Best Memberships ... what says the hive???

[Teachin'Mine]

If anyone has found a great deal on a science museum membership, or zoo membership, or whatever, would you mind sharing your find with the rest of us? Please!!!! :D

 

We haven't had one for a little while, and I've noticed the memberships have gone up tremendously at some places, and benefits have been reduced. Sometimes the best deal isn't the cheapest, because some of the lowest cost aren't granted reciprocal status with some of the other great museums.

 

I've started to do some searching, and then it hit me that this great collective hive mind has probably done the same searching and ...

 

Thank you!!!!! :)

[Tutor]

We have a membership at the Pink Palace in Memphis, TN (yes, it's a museum :) ). For $100 for the year, our family of 6 has free access to the museum, planetarium, and nature center. We attended a free membership day at their fossil center and got to take home fossils we dug ourselves. We get to go to select IMAX openings for free plus have 6 free tickets to an IMAX movie of our choice. We also have a great reciprocal membership that allowed us to go to the Boston Children's Museum for free in June. Best entertainment $100 we ever spent.

[Teachin'Mine]

Tutor the Purple Palace looks great! Sometimes having the membership at a museum near you is the best way to go if you go there often, and other times it's best to have one a few hundred miles away. The ASTC and ACM memberships (reciprocal memberships at science and children's museums) usually do not apply to museums within a certain mile radius of your membership museum. I forget the details as it's been a while.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience, and I agree that it's money very well spent! :)

[AlaskaGrownFamily]

We have memberships to our local zoo and museum, which includes a children's science/discovery center. :)

[ChristineW]

Tutor the Purple Palace looks great! Sometimes having the membership at a museum near you is the best way to go if you go there often' date=' and other times it's best to have one a few hundred miles away. The ASTC and ACM memberships (reciprocal memberships at science and children's museums) usually do not apply to museums within a certain mile radius of your membership museum. I forget the details as it's been a while.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience, and I agree that it's money very well spent! :)[/quote']

 

I love the reciprocity agreements. We just spent a wonderful afternoon in the Nature Museum of Canada using our membership to the Exploratorium.

 

However, I'd be careful about purchasing a membership to a far away museum to get reciprocal benefits at a more expensive local museum. The travel passport benefits of science museums do not apply to persons living within 90 miles of the museum they wish to visit. So that even if I am a member of the Science Center in St Louis, I cannot use that membership for free admission to the Lawrence Hall of Sciences in Berkeley California because I live in the Bay Area. I do get a discount though because Lawrence Hall has an agreement with the local Bay Area Science centers including the Exploratorium to reduce admission prices for members of its local sister ASTC museums. Many of the larger children's museums have the same policy of denying reciprocity to local residents with nonlocal museum memberships.

 

IMHO, its best to hold memberships at the museums that you and your family patronize most often and those you wish to support. Many of our local museums and zoos offer members benefits such as discounts on camps, classes, extended members only hours, open houses, and special speakers that compensate for the price differential. Also, some of the places that we love most (Cal Academy of the Sciences, Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Missouri Botanical Gardens) do not have reciprocal agreements with anyone.

 

Christine W

[Carrie12345]

We just got a membership to our "local" zoo ($89) and "local" science center ($90). I haven't really looked over the reciprocal list for the science center yet, but I do know that Liberty Science Center is excluded, which stinks. The zoo list includes small zoos near my in-laws and the zoo in Atlanta, near my mom, so that's good. We also get 10% off of all purchases within the zoo (though we don't intend to buy much at all - they have a great picnic area.)

 

Even without other locations, they're good deals for our family of 6 (stb 7). We'll save on admission with our second visits.

[Stacey in MA]

We have an annual pass to the Boston Museum of Science. It's normally about $21/pp to get in. The annual pass (for 8) is $180 (for 5 $150). So basically, if you take one trip in, it's ALMOST worth it to get the pass. We go about 4 or 5 x per year, and love it! With the extra "people", we can bring anyone we want with us (with the 8 person pass: me, + 4 kids, +3 free guests!). Makes for a fun playdate day to invite friends! AND, they have a HUGE reciprocal list to other science museums. We can go to the local museum in my Mom's town for free on our Boston pass (have done that plenty), many towns we've been to on vacation have museums we can attend for free as well. We have gone to a couple in FL, and a couple in PA - FREE! So that was money well spent IMO.

