Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum & Grout Museum of History & Science — Attraction in Waterloo

My review will specifically target the new "Planetarium." To be frank, it's not worth it. For starters, you can't just pay to see the show, you first have to pay admission to the museum - even if you don't want to wander the museum. For two adults and a child, you're looking at over $40 to see the short show. In terms of the new/remodeled Planetarium, it's clear that it wasn't thought through. First off, all of the seats face the same direction, even though the show is on the dome ceiling. That means the front half of the rows will only be able to see the front half of the ceiling unless you find a way to wedge yourself further backwards to see behind you. The projector is located in the middle of the rows, and was vibrating enough to give us a headache while trying to read the blurry words.

The show itself was lacking. The host of the show was some overly excited theater major that was clearly more interested in telling culture based stories than about the stellar objects themselves. The first five minutes alone were just him showing everyone how the theater has an array of standard smart light bulbs all synced up. He then went on to brag about the software for the next five minutes. It felt more like we were in an investor tech demonstration than an actual Planetarium show. The lack of actual planet/star content was a bit concerning. Overall, unless the seating is revamped and they add some actual Planetarium-like content to the show, I'd say it's not worth the...

Being born and raised in the Cedar Falls Waterloo area I thought it would be fun and neat to finally go to this museum since I've never gone before in all of my 54yrs. Went with a friend of mine to see this museum and was somewhat disappointed. It's tiny with not much in it. First thing I noticed was how dimly lit it is inside making it difficult to see and read in detail the limited number of exhibits they have on hand and the second thing I noticed was, as mentioned, the limited number of exhibits and displays. They have a little bit about the Sullivan Bros, WWII, Vietnam, Korea, Rath Packing, the U.S.S. Iowa and a few other odds and ends and that's pretty much it. Being they have a P-51 Mustang (my favorite fighter plane of all eras) hanging from the ceiling in one of the rooms, I thought this was gong to be one heck of a museum, I was wrong. I was in there for literally 45 mins and had seen and read every single display and exhibit and was already ready to go. While in the museum I met and chatted with several other people who were going through the museum also, and they all agreed that the museum was kind of a let down. For a town this size I was expecting more I guess, and ended up experiencing less. All in all this museum was somewhat of a let down. There'll be no reason for me to return to see it again or recommend this museum to...

If you are interested in having an intimate exploration of American Military and War efforts this would be a good place to go. I was not. I was more interested in the prairie history and there wasn't a lot of that but what there was very well done. I especially enjoyed the personal stories that you can listen to. They did something imaginative I haven't seen before and that is they give you a dog tag when you enter and along the way you scan it and you listen to a personal story, but they make it sound like it's your own, very imaginative. Note: I found the museum difficult to find. I couldn't find a sign and kept going around the block because google told me it was there. I finally decided to ask someone, found parking and someone just happened to be leaving through a locked door. Apparently, I was in the right location but not at the entry door which I never did find. I walked around the museum and when it was time to leave, I could not find an elevator and had to climb the stairs. It seems there maybe a few kinks this museum needs to figure out. Also, there is one price, $12.00 without exception. I was told parking will be across a busy street and you would have to...