Home
Log in / Sign Up
    Private Messages   Advanced Search   Rules   New User Guide   FAQ   Advertise   Contact Us  
Forum -> Parenting our children
Are museum/park memberships worth it?
Previous  1  2  3  Next



Post new topic   Reply to topic View latest: 24h 48h 72h

rise above




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jan 28 2014, 9:46 am
Orchid wrote:
You cannot take advantage of the reciprocity within 90 miles of your home address, so correct, it would not help if you live in Lakewood and would want to go to NY museums for free using reciprocity.

It helps for people who travel a lot - we live OOT, but travel to the east coast a lot, so we use the reciprocity feature and go to museums for free along our trip (like, say in Pittsburgh) and once we get to our destinations in the east coast itself.

Now I know some people who have gotten membership at odd placed museums such as Cheyenne, Wisconsin, and then used it for museums in their home area. Without commenting on the morality of this, I'm not sure this always works, since some museums will examine your ID to be sure your home address is truly more than 90 miles from the museum you are attempting to get into for free. Others will just look at your museum membership (in this case, from Wisconsin), and say, yup, you can get in for free.


I'm definitely not trying to go around the rules here- I'm trying to understand the posters who made it sound like they have membership so they can go to one of multiple museums in their areas on Sundays. It's not worth it for me to have membership in One place that over an hour drive away- I won't use it enough. If it was really local it would make sense to me.
Back to top

syrima




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jan 28 2014, 10:10 am
We alternate between the Hall of Science membership and Liberty science center.
it is 100% worth it to skip the long lines on Chol Hamoed and not have to pay (again).
Liberty Science center had some reciprocal days this year with other local museums on Sundays.
We all got to go to the Intrepid FREE - though there was a long line.
if your kids are young and you can avoid the gift shop it is sooo worth it.
Back to top

nyer1




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jan 28 2014, 11:08 am
depending on the size of your family, the membership could pay itself off for some of these places in only one visit! we went to the brooklyn children's museum with myself, DH and DS, and my parents. 4 people. we bought the membership cuz I think as long as we went like 1 or 2 other times, it was financially worth it.
Back to top

little_mage




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jan 28 2014, 11:41 am
rise above wrote:
I'm definitely not trying to go around the rules here- I'm trying to understand the posters who made it sound like they have membership so they can go to one of multiple museums in their areas on Sundays. It's not worth it for me to have membership in One place that over an hour drive away- I won't use it enough. If it was really local it would make sense to me.


A lot of it depends on the individual institution. One of our memberships doesn't come with any reciprocity but our other comes with at least half price reciprocity.
Back to top

chavamom




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jan 28 2014, 11:54 am
We went to the aquarium in Chicago and it was cheaper for my family to buy a membership with free admission than to pay the entrance fee for all of us.
Back to top

wifenmother




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jan 28 2014, 12:09 pm
We got the WCS membership even though we live an hour's drive from Brooklyn. It was cheaper than paying entrance fee plus parking at the aquarium for my size family and it actually took 2 months for the membership to go into effect so we enjoyed it for three Chol Hamoeds + summer trips over 14 months time. We did Bronx Zoo (free parking, monorail, carousel, children's zoo...) plus the other zoos that are included in the membership several times.

OP, since you live in Brooklyn I believe it will be very worth it financially. We didn't either go to these places before we had the membership but it was a great investment. I am looking into museum memberships next...
Back to top

seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 29 2014, 2:18 am
OK, this thread is inspiring me too, I'd been toying with this idea especially with all the cold weather giving us cabin fever with no park-worthy days...

