Jurassic Gardens — Attraction in Volo

It's rather pricey for a, lack of a better term, gimmicky museum. My wife and I brought our 2.5 year old son to check out the dinosaur exhibit and I was interested in the Titanic exhibit.

First off, the pricing on the board behind the ticket counter does not reflect their actual pricing. The board says the combo admission for both exhibits was like $31.95 each, but when the lady behind the counter rang us up, the total came out to $85.48 - mind you, our son was free, so it was only my wife and I that needed a ticket and paid $11 more per ticket than what was advertised.

The facility: the facility has a very roadside attraction feel to it and is in need of a facelift. The main building is sectioned off, which made it a little hard to move around as it was slightly crowded in there. There are antique bikes and cars that are blocked off by velvet ropes with signs saying do not touch. The problem is the ropes are right up against antiques and are easily within reach out little hands. I don't mind keeping my son in check, but it's around every corner... Oh, and the gift shop is wildly overpriced. There was a little stuffed teddy bear for like $15-$16. Woof.

Jurassic Gardens: It's was... okay. Definitely the most updated part of the museum, but other than animatronic dinosaurs, there wasn't much to it. My son loved it which was great, but I suppose I was expecting a little more. If my son wasn't 2.5 and waking back and forth, a family with kids let's say, 5-10 years old, could walk through the whole thing in about 10 minutes. You're on a "path" so you're kind of ushered through instead of being able to walk around and explore.

Titanic exhibit: It pains me to say this was the biggest let down of what I was thinking was going to be the most interesting part of our visit. Firstly, it was incredibly small and the museum knows it. There's even a sign when you walk in that says "Slow down and be sure to read everything" lol. I could be mistaken, but there are no real artifacts and I was surprised to see quite a few cars. One car description read something like "This was the last car that so and so drove in before getting on the Titanic". Not sure what relevance that holds to the people who are there to see a Titanic exhibit, but okay... cool? Everything else in there was "replica" luggage and clothing. Very lackluster. Again, you could make your way through the whole exhibit in probably 10 minutes or less.

I'm not trying to sway anyone from going, I'm just trying to provide my family's experience and realistic expectations of what you're paying for.

Would I recommend someone to visit? Maybe, but with caution.

Would we...

Wow! What a fun little adventure! Our 2.5 year old loved this Dinosaur experience. I did a little research before we headed here and had simple expectations, but it is definitely perfect for a Dino-loving toddler! He loved the movement and sounds, albeit a bit noisy in a couple of spots, and the look and feel of the whole exhibit. It was quite honestly one of the best attractions I’ve seen anywhere. I thought ok, a few dinos will move and the rest with be statues, but there were easily at least 15 or more animatronic dinosaurs throughout the whole thing! It was great old-fashioned fun. We had a great time!

I think people who may have not enjoyed this probably either had kids who just ran through it or who were not terribly interested in dinosaurs anyway because for us, it was perfect. More than a museum of bones, it was like it added a whole other level of excitement and curiosity, bringing these ancient things to life. Our son really enjoyed it and at times, did seem a little scared by the realistic look and feel of the dinosaurs, but overall did find it to be interesting! He already loves them, so he found it to be fun!

Highly recommend for little dino lovers! We’re so glad we visited! Neat hidden little antique mall we walked quickly through, as it was nearing nap time. Hoping to come back again to see the other...

My boys, 5 and 9, enjoyed their visit, but the internet makes this place seem a lot bigger than it is. It's essentially one warehouse and you can see the end of it from the beginning when you walk in. We walked through the whole thing 3 times easily.

We also got passes for the Volo museum because it was a bit of a drive to get there and the Jurassic Gardens really was smaller than anticipated. It is connected to Jurassic Gardens The Disney section in the Volo museum is nearly at the end of it, and so we did a lot of bored walking through a bunch of cars to get to the exhibit. The entire place had a strange floral smell like they were covering something up, and the areas with the cars for sale smelled strongly of gasoline and polish. Overall, I am glad we tried it, but wouldn't go back. The dinos we saw were pretty cool just not as many as we thought. If you are going to make the trip, skip the food and be prepared for strange smells and loud noises both from the dinosaurs and from the car display with loud musical features. You also do a lot of walking inside and out between buildings, so don't leave your coat in the car...