Orlando Science Center — Attraction in Orlando

My husband and I had such a blast here today! There was so much to do and explore that we actually stayed from the museum’s opening at 10AM until it closed at 5PM.

GPS: You must type in “Orlando Science Center Parking Garage.” Level 2 is the pedestrian bridge that leads you to the museum. There was no one manning the entryway, but it says that parking is $5 at the time of entry online. Idk, if it’s free just because it’s Sunday, but my online ticket definitely charged me $5 for parking, FYI.

Bank of America Members: Every first weekend of the month is free admission for BoA members. Each person must show their ticket barcode and their BoA card. The staff will check the expiration date.

Online Booking: I recommend that you reserve your time slot on their website. The lady in front of us had to wait over 45 minutes to get in because she did not buy her ticket online and that was the earliest availability.

Masks: Like seatbelts and condoms, guys - Always wear protection. Their mask mandate is all over their website when you book online. It even has the specific masks that are permissible to wear, like surgical masks and cloth masks with strings that go behind the ears. No necks gators. Bring an extra one just in case you lose the first. Call ahead of time if your child will have an issue wearing one.

Activities: Wow, so many hands-on activities! Plenty of hand sanitizers around. We had fun building wooden cars and racing them, learning how to tie complex knots, paper coiling art, flying paper airplanes at targets, solving brain teasers, and hands-on puzzles. There was a cool liquid nitrogen demonstration we watched. The lower level had fish, insects, amphibians, and reptiles. We also watched two films in their CineDome. The Dolphins film was about an hour, and the Turtles Odyssey was 45 minutes long. The curved screen went all the way up to the ceiling. I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s surround sound. It seems larger than an Imax screen, yet not in HD quality. Really cool experience, though.

Food and drinks: The mocha latte at the coffee spot was good. 4roots Cafe is located on the bottom floor and had many delicious and healthy options for under $10. You can build your own bowl, and they have sandwiches, focaccias, wraps, Dino nuggets, pizzas, hotdogs, and salads. They’re open from 11AM-3PM.

The only biggest attraction that was closed during our visit was the Kids Climb area. There’s so much to do, though. It’s a little kid’s (and a big kid’s) paradise lol. With everything going on in the world, I just hope you guys don’t forget how to play...

Do not be swayed by the high overall rating and reviews from the museum. The lower rated reviews are very accurate. There is a very specific audience this museum caters to and that is OK. All of the high reviews have young children. Just name the museum like any other museum that caters to children. This is a childrens science museum first and foremost. Orlando Childrens Science Center would sound great still. Has a nice ring to it. The website does a great job of conveying an all ages museum with many exhibits and shows that many would enjoy. That is very far from reality. If you do not have kids, this museum offers you very little and will be extremely dissapointing. Especially compared to other regular science museums in other large cities nearby and nationwide.

The museum is very small. Since its split into 4 floors it makes it seem slightly larger but it is very small. All the exhibits and rooms could probably fit into a Publix or neighborhood Walmart (not the big Walmarts, the small grocery only ones) and they would have space leftover in the floorplan. Im not even including the back warehouse, stocking and inventory part of grocery stores. There is no room for expansion either so they're kind of stuck with this setup. Not a bad size for a childrens only museum as this should be branded as one.

80% of the museum is interactive. Solve puzzles, move blocks, touch screens, dig in pits, create cardboard creations, press button to hear sounds, video games catered for children, etc. Stuff children love and can use to learn. For anyone over the age of 12 its not entertaining especially given you have to pay near $30 per person. It may give a few seconds of initial interest but the novelty wears off very quickly when you're older. They don't even hide the childrens aspect. The entire floor where you enter is essentially only for kids. A playground section and a large comic book themed section that's the largest exhibit in the museum that's only made for kids.

My guess is if it was branded as a childrens museum, they would lose a good amount of revenue and donations so they can't call it a children's museum. This is a privately owned museum. I don't mean that in a nefarious way, just that any institution can't take a monetary hit like that and function the same way so they can't change the name.

If you have kids younger than 11-12, they will absolutely love this...

My husband and I made the decision to get married at the Orlando Science Center before we even got engaged! One of the first things we bonded over in our relationship, was a mutual appreciation and love of dinosaurs, and when we found out there was a place that dinosaurs could be the backdrop for our reception-we knew OSC was going to be our wedding venue.

When my husband wanted to propose, he reached out Helen, Molly, and the team at the Science Center because he needed a theater, but he also thought it would be a fitting space since we wanted to get married there. The events team was totally on board and was so supportive and helpful every step of the way!

When it came time to plan our wedding, everything fell into place super easily thanks to OSC. We attended a couple of the Unveil wedding expo events at OSC, which gave us the opportunity to interact with our vendors and to start to picture what our wedding day would look like. We found all our vendors through OSC, and every single one was truly the best.

Communication with the events team at OSC was also amazing every step of the way. The team answered emails really quickly, but if there was ever a time they were unavailable, they left clear out of office emails with back up contact info and when they were expected to be back. I never felt silly asking my questions and always received professional answers.

When it came time for our wedding, everything turned out perfectly! We had communication with our day of coordinator a few weeks before the wedding and we were able to answer each other's questions so that our vision could come to life. Our ceremony was held on the terrace, followed by cocktail hour in Our Planet, and reception in Dino Digs.

It may sound cliche, but our wedding was absolutely perfect and our favorite day ever! My husband and I really enjoyed wedding planning every step of the way, and I am sure it's thanks to the amazing experience we had with the Orlando Science Center.

There aren't enough good things that we can say about our experience. We are truly so grateful for everything the team did for us. OSC was the perfect venue for us, and I'm so glad we decided to have our wedding there! We would live our wedding day all over again-not because we need a re-do, but because we just had the best time!

A major thank you to The Orlando Science Center-the best place to...