The Tech Interactive — Attraction in San Jose

The "Museums For All" program gives free tickets to this museum. There was a mix up beforehand because it says online that you'll receive an email with the tickets which we never did, even after a week, so I called and was told that the tickets are available at will call only. Visit: 07/21/23. This is my streamlined review: Pros: -close by parking in a lot, not a garage, across the street near the rail. -Great customer service all around, except for the fellas in the anatomy department. There's a lot of young people working the exhibits and most of them are very professional but the ones in anatomy were just very disinterested and sitting around and not acknowledging anyone. -The museum for all program admission also came with IMAX tickets. -Immaculate facilities (the restrooms though heavily visited smelled amazing and were amazing and I used it twice which I never use public restrooms) -Summer hours of 10am-5pm allow you to see all the exhibits and your movie. -The ambiance of the IMAX theatre was really nice.

Cons: -Elevator was down, so were some of the escalators but since we had a stroller they let us use the freight elevator which was fine but you couldn't just leave but had to get someone to get the person who could bring you up and down, this was a minor inconvenience. they were very expeditious. -The museum is a beautiful facility filled with lots of things, lots of things and yet a lot of nothing, underwhelming. I know it is called a museum of innovation and when I visited as a child in the 90s, it was great! I remember the place being packed and just so many things for kids to do and see. Things have changed and not in a good way, I saw no innovation nor innovating things it's pretty much informational only (like most science as of late) and geared toward informing you about climate change and your part in it (literally there were things with screens you could watch that told you about such things and games where you can make "alternative" food). We saw every inch of the museums and interacted with most everything, we had a nice time, lots of unwanted exercise as the place is massive but I was disappointed. Some reviews said this place was meant for children and not adults and I disagree, though the labs that they do (areas where a child can perform an experiment or make something) are for children, this museum is for a super specific age range and I would say it is for 12 years old and up, They have some play areas, one where you can connect tubes and send a ball through but you could accomplish the same with bath toys from Target for much cheaper. and environmental stuff which to me is more of an adult thing. -Unclear instructions on how to interact with the exhibits. You have to swipe your ticket to interact with the exhibits and no one tells you that beforehand though we were told we would need to show them, I didn't fully understand what it meant and was confused until I asked another person at some later time. -Parking issues. Where we parked was the closest you could park to the museum and I don't believe it was mentioned at all on the site but some garages were and that was a problem for us because of the large size of our van. This space is still two streets away from the museum and I found it nerve wrecking with children. -The IMAX dome screen is great in theory, like it sounds good, but it is the most uncomfortable I have ever been at a theatre. I will never watch another movie there again. They also have an odd exiting system where you have to go all the way up the stairs to leave the theatre. We brought our stroller and were allowed to exit the way we came in. I know it sounds good but you literally have to crane neck to see and it feels like you are moving which is a pro and a con. Overall, if the kids wanted to come back I would consider it but it wasn't for us. The most impressive thing was the restroom and the kindness and helpfulness of the workers....

Update: I was told that school field trips get free admissions and the program pretty much runs everyday all year round, with even longer hours then regular admissions like mine and with extra program perks like personal science labs, etc. It’s great that they support school kids, but for $34 for adult and $28 for kid admission fees, there are so many other museums in the Bay Area that are worth looking into instead. The children’s discovery museum of San Jose is less than 10 mins walk from here.

Sadly it all depends on the day with this museum. We visited a few times prior and all was well then. This week we had a work trip in San Jose so we visited The Tech Interactive twice. Both days this week there were students doing field trips and I’m always glad to see so many kids, but the problem is if you visit on the days full of high school kids, your little ones have no chance getting to enjoy any exhibits. Unfortunately that’s both days this week for us. We have 4 and 2 year old boys and they constantly got things snatched off their hands, got shoved off a chair and fell, and after standing in line forever for each exhibit we then got older kids pushing them and taking over. Where are all the staff and where are their teachers? My last straw was the robotics activity at the bottom floor which was supposed to run hourly. I arrived at 10:30 am and the Tech staff told me to come back at 11 and my preschooler was so excited about it. Came back at 11, stood there listening to the briefing for 5 minutes, but once we got in the teacher of a student group tried to kick us out and said it was only for her group. What? Is this what we teach kids at schools now, that only their group of friends get to enjoy an activity in a museum that was supposed to be for all? I approached the staff and they shrugged it off and told me to come back at noon for the next one. We just left for good since it was more enjoyable feeding ducks at a pond for free than paying to go through war every step of the way inside this museum. My kids visit museums in different cities and countries pretty much weekly since we travel for work and we always bring them along, and this is the first time my preschooler got so upset and kept asking me why we couldn’t participate after standing in line and following all the rules. I can’t imagine other paying customers being all that impressed either if some sort of ground rules aren’t set in the future. We also visited the children’s discovery museum of San Jose this week and they had tons of kids for a field trip and we had a great time there as it was well-managed. Big thumbs...

My partner bought me tickets to a music laser showing here as a gift. I have not been here since 2014 and do not intend on ever coming back and would not recommend this place to anyone else.

We got to the door which was locked and had a sign that said "use other door" taped to it. Then we go around the building to the other set of doors, locked. See a janitor inside who motions us to go back to the original doors. Going back to the first set of doors, we try all the doors to confirm that they are all locked. Go back to see the janitor again and try to wave them down, they are nice enough to pantomime that they'll go meet us at the first set of doors.

Arrive at the first set of doors again. Janitor takes some effort to flag someone else down inside. A person flagged down from the janitor appears, who seems annoyed from the janitor. This person then answers the door, which is upsetting since it means that this person didn't do anything when I was originally having issues trying to get in the door to redeem my ticket.

I am then told that they don't let anyone into the theater late, which is unfortunate. The website, tickets, and payment confirmation email does not communicate this.

I was about 10 minutes late by the time I got to the first set of doors. However, both doors being locked even though there was a later showing that day resulting us in not being able to talk to anyone until 15-20 minutes after the showing started.

I ask if I can have the tickets refunded and am told "we don't do refunds". The website, tickets, and payment confirmation email does not communicate that the tickets are non refundable.

I ask if there are any other options and was told that I can get tickets to a different show, but when I communicated that this was the only show I wanted to see, the person just shrugged.

I asked if I can at least have my parking validated since I still have tickets. Person begrudgingly says sure, takes my parking ticket, walks around the corner and comes back. I get to the parking garage and I still have to pay parking. All I did was go from the parking garage to the tech interactive and back. Clearly the worker did not validate my parking

Considering that my parking was not validated, it is most likely that the person simply did not want to bother trying to refund my tickets. Especially since there's no information on that on their website. On top of that, she was rude both to us and the janitor, who was the only person actually...