NJ Children's "Museum" - a review

We had gone to the NJ Children's Museum because I had found out that there was a kiddie carnival. As winter finally melts into spring, the weather has gotten better but I still had a touch of cabin fever. I was really excited to go since the flyer seems to promise games and lots of activities for the kids.

It is an ok place for kids since most kids especially of g's age would just be glad with being to get out and run around. However the place looks worn, REALLY WORN. I think we have read in one of the brochures that the place was founded in 1988 and it seems like no improvements have been done since then. I put the word "museum" in quotation marks because there really isn't anything that makes it a museum. Well, maybe the display about animals and different parts of the animals might qualify. However even that display is not kid-friendly. The buttons on the panel that would light up pictures of the animals are really too stiff for the kid to press.

The rest of the place was an assembly of mismatched toys, a castle with a toy dragon, a cowboy theme area with stuffed horses and a mechanised horse, a "grocery" store, a music corner with a piano and drums and a small coral for little kids to toddle around in. There were "costumes" for kids to play dress-up in. The black duct tape abounds. Wear and tear is very obvious in some parts.

We had read some previous reviews that the bathroom was horrible. The bathroom was ok, not the worst I have seen definitely. The changing area though is another matter. This might have been just that day but the sink was backed up and there were all sorts of floaties in the water. I didn't want to find out what they were.

I would have been able to look beyond all of this had this been a cheap experience. If I only paid, let's say $5 for adults and free for the kids, I could say that it was a good place for the kids to blow off steam. However we paid $10 a person. The only one who got in for free was s. So $30 had really raised my expectations.

This place is definitely a PASS from my point of view.

Our friends, theFamilyM might have some other perspective. So if you are still interested, you should drop them a note.