 

So I second the vote on local science museums, especially if they have a reciprocal list!

 

GL! and have fun!

- Stacey

[angela in ohio]

There is a museum in our state that belongs to both the zoo and children's science museum reciporcity agreements. It is very popular to get memberships there in order to have both, or to get memberships to far away zoos and museums. We decided to support our local zoos and museums instead. We save money on classes that way, too.

 

One way we have saved money is to stagger our memberships. One year, we bought a membership from the Ohio Historical Society. That year, we spent every field trip and day or weekend trip visiting those sites. The next year, we bought a membership to the Henry Ford. We went almost two dozen times that year. Instead of keeping memberships to several different places all the time, we focus in on one for the year. We tend to always have a zoo, metropark, and science museum membership, but then we add one extra each year.

Edited August 6, 2010 by angela in ohio

[angela in ohio]

I love the reciprocity agreements. We just spent a wonderful afternoon in the Nature Museum of Canada using our membership to the Exploratorium.

 

However, I'd be careful about purchasing a membership to a far away museum to get reciprocal benefits at a more expensive local museum. The travel passport benefits of science museums do not apply to persons living within 90 miles of the museum they wish to visit. So that even if I am a member of the Science Center in St Louis, I cannot use that membership for free admission to the Lawrence Hall of Sciences in Berkeley California because I live in the Bay Area. I do get a discount though because Lawrence Hall has an agreement with the local Bay Area Science centers including the Exploratorium to reduce admission prices for members of its local sister ASTC museums. Many of the larger children's museums have the same policy of denying reciprocity to local residents with nonlocal museum memberships.

 

 

:iagree: We had a thead about this recently. The stipulations are often about where you live, not about where you have a membership.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

How about a "membership" or family pass to the National Park System?

[Teachin'Mine]

:iagree: We had a thead about this recently. The stipulations are often about where you live, not about where you have a membership.

 

Thank you both. I'm trying to remember back, and I don't think we were ever asked to show proof of residence when showing our science museum card for admission to an ASTC museum. Maybe that has changed recently.

 

But I agree that generally it pays to get a membership to a local museum as they offer a lot of benefits that you can take advantage of if you visit often. Our situation is a bit different, so I'm just looking for the best deal - cheapest without sacrificing reciprocal benefits. :tongue_smilie: Many different museums have benefited from our memberships over the years. :)

[Teachin'Mine]

How about a "membership" or family pass to the National Park System?

 

We do that! We don't have a currently active one since we've been bumps on a log lately. When we make our next visit to one, we'll be getting the pass. :)

[angela in ohio]

Thank you both. I'm trying to remember back' date=' and I don't think we were ever asked to show proof of residence when showing our science museum card for admission to an ASTC museum. Maybe that has changed recently.[/quote']

 

I think that's where some of the disconnect came on the last thread. The rules say it, but they don't check it. Different people have different feelings about that. :001_smile:

Edited August 6, 2010 by angela in ohio

[Brenda in FL]

Thank you both. I'm trying to remember back' date=' and I don't think we were ever asked to show proof of residence when showing our science museum card for admission to an ASTC museum. Maybe that has changed recently.

 

But I agree that generally it pays to get a membership to a local museum as they offer a lot of benefits that you can take advantage of if you visit often. Our situation is a bit different, so I'm just looking for the best deal - cheapest without sacrificing reciprocal benefits. :tongue_smilie: Many different museums have benefited from our memberships over the years. :)[/quote']

 

I think this may be a relatively new restriction - it hasn't always been like that. I had ONE great membership that wasn't local that got us into zoos, science museums, and children's museums for about $100. That was about 5 years ago. Since then, I have noticed the restriction on various museum and zoo websites. So check the policies at your local venues to be sure. You don;t want to shell out the money and then find it won't help for your local museums.

 

I'm finding out that some of the zoos/aquariums here are free for homeschoolers - you might want to check if that's an option in your area.

