered to assist my son at the platform ahead, but the manager said no help was allowed. I was on the other platform, but I have to watch my son crying out aloud and still being sent down. I never saw my son crying like that ever before. I cannot imagine how heartbroken he was at that moment, without his parent but only the harsh words from the manager at the scene.

I just have a few concerns about the manager: The manager is over using his power to interpret the policy: The park's policy supposedly allows others to ask to pass if needed, meaning no one is actually “blocking” anyone. My son was attempting the course within reasonable limits. The manager is hurting young kids: The park should be an adventurous place for young kids, while the manager’s approach was harsh and intimidating, forcing my son to tears. He later described the manager’s words as feeling like “thousands of knives stabbing his heart.” The manager explained to me that he had made several other children come down immediately as well, as he believed this was an effective approach.

The manager is lacking compassion for young kids: Instead of helping him understand the need to step aside, the manager left him in tears, simply repeating to my son that he was “blocking people” and that he has to come down.

The experience was a painful lesson for my son about how people sometimes act, and I had to explain why someone would treat him this way. Adventure Park has been a positive experience for us, but today’s incident left us questioning the compassion and sensitivity with which young visitors...