Edna E. Mode said:
We have tickets for 3:00p.m. next Sunday. This is actually the reason for our trip to L.A. and a good excuse to go to
Disneyland. My 7 year old daughter is crazy for ancient Egypt. My question is; how long does it typically take to get through the exhibit? We are driving home to Northern California after this and want to mentally prepare for how late we are going to get home.
Thanks!
Kelly
My sis and I went to this exhibit about a month ago. I bought our tickets online from Ticketmaster and printed them myself. I also bought the recorded tour narration (Omar Shariff) online, although you can buy that at the museum. Our tickets had an entry time of 9 a.m. but you can enter any time after your entry time (but not before). There's a waiting area if you come before your entry time. We arrived about 11 a.m. as we were driving in from Palm Springs, having left AZ the night before and spent the night in P.S.
You have to check cameras before you can get in the queue (cell phones w/cameras must be checked, too). There is a huge tent where you stand in the queue and although there were some blowers to circulate air in the tent it was VERY uncomfortable. It was warm and very humid that day. I wished I had one of those little $1 personal fans! We had to wait about 45 min. before we entered the museum. There are no water fountains in the tent and we got pretty thirsty while waiting. (There are concession stands outside the tent where you could probably get water, but we didn't want to leave the queue and come back). Once inside, it was nice and cool, but we both were so overheated it took over an hour before we felt cooled down. (We are both women in our 50s, so take that into consideration!
You still wait in line once inside the building. They let you in in groups, so you'll stand awhile, then move up, then stand again. The first thing you do is go into a small room and watch an introductory movie (it reminded me of The Tower of Terror or Haunted Mansion
. After the movie, you enter the exhibit and at that time you are free to move through the exhibit at your own pace.
Be advised that the first part of the exhibit has NO King Tut artifacts. There are a lot of artifacts, but they are from other tombs. About half-way through you enter the King Tut portion of the exhibit. As I recall, that was where the rooms started feeling much more crowded. Looking back, maybe some people rushed through the first part and lingered more when they got to King Tut, but that's just speculation on my part.
As was stated before, you will not see King Tut's mummy or any of the golden coffins, etc. (If you saw the tour in '89, you'll remember it contained the large gold mask. I read that the Egyptian gov. no longer allows those large valuable items out of the country). There are four artifacts of gold and gems that were buried with the mummy and they are displayed in an interesting way that illustrates the sizes and types of coffins, sarcophagi, etc. in which the mummy was enclosed.
I spent about 3 hours in the exhibit; my sis about 2 1/2 hours. We got separated about 1/3 of the way through. I stopped at each artifact and read every description, as well as listening to the audio tour, so it wouldn't need to take you that long to go through.
With a 7 year-old, you most likely will NOT take that long. I've been an elementary school teacher for 35 years and I had considered taking my 7 year-old nephew, but after going I was glad I didn't. He's not any kind of fan of Egypt or mummies, so I'm sure it would not have been much fun for him. A lot of standing around and waiting in lines. I'm sure it will be different for a child that has an interest in these things. However, I advise you to be prepared with water, snacks and maybe things for her to do to pass the time if you have the waits that we did.
If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to answer them if I can.
!
