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 money's worth.