Cincinnati Museum Center — Attraction in Cincinnati

I LOVE The Museum Center/Union Terminal. It currently is home to The Natural History Museum, The Cincinnati History Museum, Omnimax Theater (all accessible from the main floor) and the Children's Museum (lower level). Traveling exhibits fill the space across from the Children's Museum. The gift shop, on the main floor, is full of fun and educational things for children as well as adults. Graeter's has an ice cream shop just outside the door of the Natural History Museum.

I recommend obtaining an annual membership which allows free admission to any of the museums, free parking and 10% discount on purchases. It also has reciprocity at participating museums across the US.

The Natural History Museum has always been my favorite "museum". Since the renovation several years ago the Dinosaur Hall has become my new favorite "section". Life-size dinosaur skeletons fill the entire area, giving the visitor a true feeling of how small we are in comparison. There are real bones in those displays, too. I'm awestruck standing so close to real dinosaur bones. There is SO MUCH more beyond those bones: The Cave, The Ice Age exhibit, Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery, etc.

The Cincinnati History Museum sounds boring; history classes were boring, right? But it is far from it. Just inside the door is a huge replica of Cincinnati, complete with moving trains and inclines, flashing lights and a circling airplane. The children visiting at the same time that we were there, ran from display to display squealing happily about the things they were finding. Farther down the steps is a full size trolley car and a replica of a riverboat. You can enter both.

My kids and I have so many wonderful memories of experiences at the museums. We had a family membership which allowed us to have cheap family outings every couple of weeks. They learned a lot on those visits and it just cost us an annual fee. Well worth the investment.

Aside from the museums, the architecture of the building is spectacular. A must see and experience for anyone who appreciates architectural beauty.

The history of Union Terminal is like icing on the cake. I'll leave that as is, for you to discover on your own. Enjoy...

As a fan of preserving architecture, this is a fantastic way to keep the beautiful station building in use!

Admission to the center gets you into multiple museums including the History, Natural Hstory & Science , and children's museums. There are other supplements to pay if you want for Omnimax movies and the Holocaust & Humanity center which is on the lower level below the concourse.

I spent most of my time in the History & Natural History sections. I

In the latter, the dinosaur hall was great with interesting facts and it worked well walking down the levels to see the Dino's from a different perspective. I also really liked the Ice Cave, it walks through the history of the region as it moved from the Ice Age to the glaciers melting and new flora and fauna appearing- probably the best depiction of it I've seen!

The history museum was definitely interesting with some real standout sections including the riverboat landing and the model railroad layout (again, having the different levels really helped this one!). The streetcar was a lot of fun too with a mini ride commentary- definitely very popular with the kids visiting. It did seem as though there's been a bit of a refresh recently, the newer exhibits didn't seem quite as engaging or focused (despite better technology). There are also upcoming exhibitions too which has probably had an impact too!

Inside the station, you start on the Main Concourse with each museum spanning several floors down.

On the concourse you have the main cafe- I'd recommend looking at the dining room even if you're not eating as the murals are a lot of fun and there's a little display on the USO at the station too. The cafe menu is self service in that you order on a screen, take your buzzer and then pick up the food in the dining room. Today, the food came quickly and was good. By the main entrance door, there's also a small ice cream parlour with some great decor too!

The gift shop is on this level too and it covers all the museums. Most of the gifts are science/children orientated but there are a few nice little station...

This is a very nice museum center. I went here and was immensely satisfied with my experience. I walked in here and was awestruck by the absolutely stunning Art Deco architecture of the building. I bought a museum ticket from the ticket desk and went to the history museum. I walked into the history museum and went through its replica of what Cincinnati looked like in the early 1900s, which was very big. After looking at that, I went to see the museum’s exhibits about the history of Cincinnati and walked inside of a replica tram car. After doing. That, I walked down to the lower level of the history museum, where I walked through a replica street of Cincinnati in the 1800s and walked in a steamboat replica of those used in the 1800s along the Ohio River. The replica street had a photography studio, pub, and clothing store that you could walk into. After walking into all those stores, I walked through more exhibits about the history of Cincinnati until I got to the museum’s exit. I took the escalator back up to the museum center lobby from the museum. When I got back to the lobby, I went to the museum center’s food court where I had a waffle for lunch. The food court had about fifteen tables with four seats each. After I finished eating my waffle, which was very good, I went to the Science Museum. I looked at the dinosaur bones on exhibit there and walked past that to the DNA exhibit, which I also looked at. After that I walked through the rest of the museum before leaving. After I went to the Science Museum, I left the museum center, satisfied with my experience. I gave this museum center five stars because it has very nice architecture and a very good history museum, boring science museum, Holocaust museum, and children’s museum (I didn’t go to the Holocaust museum and the children’s museum was closed...