[Teachin'Mine]

There is a museum in our state that belongs to both the zoo and children's science museum reciporcity agreements. It is very popular to get memberships there in order to have both, or to get memberships to far away zoos and museums. We decided to support our local zoos and museums instead. We save money on classes that way, too.

 

One way we have saved money is to stagger our memberships. One year, we bought a membership from the Ohio Historical Society. That year, we spent every field trip and day or weekend trip visiting those sites. The next year, we bought a membership to the Henry Ford. We went almost two dozen times that year. Instead of keeping memberships to several different places all the time, we focus in on one for the year. We tend to always have a zoo, metropark, and science museum membership, but then we add one extra each year.

 

Angela staggering them is a GREAT idea! I've tried to do that in the past too, but have made the mistake of getting too many at once and not using them well enough. Thank you for the reminder! :)

[MyBlueLobsters]

We love love LOVE our zoo membership. It's $50 to go once (does not include tram, train, etc...) OR $120 for a year with unlimited tram, train, etc... I love that we can go for a few hours and leave knowing we can come back again. The bad thing about spending the $50 once is you feel like you need to stay all day to get your moneys worth. We also have a membership to our local science museum. We won't get that again. After a few times of going, the kids got bored going back (it's not a great museum anyway)

[Teachin'Mine]

I did some more checking, and it appears on the ASTC list that some museums will definitely check for ID showing residency. I can understand why they'd want to cut down on "abuse" of the memberships.

 

Would you agree that 14yo, with no younger ones, is too old to get the ACM membership? We used to enjoy those, but it's been quite a while since we've been to one, and I'm thinking that they're mostly geared towards much younger.

[ChristineW]

I think this may be a relatively new restriction - it hasn't always been like that. I had ONE great membership that wasn't local that got us into zoos, science museums, and children's museums for about $100. That was about 5 years ago. Since then, I have noticed the restriction on various museum and zoo websites. So check the policies at your local venues to be sure. You don;t want to shell out the money and then find it won't help for your local museums.

 

I'm finding out that some of the zoos/aquariums here are free for homeschoolers - you might want to check if that's an option in your area.

 

I think with the tough economy lots of museums have had budget cuts and are being more cautious. We're starting to get asked for id even at museums where we are members and I don't remember that happening two years ago. Also, many of our membership cards have our address printed on them.

 

Christine W

[stripe]

By the way, I've found out about things like Target days (where admission is free -- the list on their website may not be comprehensive) and Bank of America's Museums on Us where each cardholder can get free admission. And in some states, there is a program through Macy's where you can get passes to museums through your public library. These are good if you want to try out various museums instead of just one, before purchasing a membership, or if you cannot afford multiple (or any!) memberships or admission prices.

[Giraffe]

Let me ask a question. I bought an annual membership to our local science and nature museum. Two months later we moved halfway across the country for what I can best describe as a "TDY" (temporary duty assignment). We're not military, but I don't know how else to explain. We've kept our original state's residency.

 

Locally there are at least two museums that share reciprocity with the museum with whom we have a membership. Do you think I can use reciprocity to go - in good conscience? Could I go repeatedly while we're here? Is this ethical? Allowable?

[angela in ohio]

Let me ask a question. I bought an annual membership to our local science and nature museum. Two months later we moved halfway across the country for what I can best describe as a "TDY" (temporary duty assignment). We're not military, but I don't know how else to explain. We've kept our original state's residency.

 

Locally there are at least two museums that share reciprocity with the museum with whom we have a membership. Do you think I can use reciprocity to go - in good conscience? Could I go repeatedly while we're here? Is this ethical? Allowable?

 

I'm a stickler for following the rules, whether they are enforced or not (except for signs that tell me not to turn left, but everyone has to have their exception ;),) and I think you are fine to use it. Your residency is still at your old location. If at some point, you decide to make it permenent, then I would call and ask their advice about it. They might not mind you finishing out your year on the old membership, knowing they will get your patronage in the following years.

[3littlekeets]

Just like buying things made in my country, I want to support my local economy. The impact of local zoos, museums, etc. can be far reaching.