Can someone who's already done their homework please give a recommendation on what would be a good choice for our family:
NY - 5 borough area
2 adults, 2 small children - preschooler and toddler
NOT all for the same place, looking for one of those reciprocity deals.
We enjoy zoos and such, but I would like some variety, especially for weatherproofing our plans
Preference for places that are stimulating for adults, not just kiddie-oriented. Bonus if the membership is good for kid trips and also somewhere that would make a good adult day out - the adults like museums. The kids have never tried one.
Huge bonus if it includes parking.
Low budget. Currently we only go anywhere maybe 4 times a year (once per chol hamoed, a couple of zoo-type outings over the summer) but that can easily run around $30 a pop, and I always feel limited by budget concerns, so if we could get a membership somewhere around $100 that would let us go several places, we could really have fun with it I think.

Where to go?
Back to top

m in Israel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 29 2014, 2:52 am
rise above wrote:
I'm definitely not trying to go around the rules here- I'm trying to understand the posters who made it sound like they have membership so they can go to one of multiple museums in their areas on Sundays. It's not worth it for me to have membership in One place that over an hour drive away- I won't use it enough. If it was really local it would make sense to me.


Some of these posts are not talking about reciprocity -- they are talking about membership that INCLUDES a few locations. For example the WCS membership includes the Bronx Zoo, the Coney Island Aquarium, the Queens Zoo, the Prospect Park Zoo and I think the Central Park Zoo as well. So paying the one membership allows you to go to any of those locations -- they are all part of the same "network" so to speak. This is a different concept that reciprocity, where unrelated museums will honor each other's memberships sort of as a professional courtesy. That is where the distance rules apply. But some earlier posters mentioned that some NY area museums may even wave those rules. (I don't know about that first hand, but that may also explain why some posters are able to do this.)
Back to top

rise above




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 29 2014, 3:08 pm
m in Israel wrote:
Some of these posts are not talking about reciprocity -- they are talking about membership that INCLUDES a few locations. For example the WCS membership includes the Bronx Zoo, the Coney Island Aquarium, the Queens Zoo, the Prospect Park Zoo and I think the Central Park Zoo as well. So paying the one membership allows you to go to any of those locations -- they are all part of the same "network" so to speak. This is a different concept that reciprocity, where unrelated museums will honor each other's memberships sort of as a professional courtesy. That is where the distance rules apply. But some earlier posters mentioned that some NY area museums may even wave those rules. (I don't know about that first hand, but that may also explain why some posters are able to do this.)


Thanks this really explains it. I am looking into the WCS membership now- because it includes indoor/outdoor options this is a good choice for us.
Back to top

Chayalle




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 29 2014, 3:29 pm
Last year I bought membership to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and by the end of the year the staff recognized us and welcomed us back! They were offering us hands-on demos to make it more interesting! I can't even count how many times we went, there was so much to do there. Each time, we invited different friends and cousins along, and we totally got our money's worth.

I alternate memberships at different places. Try to choose attractions that are large - many of these you can't even do it all in one day, so totally exciting to come back again. You don't want to go too often or it gets boring...but between Chol Hamoed, Chanukah, mid-winter, and some random Sundays, the opportunities to take advantage are numerous...and the educational/family value really pays.

This year we're on Liberty Science Center and they have days you can visit some other area places, which we are totally going to take advantage of.
Back to top

zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 29 2014, 5:59 pm
Not only are they worth it but they can save your SB. When you can go as often as you like and pay nothing extra, you can go every week. If you stay only a little while, you don't care because you didn't just plunk down the equivalent of three pizza pies with extra cheese just to get in. If the kids get rambunctious after half an hour, no biggie. Go home and come back next week.

Some memberships are even for more than one place--for example, a membership at one museum may include admission to other museums affiliated with the same agency.
Back to top

seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 29 2014, 9:37 pm
So, can anyone share if/which NY museums waive the distance rules for reciprocity? Or what memberships include multiple attractions within NY, besides the zoo one (which is under consideration, but even great zoos get a little old, and I specifically would like something a little more weather-proof)

Also, does the zoo membership include some kind of parking benefit? Is there anything for zoos that don't have their own parking lot - like a discount on meters/garage in the area? I'm building castles in the NY sky, aren't I...
Back to top

Amelia Bedelia




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 25 2016, 11:35 pm
seeker wrote:
So, can anyone share if/which NY museums waive the distance rules for reciprocity? Or what memberships include multiple attractions within NY, besides the zoo one (which is under consideration, but even great zoos get a little old, and I specifically would like something a little more weather-proof)

Also, does the zoo membership include some kind of parking benefit? Is there anything for zoos that don't have their own parking lot - like a discount on meters/garage in the area? I'm building castles in the NY sky, aren't I...

