Science Museum Launchpad - how busy will it be?

[ketchupkisses]

Has anyone been since its revamp? The review in this week's Timeout sounds good, but I'm just a bit worried it will be rammed in the school hols. Does anyone have an opinion?

Hi ketchupkisses. We went today to Launchpad with my 9 yr old DS and my DH. He (we) loved it. If you've been to the RAF Museum on Hendon (highly recommended) it's quite similar, with lots of hand-on activities which ostensibly are very educational, but only DH and I took the trouble to read the explanatory text(naturally). It was busy, but not frantic in the morning (we arrived at 11:00) and we mostly didn't have to wait for anything. We went back after lunch and a visit to the 3D Sea Monsters (great for any dinosaurologists out there - see here for 2 for 1 vouchers by the way this page) and it was packed, but still quite accessible.

Sounds good. Do you think it would be too busy with a double buggy? I have a phil&teds, so its not huge, but not exactly easy in a busy place. I think if we do go we'll try to arrive at 10am on the dot!

They dopn't let you take buggies in. There is a buggy park in the waiting area outside. When it is busy they have a queueing system so that it isn't too busy in the Launchpad area. We went on the first w/e it opened - very good, but we did have to queue for about 15-20 mins to get in.

hi, we went to the launchapd yesterday and queued for it, they said 15 minutes when we joined the queue but it was more like 25-30 minutes wasn;t too bad though as they passed toys round for the kids to play with.

we took our buggy into the launchpad area no one even questioned us about it, just queued with it and went in, there were other buggies in theri too including several phil and teds and bugaboos.

the boys aged 10 and 5 had a good time but not much to do for under 5's better off goign to the pattern pod for under 5's.

oh and take a packed lunch as that was the biggest queue for overrpiced horrible food, with rubbish service.

p.s i remember launchpad approx 20 years ago, i went with the school and had a fab time, its moved and has a few more things now but still good fun as an adult.

Oh dear, clearly weekends are much busier. About taking sandwiches - I totally agree. Our discovery is that we go to the picnic area near Agriculture (I think that's on level 1). Very quiet (the dioramas showing farming methods not the biggest attraction and it's a relief after the mayhem elsewhere at the museum.

Another recommendation if your child is really into natural history as is my DS, is to invest in child's membership of the Natural History Museum. It's not cheap (I think it was £25 last year), but you get 10 free entry tickets to paying exhibitions (I always go to the annual wildlife photography exhibition whilst DH and DS pay homage to T-Rex). You also get a quarterly magazine (actually two, one for adults, one for children) and the opportunity to go to special talks. Now that DS is 9 he's been able to attend two excellent talks "with real scientists in white coats Mummy", one where he saw a Giant Squid (a very rare specimen). The most useful aspect is that you get access to a Members' Room, which although not palatial, is a haven away from the crowds where you can eat your sandwiches whilst watching a wildlife video. Very good if you can only get there on the weekend.

Thanks everyone, this is really helpful. I'm still in a dilema as to whether to take the buggy or a sling. Our littlest is 2 months, so sling might be best. The trip is really for our eldest who is 5 1/2 and I just know he'll love the launchpad, but the logistics of entertaining the other two are a bit of an issue. I might just send ds1 with dh to the launchpad and then take ds2 and ds3 to the garden (short straw for me though!).

Will definitely take some sandwiches!