It’s OPEN! The Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul has now re-opened its doors after several months of construction, remodeling and expansion, and it’s GREAT!
Their grand re-opening date was on Wednesday, June 7th and we had visited during their Sneak Peek week, June 2nd – 6th. The whole museum is different! For example, the entrance moved from the 1st floor to the 3rd floor because that is where most people come in from because of the parking ramp. Plus it’s BIGGER – it went from 65,000 to 74,00 square feet!
There are 10 new exhibits, an additional elevator, twice as many bathrooms, and even a cafe.
This is the 3rd level, after you come in through the entrance. Creativity Jam is a place where you can create in a big white “room” and kids can do the face painting that they used to do in the old museum.
The NEW Tomāto / Tomäto Cafe is connected to the gift shop on the 3rd floor.
Here you can get lunch and dinner entrees like pizza, sandwiches and macaroni and cheese, plus tons of other goodies. Yummy!
We all enjoyed the food! And yes, there’s ice cream for hot summer days, and Caribou Coffee for the parents!!! (Yay!) And members – you can save 10% here!
The Scramble is a “four-story vertical adventure with two climbing towers, a spiral slide and a netted catwalk suspended more than 40 feet high.” You can see it on each level, but the main entrance is on the 1st floor.
Parents – your kids will need SOCKS for this one! If your kids are wearing sandals and don’t have socks, make sure you bring socks anyway, or you’ll have to buy some in the gift shop! And make sure you have socks for yourself because you may want to join in the fun!
We loved the Scramble – you’ll find nothing like it anywhere else!
Next to the entrance of the Scramble is a carpet skate park that our kids LOVED. There are “skates” and helmets that kids can wear, though your kids may want to wear long sleeves and pants to avoid rug burn. Our kids couldn’t get enough of this place.
The carpet skate park is actually part of Super Awesome Adventures, where there’s also green-screen climbing wall and ninja laser maze. The ninja laser maze has different options – single or multi-player, so everyone can have fun. Climb through the laser maze without touching them!
A brief look inside the Lazer Maze:
A few steps away is Forces at Play (3M Gallery) which actually opened last year. Here you can wash a vehicle in a sudsy car wash and play with different ping pong ball launchers.
Our kids wanted to spend a long time in the new Our World (Best Buy Gallery) exhibit. It includes a fire station, hardware store, post office, farmers market and more. It’s in the location that Earth World used to be, and the upper level is now part of the post office.
Check out this video I did for Twin Cities Kids Club:
Imaginopolis is a super cool. It’s like a theatre where you can create a story or a world with fun, creative objects. You can also change the moving, digital background.
There are several other exhibits we didn’t have time to see (or I didn’t get pics yet):
- Sprouts – Infants, toddlers and preschoolers tackle fun challenges in a beautiful and safe environment
- Backyard – New outdoor space with a person-sized bird’s nest, fanciful animal sculptures and earthy activity stations
- Tip Top Terrace – Rooftop patio where visitors make music, sketch and talk about the city around them
- The Studio (Target Gallery) – Tinker, make and create with real tools and authentic materials
Bring your kids to the Minnesota Children’s Museum – they’ll have so much fun for hours!
Admission & DISCOUNT
Admission – Note that admission did go up in price from $9.95 per person. It’s now $12.95 per person (ages 1-101).
HOWEVER – you can save $2 per admission with my code TCFM when you buy tickets online!
There are also special events coming up worth noting:
- Saturday, June 17th is their Block Party. Admission is free all day, but you must order online.
- Thursday nights in June 2017 are member-only nights. Members can come from 5-8pm!
- Target Free 3rd Sundays do continue! However, you must purchase a ticket in advance.
I’ll be posting more as we visit again and again! Learn more on their website.