Bumping up this thread.
After a visit to Franklin Institute today, I decided to upgrade to a family membership since it was just over $30. I hope that was wise and not a waste of money, since we live in Brooklyn. I was excited to see the benefit of reciprocity until I realized that I would not qualify for free admission to NYC museums. Does anyone know if/which any of the participating NYC museums waive the distance rules? I was specifically hoping to take my family to the Museum of Mathematics tomorrow...
Back to top

etg




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 26 2016, 12:43 am
The Cool Culture pass is only for low-income families, but if you get accepted, it will give you entrance to hundreds of parks and museums. Definitely worth mentioning...
Back to top

Rutabaga




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 26 2016, 1:05 am
Check out ID NYC: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/idnyc......page

It gives free or discounted admission to a whole bunch of places as well as other benefits.

You have to be a NYC resident.
Back to top

amother
Ivory


 

Post Tue, Apr 26 2016, 1:08 am
Rutabaga wrote:
Check out ID NYC: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/idnyc......page

It gives free or discounted admission to a whole bunch of places as well as other benefits.

You have to be a NYC resident.

It looks like free admission is only for veterans.
Back to top

seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 26 2016, 1:17 am
As far as I can tell Cool Culture only goes through participating schools. If there is some other way for an income-eligible family to get one, I'd love to know. We've pretty much maxed out on most of the free/suggested donation attractions around here.
Back to top

seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 26 2016, 1:22 am
ID NYC is not only veterans but it no longer includes family admissions Sad
If I would have known that was changing, I would have applied sooner. It was so unclear. Apparently last year you could get family memberships using the adult's NYC ID, now only the person on the card gets in free. I guess that's still somewhat helpful but not enough for expensive places like the Zoo and Hall of Science (which I think has reciprocal membership too, so I was really planning to live it up...)
Back to top

SRB




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 26 2016, 1:33 am
Totally worth it! Perhaps just buy one membership to the place you will most likely want to go time and time again. If you use it often enough, get another membership to a different place. I have memberships to three places I take DS frequently - actually went to one today and we enjoy it every time! Its nice being able to go whenever you want and not worry about the cost!
Back to top

amother
Ivory


 

Post Tue, Apr 26 2016, 2:24 am
seeker wrote:
ID NYC is not only veterans but it no longer includes family admissions Sad
If I would have known that was changing, I would have applied sooner. It was so unclear. Apparently last year you could get family memberships using the adult's NYC ID, now only the person on the card gets in free. I guess that's still somewhat helpful but not enough for expensive places like the Zoo and Hall of Science (which I think has reciprocal membership too, so I was really planning to live it up...)

So how much is a membership card for each adult? And can the children get membership ID cards too?
Back to top
Page 2 of 3 Previous  1  2  3  Next Recent Topics




Post new topic   Reply to topic    Forum -> Parenting our children

Related Topics Replies Last Post
Who does gift wrapping in boro park?
by amother
4 Yesterday at 1:12 pm View last post
Boro park - girls shabbos robes
by amother
10 Yesterday at 10:24 am View last post
Latest megilla in boro park
by amother
4 Sun, Mar 24 2024, 1:19 pm View last post
by cnc
Boro Park - DIY party store staffed by OPWDD participants 5 Tue, Mar 19 2024, 11:08 am View last post
by bsy
What is the best Pesach takeout in Flatbush / Boro Park?
by amother
5 Mon, Mar 18 2024, 10:06 pm View last post