The Carousel Museum — Attraction in Bristol

We celebrated our triplet daughters' second birthday at the Bristol Carousel Museum and it was above and beyond everything we expected. Elizabeth helped us book the venue and was very responsive and helpful with any questions we had. She even let us choose a little later of a time slot so we could come after our girls' nap time when they are in their best moods.

The day of the party Max and Cheryl were so wonderful in helping us set everything up for our "tea party" breaking out their finest tea cups and having hats for the kids to decorate. They guided us on a quick private tour of the museum and even with the kids being young, they captured their attention and answered every question with such patience.

By far the highlight of it all was the unlimited carousel rides for the adults and kids alike but I was also surprised to find they even had a little area with toys for the kids to play with which our girls loved! At the end of the party each child received a beautiful poster to take home and our girls were gifted light up magic wands as a birthday gift from the museum. Everyone had a blast and the adults and kids equally raved about how much fun they had.

I will definitely be back to explore the museum and maybe attend one of their...

Our favorite surprise of a road trip to Connecticut. Museum had a wheelchair available for one 90+ year old guest in our party. The carousel animal exhibits are nicely displayed, showing off the artisanship of the original carvers. The docent was very well informed about their history, regional/ US vs. European similarities and differences. A perfect docent for the high fact-finder, and the artistic type. The Lego carousel was cool, as were the small scale models. There is/ are artisan(s) onsite who work to restore carousel animals and sculptures. It is great to see this tradition continue (especially with a craftsman under 60!). Fire museum upstairs is small, but packed with interesting objects, including many from outside the U.S. This is "the little museum that could." It might look little, but don't plan on zipping through in 30 minutes; one can easily spend 2 hours here. If anything, I wish there were more opportunities to engage, such as a (paid) membership. Merch in the gift area was limited; I've seen carousel and animal ornaments many places - this would...

When my friends and I go on trips together, we often like to to stop off at quirky & unusual places to break up the ride and make the trip more interesting. On our latest weekend getaway, we deiced to check out the New England Carousel Museum. We were pretty disappointed. While the carousel horses were quite nice, the museum is small, dimly lit, understaffed, and dusty. One of my friends actually had a hard time breathing after a while from the dust. The staff was OK I guess, we had to wait about 10 min to get in because no on was there to sell us tickets. Not a big deal, but a little annoying. We were pretty much done after 25 min, not really worth the 2 hour detour.

I suppose if you had a very young child with a short attention span, this would be a good place to check out. There was a birthday party going on while we were there and the kids seemed to really be enjoying themselves.

One thing I really want to make clear it that the surrounding area SUCKS. It's very run down, dirty and I wouldn't want to be there after dark, maybe that's why the museum...