National Museum of Naval Aviation - Naval Air Station Pensacola, FL Review

We live near this (20 miles) and when my sone was 3/5 years old we went every other Tuesday. That was our date!!!  He absolutely enjoyed it and we never grew tired of it.  They are always updating and adding new planes or areas of education.  They have really spent alot of money and time creating "war areas" to educate the public.

 They have "war specific" areas where you will  be educated about specific  times and era's and this makes it especially interesting.  You don't have to go to every nook and cranny if you are not interested in that particular time frame...move on to the next that does interest you! They also have space ship corner where they have close up space vessels used! Wow!!! How cool is that!

Upstairs they have a walk through area that is designed like you are back in the world war II era and taking a walk through the time and age of then.  You get to see what the stores looked like then and the homes and movie theater's and such!  They even have people inside the stores and homes if you are lucky that day to talk with you!  Very interesting.

Of course, there is a wall of plaques that bear names of heroes that fought during the different wars or helped design the planes that were flown during different wars.  We have spent many hours reading every single name on every single plaque!  No, they are not there in vain, I promise...someone has read them!!! Many times!!!! 

There is a "dark room" that is very strange to walk into...it is cold and dark and it has a plane that went down and crashed and it shows the remains of the plane and has a TV that gives the history of the plane and where it was found and such...very interesting story! This is a must visit room.  It is on the first floor to the left just as you come in the front doors!

The IMAX always has great shows!! These are a must and not overly expensive.  Also be sure to ride the simulator..kids of all ages can ride it. This is on the second floor just on the side of the cockpits that the kids can climb on!!! Yes there is a whole room of cockpits the kids and adults can get into and they are genuine cockpits!!!! How very cool is that!!!

They  now also have a class you can take to learn to fly a simulated plane and then you fly the simulated plane now too!!! We have not done it yet, but saw it the last time we went! We will do this the next time we go...that will be very fun, but time consuming so plan on a few hours for that alone!

They have a great grill there also so you can eat lunch there!  They have a bus ride you can take out to the hanger to see the planes they are working on before they get to go inside the museum!! This is a free ride but you must go to the counter inside and get a ticket!  Just ask for a ticket...they hand them out so they can control how many try to get on the bus!

The Blue Angels used to practice twice a week....usually on Tuesdays and the other day was not set in stone...so if you want to see them practice...check their website to be sure they still practice that day and if you want to see them .....plan your trip to the museum for that day!  It is a fascinating thing to watch...yep, you guessed it...that is why we went every other Tuesday...we took our lunch and say outside and watched them practice inbetween walking the museum!!

The younger kids, be sure  you have ahold of them at all times or have a harness on them.  It is a very tempting place for kids and would not be surprised to see them run off to try to climb on a plane or run to the next place and would be easy to lose one!!!!  Best to keep ahold of the young ones as not to stress anyone out!