I saw an ad recently for displays at Liberty Science Center that seemed extremely toddler friendly. I haven't traveled there since my girl scout days so I figured let's pop in an impromptu February visit. My parents decided to join us and we all got Saturday tickets for a family day of fun.
The drive here is pretty easy. Parkway to Turnpike towards the Holland Tunnel and Liberty Science Center is right off the exit. We purchased tickets for 11:30am so we didn't have to get up and out the door first thing in the morning. I wasn't sure if it would be packed at that time, and lucky for us, it was busy but never felt crowded. We made our way up the steps to the second floor to start on our adventure.
The first thing I was glad about here was that we didn't have our stroller. Since our son is almost two and walking confidently, we hardly bring it places anymore. This is great because the elevator lines definitely got bogged down with lots of families with strollers and little ones. There are a LOT of steps here! There are several floors of adventure and the main way to get from floor to floor are steps! You will all be working those glutes! If you do have smaller children, the place is stroller friendly, you just need to give yourself plenty of time to get from floor to floor because you will be waiting for elevators.
After arriving, we first explored the "Block Party" which was a pretty simple set-up. A big room with all different types of big building blocks. I suspect that is their event room and this is an easy way to utilize it when it is not being used for big events. We played in there for a bit but Daddy was anxious to discover the main exhibits.
Next up for us was Wobbly World-- which is built for toddlers and younger children. In Wobbly World, kids explore the world of balance and cause & effect thru un-level walking paths and stairs along the side of the room, swings and all sorts of other activities. I expected my toddler to LOVE this based off of how he tries to use our furniture at home. He ended up being very shy and not interested in those activities. He gravitated to the weight balancing sets on the tables in the back. He also enjoyed the foam puzzle pieces in the back of the room. This room got pretty busy, but I bet that later in the afternoon it would probably be much quieter since families with toddlers are usually more active earlier in the day. The little kids all thru the room LOVED this space! I think if it was less busy, our little guy may have tried a few more of the activities.
After Wobbly World and exploring a few other exhibits, our appointment came up for the presentation "One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure" at the Planetarium. You need to pay extra for those experiences ($8 per person). We thought this one was absolutely worth it! The show was so cute and included Big Bird and our favorite guy-- Elmo! Our little man sat so perfectly for the whole thing. Later on we also had tickets (another $8 per person) for the 3D ocean show, but we had to leave that one early. Our little guy simply wasn't interested-- although we DID get him to wear the glasses!
Our 2nd favorite part of the day was the Thomas Train room, which we did in the afternoon right before leaving. If your little one is interested in trains at all, this is a must! There are hands-on play sets all over the room to explore the world of the railway! Our toddler doesn't have a train set at home and after seeing him play on their huge wooden set in the middle of the space, we got on Amazon that evening to purchase him one. He literally spent the rest of the day saying "Thomas train" so it was certainly the hit of the day for him. It was really fun to see big replicas of Thomas. One of the play spaces even let the kids fix some train wheels which was very cute (pictured above). It was cool to do this train exhibit after seeing The Great Train Exhibit with the big motorized trains.
There were plenty of other fun activities for our buddy to explore here (including some animals and we always LOVE that) and I think it was a great age for us to come to the center. Our toddler will be 2 in a few weeks so he got in for free (at 2 you need a children's ticket), but developmentally, he still got a lot out of the attractions! The only thing we really weren't impressed with was the food, but I think that's pretty normal for these types of venues.
Final thoughts- Liberty Science Center is 100% toddler friendly! Parents, check their website to learn more about special exhibits and schedules as I do believe their set-ups can change throughout the year. We had a lovely day there (we were there from 11:30a to around 4p!) and definitely didn't even do everything. I don't think I would go often enough for a membership, but I would love to go back next year and see what they are offering then! I'm all about a fun family activity for a winter Saturday!