National Maritime Museum of the Gulf — Attraction in Mobile

Rude and do not recommend if you are bringing children. Our experience was quite ridiculous as upon arrival when purchasing tickets my 15 year old walked into the gift shop. Take in mind a well behaved and quiet person he was quickly told to leave the gift shop. I laughed when he told me this as there were maybe 6 cars there and no one in the lobby except us. I went into the gift shop asking if there was a problem a white haired rude lady advises me children must have parents present as they have expensive items and children were not welcome alone. I laughed as he is almost 6.1 and a high school student well behaved. I advised her that her behavior is ridiculous and I could understand if he was 5 but this is far from the case. She advised rules are rules then laughed, I shook my head as apparentley this lady has no customer service skills none the less ability to determine what is appropriate reaction to patrons. I do not recommend the museum for anyone with children as if the gift shop at the entry behaves this ridiculously to a high school student children would be a overload for them. My suggestion move the gift shop to an area secluded to prevent walk through traffic. This attitude is set toward adults not welcoming to adolescents. The only reason a gave 1 star since it's the only way to post review. Deserves a zero and some gift shop staff with common sense as a previous review from another patron noted the same...

It is a total disgrace calling yourself a museum. This is an overpriced game room for kids and should be called a playground. I was embarrassed to see almost a total lack of historical exhibits. They entire display does almost nothing to educate local or national maritime history. It promotes ship building and shippling business. It is obviously a propaganda effort for a few large entities The politics evolved to get the millions to construct this misleadingly named monstrosity had created a total lack of caring for what a museum should be be. Otherwise the historical maritime structures of Mobile would have been prominently displayed. Nothing about Middle Bay or Sand Island Lighthouse is even in this so called museum. Nothing about using lighthouses and range lights for navigation is ever mentioned. Nothing about the first ports, what ships were used or what was being transported where is highlighted. I will not be back nor will the eight people who came with me. Ashamed of this being in my hometown. Don't waste your money it is severely overpriced...

Museum was cool, staff was not. We were forced to leave the museum as there was no place to eat lunch. By the time we left, had lunch and came back we only had enough time to see the last floor… which was what we had come back for. Staff made it abundantly clear that we were not welcome. As they closed at 3:57. Elevators were shut down so my elderly parents had to walk to the top floor, by the time we arrived up there we had missed the simulator ride by 2 minutes- which was what we had come back for and would have made with ample time had the elevators been available. The museum itself was really cool with tons of stuff to see/do/learn. With the lunch spot closed it was super inconvenient to see and explore it all. I was super disappointed that staff made us feel so unwelcome as well. Wish it had been a different experience with the staff as the museum itself contains so much valuable history. Sadly, would not recommend out because customer service is very important to experience and that’s not had here. (We visited...