Great Lakes Science Center

An employee noticed me doing sensory work with my excited kiddos as we were entering. She then told us about and guided us to the sensory room. As a family that has special needs, this kind of accessibility can make or break a successful outing for us.

What a fun and interesting place right in our backyard! Great place for kids to learn hands on and a fun time for adults to realize all the things we forgot about! The movies are amazing and well worth a Thursday night out in downtown Cleveland!

We visited on a Thursday morning in mid-April 2025. We parked in the parking garage and planned to stay most of the day and also do the rock and roll hall of fame next door. There was construction going on outside so walking from one to the other wasn't so easy. There is a cool corridor that goes from the parking garage to the science center itself so you don't have to go outside. We pre-purchased our tickets online and bought it along with the dome theater show. They let us change the timing at check-in to an earlier time. There were very few people there when we arrived. There was 2 groups in line in front of us but it moved very quick. The kids were able to run around and do basically whatever they wanted for almost an hour before all the school groups arrived. It was spring break for us but the local schools were still in session. It got crowded really fast. We tried to hide in the more obscure areas. The kids really liked the music area on the top floor. Also my youngest really liked building with the wooden sets on the main floor. When all the school groups left he had it all to himself and spent almost 30 mins building his own crane that was taller than him. Staff member stopped by and said that's the largest structure he'd ever seen someone build out of those parts. We ate lunch and watched the dome video closer to noon when all the school groups were running around. Many of the school groups went to lunch and that's when we went back out. We spent more than 4 hrs in the science center. I think the kids were finally started to get bored near the end and it was time for us to walk over to the rock and roll hall of fame. The parking garage was open late as well and aligned with the late opening of the rock and roll hall of fame. There is a quiet sensory spare up on the 3rd floor as well near the bathrooms. It was cool that they had such an area as it got really loud when all the school groups were there. The museum store was large but had your typical science museum merch. I had a hard time finding anything that specifically had the museum logo or name on it. Every staff person we interacted with the whole day from the ticket desk, to the different science kiosks to the museum store were all happy to help and very pleasant to talk to. Customer service here was just top notch. Not sure if we would come back after spending over 4 hrs in there. But definitely worth the 1 visit.

There is so much to see here! Lots of hands on activities for kids of all ages but also a great time for adults. My favorite was the space exhibit which has a real Apollo command module on loan from the Smithsonian!

Good place to bring kids to keep them busy for a few hours. Noticed a few things throughout the exhibits that need some repair. Overall a good experience and worth a visit for families.