Ripley's Believe It or Not! — Attraction in Grand Prairie

I have been coming here for the last 30 years. My mom used to take me and now I take my daughter who loves it just as much as I do. It is a special place for me and I love sharing it with my daughter. I LOVE going here.

That being said, because I have been going for so long I have noticed several things. The place needs some serious love. It is showing its age and whoever is in charge is not keeping it up. They used to have beautiful trees and flower gardens outside the building. These are all gone. The sidewalks were painted bright yellow and purple. Now they are just boring concrete. The parking places had celebrity names, so each time you went it was fun because you got to park in “Sylvester Stallone’s” parking space or whoever your favorite was. This has also been painted over and is gone. They used to have two wax hand stations so you didn’t have to wait so long. Now they have one station and one person working it. We stood in line 45 minutes to get my daughter’s wax hand today.

The inside looks dirty and desperately needs repainting. The wax museum needs a complete makeover. They used to keep the wax figures roped off, behind walls, and out of reach. This preserved their quality and kept them looking realistic. Now people are constantly touching the figures, pulling on them, etc… The figures look old and are visibly damaged. Their clothes are torn and their skin is dirty. Some have scrapes and are missing pieces like hands. This is really sad to see because I remember how it used to be and they were kept in great condition because the public was not allowed to touch them at all. The first room you walked into used to have cool movie memorabilia on the walls, including Christopher Reeves costume from Superman. This is all gone.

One of the best things about coming here was the awesome theming. Each room had a theme and you felt like you were completely submerged in it. For example, the wizard of oz room is still there and it’s amazing. From the yellow brick road, to the music being played, it’s awesome. However, they have gotten rid of a lot of their former exhibits and replaced them with generic figures and the rooms no longer have creative theming. One whole room is dedicated to marvel (yawn). They aren’t even wax figures but huge plastic sculptures. They used to have an amazing Aliens room in the horror museum. This is also gone and replaced by the creature from the black lagoon. Huh? The big alien is still there but they removed the strobe light which used to be so amazing and now it’s just bleh. Please bring back the amazing themed rooms you used to have. It made you feel immersed in the movie/scene and was so much fun. Sticking a wax figure or plastic sculpture in a plain room is boring. Get creative like you used to be! Bring back your former designers!

Ripley’s is the same. Some of the old exhibits are still there, but again they have replaced others with boring generic rooms. The Tornado Alley experience and simulation room used to be my favorite exhibit in Ripleys. It was so unique and fun. It is gone and has been replaced by a boring unthemed room where kids can play with gears on a wall, push sound effect buttons on a wall, and play with an oversized light bright. Why would you pull out such an amazing exhibit to replace it with something kids can go do at the downtown library (they also have a gears wall, lol). It’s so baffling to me. The Atlantis exhibit which had mermaids and was beautiful to walk through is gone. Replaced by a wall that you can take your shadow picture on.

This place just feels like a former creative and unique way to spend the afternoon that is now being run by teenagers who know nothing about its former glory. The old creators and designers have moved on and the new owners know nothing about how it used to be. They are slowly taking out everything that used to make it “odd” special and fun and replacing it with boring rooms. Please watch some old videos, bring back the old designers, paint some walls, clean the floors!!!! This building needs serious...

I grew up here in DFW. My family and I have been driving past the Ripley's in Grand Prairie on the way to Six Flags for decades, always kicking ourselves and planning to add it to the next trip. Glad to have finally paid a visit to this local gem. We bought our tickets online in advance and scanned QR codes to access the attractions. (purchasing onsite and physical tickets are an option if that's your preference). Light concessions available - including booze. Numerous souvenir stations and a gift shop if you want to come away with something more tangible than memories.

The fun starts outside with the Taj Mahal inspired motif and several installations adjacent to the building; photo ops and factoids abound inside and out. The site is clean and pretty well maintained. The 5 attractions offer something of interest for almost anyone. You can save a few bucks if you know you'd rather pass on a couple. Overall, definitely worth a visit. We showed up around 1015 and left around 1330.

The attractions in my order of preference: Mirror Maze, Odditorium, Wax Museum, 7D Theater Ride, Power Up.

Mirror Maze. Self explanatory. As mirror mazes go, I was pleasantly surprised with how well this one is executed. The mirrors were very clean (grab the provided gloves at the entrance and pay it forward). It is easy to lose track of others and yourself.

Ripley's Odditorium. An eclectic mix of interesting facts, artifacts and activities. There is sure to be something for everyone. Videos, displays, Illusions, Perot Museum style activities, history, pop culture, and somethings that are just, well, odd.

Wax Museum. A fun mix of figures that also runs the gamut. History, entertainment, comics, politics, the Bible, and horror. Part museum, part haunted house (don't miss the claustrophobia room!). Love 'em or hate 'em, the wax figures are something to see, and the displays set the scene and provide tons of information.

7D Moving Theater: Interactive 3D movie (robots or werewolves) where your seats move with the on screen action, and you blast on screen characters for points and bragging rights versus other participants. A fun, somewhat brief chance to get off your feet for a few minutes.

Power Up: Not bad per se, but this is a stand-and-shoot feature with interactive images projected on three walls. Think more 'shooting gallery' than 'laser tag.' The website shows it pretty well, not bad - but understand what you are getting here.

All in all, a pretty good time. Would recommend and may return with...

If you are looking to take your family to a place that is different from the theme parks and water water parks that are in the area, this is an OKAY place to go.

I would best describe the whole experience as a money grab before the customer realized what happened.

To start the attractions are WAY OVER PRICED for what you get, and they try to sell you bundles before you start to go into the different areas.

I got all 5 attractions, and I will say this, I DIDNT STAY TO DO THROUGH ALL 5.

The Louis Tussaud's wax museum hopes you will get into the room before you realize it's NOT a Madame Tussauds wax museum. From the figures looking NOTHING like some of the people they are meant to represent, (Taylor Swift was horrible, and the Fairy Godmother looks like it was once a Lyndon B. Johnson figure) to the clothing being so oversized on some it was like they were wearing someone else's clothes.

Enchanted Mirror Maze was again okay, it definitely was the most you got what you paid for as there was no bait and switch here. However, not even actively trying to find the exit you will be done in about 10m. So to get more out of the attraction, my family walked back through the maze to have more time.

Ripley's Believe It or Not attraction was just sad. It's a collections of old drawings, and exhibits that are poorly maintained and just outdated. I get that you can't make something "old" look new but you can tell that these exhibits were just poorly put together, and again, poorly maintained.

At this point the 7D and the Power Up exiibits I didn't even go to.... Maybe they are amazing, but that old "Fool me once" saying kept going through my mind, so after being fooled 3 times.... I was done and so was my family.

So why the 3 stars.... In the end, the kids still had a good time, not a great time, they left seeing, and doing things that hadn't before. However, they were NOT impressed and were 100% okay with leaving. In fact it goes to show that the thing my kids were upset about the most was not getting to make a Wax hand but after dropping $160 for a family of 4..... I didn't want to give that place a single dollar more.

This is my experience..... Believe it or not

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