 

Though my family pass to McWane in Birmingham may be slightly more than a pass to a museum a few hundred miles away, Bham losing McWane would be a tragedy for generations to come!!!!

 

I know we all want to economize, but for the difference in the price of a "good deal," I can skip 1 family stop at a fast food restaurant.

 

Just my $.02.

[3littlekeets]

Let me ask a question. I bought an annual membership to our local science and nature museum. Two months later we moved halfway across the country for what I can best describe as a "TDY" (temporary duty assignment). We're not military, but I don't know how else to explain. We've kept our original state's residency.

 

Locally there are at least two museums that share reciprocity with the museum with whom we have a membership. Do you think I can use reciprocity to go - in good conscience? Could I go repeatedly while we're here? Is this ethical? Allowable?

 

I would make a fair donation to cover my extra visits, if I could. Or, if you are buying snacks etc. you are supporting the museums in other ways. This was not an intentional misuse of the system :001_smile:

[Susan in KY]

 

Coyote Point Museum is an AZA/ASTC facility for $65/year for a basic family membership.

[Teachin'Mine]

Let me ask a question. I bought an annual membership to our local science and nature museum. Two months later we moved halfway across the country for what I can best describe as a "TDY" (temporary duty assignment). We're not military, but I don't know how else to explain. We've kept our original state's residency.

 

Locally there are at least two museums that share reciprocity with the museum with whom we have a membership. Do you think I can use reciprocity to go - in good conscience? Could I go repeatedly while we're here? Is this ethical? Allowable?

 

Enjoy them guilt free!!! :)

[DaffodilDreams]

We have a membership at the Pink Palace in Memphis, TN (yes, it's a museum :) ). For $100 for the year, our family of 6 has free access to the museum, planetarium, and nature center. We attended a free membership day at their fossil center and got to take home fossils we dug ourselves. We get to go to select IMAX openings for free plus have 6 free tickets to an IMAX movie of our choice. We also have a great reciprocal membership that allowed us to go to the Boston Children's Museum for free in June. Best entertainment $100 we ever spent.

 

 

We have this same membership and LOVE it! The IMAX films and member previews alone make it worth it for us. Plus, it's a great place to go when the heat indexes are over 100 - which seems to be the norm these days. We also belong to the Botanic Gardens, the zoo, and both art museums. The Dixon had a great deal going this spring - three months free. We also got a discount on the Brooks membership because of our zoo membership.

 

My dream place for a membership is Burritt on the Mtn in Huntsville, AL. My SIL lives in Huntsville, so we have visited the place, and I drool at the wonderful activities Burritt offers. I wish it was only 1.5 hrs away at most.

[Teachin'Mine]

Coyote Point Museum is an AZA/ASTC facility for $65/year for a basic family membership.

 

Thank you Susan! :)

[Giraffe]

Thank you everyone for your feedback (I don't know how to multi-quote). We would definitely support the museums in other ways (haven't left a museum yet without a visit to the gift shop and/or the snack bar/cafe. And should we stay, we would more than likely join one of these museums. Just want to get some use of this membership and cut our costs a little.

 

Thanks again!

[prairiebird]

I usually pick up a membership at a suburban zoo up north, and then pick one museum to join for the year. I am south of Chicago, so there's a lot to rotate through. When my kids are older, I might bump it up to two museums a year.

[bairnmama]

The membership for our local aquarium is the best around here. It's $55 for the whole family for the year and includes free admission to our state zoo as well to more than over 100 other zoos and aquariums all over the country. In one year we used it for zoos in TX, MS, and NC as well as about 6 or 7 different aquariums!

[Starr]

I recommend a convenient museum membership. You will go more often and get so much more out of it. If your children are young you won't feel like you have to stay the whole day if they need to get home. Our children grew up going to an exhibit and then to the children's museum area regularly. Their interest and time spent in exhibits increased as they got older. If we were in the city and only had an hour we could stop too.

[ChristineW]

:iagree:

Enjoy them guilt free!!! :)

You aren't abusing the system but using at is was designed to be used. Have fun.

 

Christine W