The Children’s Museum of the Upstate — Attraction in Greenville

I will start by saying my children love playing here, especially on rainy days or after school for a couple of hours to help get out some energy from sitting in class all day, but there are several things that are in need of addressing.

1.) I believe most people would agree that it is insane to charge the adults the same price as children as we literally just supervise our children. ($12 for SC residents and $18 for visitors) I ended up choosing to pay for a membership as it was going to cost $50 for 2 adults and 2 kids for 1 day so it was more economical to buy passes as we planned to return numerous times since we live close to the museum.

2.) As previously stated, adults are just supervising, so after a couple of hours you may be looking for a place to sit. There are not many options for sitting in this place, which may not be a problem for most, but I have a disabled mother who is part of my membership so she can take her grandbabies to the museum while I am working, but this is very difficult for her as she is unable to stand for extended periods of time and would struggle to find seating here.

3.) The museum is closed on Mondays during the school year which is isn't a huge deal, but you tend to forget this, particularly when the kids are out of school for some reason and you head to the museum for the day to find out it is closed. (I have done this a couple of times.) The biggest irritation is the fact that many things in the museum are only open at certain times or certain days so if you are like me and try to go when crowds are lower, you will be surprised to find out that many things like art studio and the Stem lab, which are the things the kids love the most, will not be available to you.

3.)The cafeteria is horrible! I remember when the museum first opened, there was an actual place to order food and even at one point sold Chick-fil-A. Now your options are a few cold sandwiches in a cooler and snacks such as goldfish and cookies that you purchase through a kiosk. So, if you plan to stay for the day, just know food options are VERY limited.

4.) This one is a biggie for me considering the price you pay. For a membership for 5 people, I paid over $200; however, you still have to pay for special events at a slightly discounted price. However, just be aware that they do not hold an allotted amount of tickets for their members like most places do. I rarely recieve emails from TCMU and frequently they go to the spam folder when I do get them so I only find out about special events from another family blog that I follow listing the event. The beauty of memberships is you can decide to go last minute if other plans fall through due to rain or whatever, but that is not the case here. I attempted to take my kids to an Easter event yesterday due to my original plan falling through because of rain, and I saw this listing on the before mentioned blog the night prior to the event. I looked in my spam folder to find that I had recieved an email 3 nights prior notifying me of the upcoming event but their was a text block in this email that clearly stated that they only guarantee admission for pre purchased ticket holders and MEMBERS, so I waited to purchase tickets when we arrived because I was holding off in the event that the rain projections were lower in the morning and we would be able to follow through with our original plans. However, we were turned away at the entrance of the parking lot and told they were sold out and our membership didn't matter.

This place has the potential to be great, but unfortunately it has been a disappointment in many areas, so at this time I would recommend passes for other attractions in the area so you may get your...

The Children's Museum of the Upstate was amazing. It was full of intellectually and physically engaging opportunities for kids, and kept our kids engaged for hours and wanting more when they closed and we had to head home. If you live locally (even in neighborhood cities and counties), keep an eye out for a museum pass at your local library which will admit up to 5 for a week for free.

There are three floors. The entrance is on the middle floor and has a ton of fun things to explore and learn about. The body section has play dentistry and surgery activities where you can learn about the mouth and body organs, a rock wall to climb and stay healthy and active, a stomach you can enter and slide down, and a large series of clear tubes that show how the lungs work. There's a pretend play section in the back where they can pretend to be bankers and salespeople. To the left at the entrance there's a wind and air section with a wind tunnel and more clear tubes that kids can put balls inside and watch them fly through. There are vacuum tubes that blow out air that kids can experiment with Bernoulli's principle and watch balls "levitate." Beside that, there are two derby race tracks where kids can build their own cars and race them down and a life size pretend race car that they can practice a pit stop on. In the middle of the entrance floor there is a large climbing area that goes all the way up and over a path through the middle of the top floor. All the exits are on the middle floor (kids can't leave on the top floor), but there are multiple exits around the climbing gym, so keep an eye out and make sure your child doesn't run off from the opposite side they entered.

The top floor has a STEAM room that is only open a few days a week (I'm not sure if it changes, but it was open 1-5 Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday this summer I think. The room has a theme each week and students have several STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) activities they can participate in related to that theme (the theme was Wizard of Oz when we were there). There's also a reading nook, a play area for littles, a putt-putt course, and a construction area on the top floor. The construction area teaches a bunch of different design and engineering concepts, and has a tool area where kids can pretend play with construction equipment and play tools.

The basement floor has a large water play area just inside with a section for infants and toddlers and a large area for big kids to stand and play. The self-serve cafeteria is adjacent to the water play area, and includes a few fridges with meal options, a couple open displays of various snacks and chips, and a couple drink fridges and a Starbucks coffee grinder and brewer (it has Blonde Roast, Pikes Place, and a dark roast option). It's all self-service with a self-checkout and it was all surprisingly reasonably priced. The bottom floor is also where they host a bunch of camps, so there is a check-in area in the bottom of the stair well and a bunch of camp rooms. Finally, there's an outdoor playground located off of the basement floor that has a tire mountain for climbing, lots of rubber track area throughout for running, and a large play feature to climb...

(Images edited to hide identities as I don't know who those people are, and they might not want to be online)

Great place to bring kids to play for a while. We do wish they wouldn't charge adults with full price ticket, as we aren't there really for ourselves. Sadly we went on a rainy day and the outdoor playground was closed (but looked cool). They have three floors of exhibits and displays. Very interactive and the kids had a lot of fun. Several of the displays stood out as very inventive.

They had a lung display in the body exhibit that you could put a light weight cloth into and it would shoop around inside the lung tubes and then pop out the top. (second floor)

They had a Publix grocery store where kids could "shop" and then they could check out at the register and push the buttons for the vegetables then "pay" by pushing the currency amounts on the other side. (sadly other than beeping the UPC codes wouldn't actually scan onto the screens) In theory one kid would run the register and the other would be the customer but kids liked to do both sides themselves (self checkout people in training I guess). Genius of Publix (south eastern ish grocery store chain) to sponsor it. Gotta plant those loyal customer seeds early. Seriously though Publix is a great grocery store, excellent sub sandwiches. (see images)

They also had a fully functional crane in the construction exhibit which was very well done (3rd floor). It was magnetic so you could pick up some "I-beams" and some various sized boxes. There was pretty much always a line for using it. Definitely a hit, had the dual joystick controls and button for turning on and off the magnet. (and a safety so you couldn't lift things really high up (about 6 foot) and drop them.)

Their 1st floor was a little smaller than the others but had a great water table exhibit, probably do that last unless you want a wet kid running around the rest of the place. (see images)

Their staff was friendly and helpful. Specially the puzzle area (kind of inside the Publix store) their staff there did a great job. Lots of little wood puzzles and brain teasers kind of things. We spent quite a bit of time in there. Definitely go by when they are open.

They also have a 9 hole mini golf course as well (small tennis balls so you can't whack it and knock some kid out) so that was pretty cool as we like to play putt putt golf.

They also have a large climbing display thing in the center of the building that spans from the 2nd to the 3rd floor (entrance and exit are on the 2nd floor so you kid can't go up there and get lost)

It is a little bit loud, as most children places tend to be. But we definitely enjoyed it. We didn't have time to hit the library or art museum next door but maybe one day. It was a good location downtown and parking is free on...