Great Lakes Children's Museum — Attraction in Elmwood Charter Township

We visit about once a year or a little more frequently when we’re in the area. Always a great experience with staff, they are obviously very diligent, dedicated, and passionate. We just recently got to experience the new location, and are not fans - very difficult to find, parking is inconvenient given that it’s in the mall, and so many of the larger exhibits that our kiddos loved are no longer there, so they were very disappointed. After looking into the move more closely, it looks like they got bumped from their last location, which is a shame. One bonus is that they have added a quiet room/lactation space in the new place. While the exhibits are educational, the admission could definitely feel pricey if your kids are older than about 6–7; maybe future growth will allow them to reduce reliance on that earned revenue and implement a more tiered pricing structure. All good reasons to support the org in their next phase as they move to something bigger...

Great for kids who love imaginative play.

My kids are 4 and 6 and they really enjoyed themselves with all of the imaginative play stations they have. If your kids have outgrown imaginative play they probably won’t have fun.

Make sure you reserve tickets in advance! We didn’t and we’re first denied entry until a family happened to leave early. It was luck.

They could improve by putting more information about maritime for parents to share with their kids at each station. At the helicopter add a short video or some interesting facts about helicopter rescues because to my kids it was just a helicopter to play with until I started to play with them a rescue.

Same goes for the ship cabin area, to my kids it looked like a play kitchen not a part of a ship or boat. Add some information about who does the cooking in ships, how good is stored etc.

Overall, my kids had a really good time for an hour. Admission prices were...

We had a great time today at the Great Lakes Children's Museum. We easily reserved tickets online prior to our visit for the 12:00-2:00 pm time slot. Their sanitation and cleaning protocols are efficient and appreciated. Upon entry I immediately could tell how clean and organized everything is.

So many activities for our 3 year old son to enjoy. We spent our 2 hours there easily and our son remained entertained and stimulated bouncing from activity to activity. Being a Coast Guard family, we thoroughly enjoyed the various Coast Guard stations and helicopter.

Our son especially loved the flowing water table, wooden boat magnet wall, and vegetable garden. Visiting from the U.P., the museum was a great way for us to spend some time between appointments. Only wish we lived closer so we could come more often - especially during the long...