I have been threatening to go to the Skeleton Museum for an eternity. I had heard about it from our homeschool field trip group, but no one else was as interested. Not even my 5th grade homeschooler!
I reassured him it would be an interesting learning experience and that he’d get homeschool credit for the whole day.
But he is such an animal lover … we joke that he’d rub the fur off his guinea pig if we let him.
He had zero desire to see “dead animal skeletons”.
You betcha. He dragged his feet the entire way until we walked past the 1st exhibit. I saved the, “see I told you so” lecture for later.
Skeleton Museum Tips!
First let me save you money, order your tickets online days before you go!
You’ll save yourself a ton of cash if you order online. Tickets at the door can get up to $19/person depending on days and times. I paid $12 for both of us – BOTH OF US! You’re welcome, you can send me a Starbucks gift card with the cash I just saved you!
There is a parking garage you can use beside the giant Ferris Wheel, but we parked on the opposite side of the complex, along the Sea Life building.
As we walked up to the tiny museum I kept wondering, “where on earth are they going to put 500 skeletons in this closet? Please don’t be lame’”. You could honestly miss the place being overshadowed by Sea Life.
It’s set up to walk through the gift shop first, and you could smell the regret oozing out of my pours as we entered.
And if you’re thinking, its a gimmick I just wasted money, like I was … just give it 5 more minutes, I promise it gets good!
But you can be sure when we first arrived I was silently putting a voodoo hex on the woman who told me about this place.
After checking in, we grabbed a scavenger hunt. Hint numero dos: GRAB THE SCAVENGER HUNT!
There are only a handful of items to find which at first I thought was pretty weak, but it wasn’t completely easy either. We had fun doing it!
Once you turn the weird hallway entrance corner you’ll be amazed. We had a total change of heart and really opened up to the experience.
Keep in mind that the 500 skeletons are all real and were donated from zoos. These skeletons are of animals who have passed on to the big zoo in the sky. So you feel less weird about the whole situation.
Maybe if you’re hard to impress it won’t be so interesting, but once you see an elephant skull up close, numerous bats, difference between crocodile, alligator, and caiman bodies, tiny monkeys that could fit in your purse, and flesh eating beetles … you might just change your mind.
Yes, the video of the beetles made me a little queasy. Thankfully it’s at the end and there is a warning sign.
The place is divided up among animal classification, so it’s a for real Science Field Trip!
All your rodents are together. All your dog species are together. All your cats are together, all your reptiles are together, etc. Then you get into regions – like the savanna, southern swap lands, etc.
Tip Three: be sure to look up. Some winged skeletons are on display in flight and we missed a giant cat hanging in the tree at one point. I’m glad we went back to find something on the scavenger hunt that we missed.
The only skeleton that really gave me the creeps was the King Cobra. It is erected and ready to strike it’s zombie prey.
Otherwise, the place is like nothing I’ve seen before. I’ve seen the dinosaur exhibits in DC. Even our beloved Orlando Science Center has one. But to see the tiniest of non-extinct animals like a guinea pig and all it’s cousins all right at eye level. It was pretty cool.
Tip Four: Keep an eye out for the animals wearing flesh posters, they offer some interesting facts we hadn’t already known.
Lastly, I’ll add that I was glad we hadn’t done this field trip as a group. Some areas were a little narrow, so a group of 25 loud boys would have irritated me.
The staff was pleasant and helpful, informing us of their “Homeschool Days”. {you can check out those days and register online}.
My son received some candy for filling out the scavenger hunt.
We had the place to ourselves and we spent about 45 minutes checking things out. Walking through and back noticing things we hadn’t seen the first pass by.
If you’re in Orlando I recommend the Skeleton Museum! Order your tickets before the day you arrive.
* We have yet to attend a Homeschool day. They were sold out when I tried to register. So that tells me it’s pretty popular! We went on a regular week day.