Kell Babs

Review of National Underground Railroad ...

My 11 y/o daughter & I enjoyed lots of things like...

My 11 y/o daughter & I enjoyed lots of things like the tiny house replica with little hiding places, and a couple other interactive exhibits. The slave pen cabin was amazing. You could go inside and see the shackles & chains. Such a moving thing to experience. The actual information is extremely good and absolutely needs to be told and heard by every single American. I hate to give only 3 stars, but here are my reasons.

Parking was terrible and very difficult to find, we were even stopped by another car full of people inside the designated parking area. They wanted to know if we could tell them where to park for this museum & we explained that they were in it now. They had been looking for too long, also. Need to have signage clear and highly visible.

Another issue is the layout. Nothing is clear. Entrances and exits are often next to each other and you have to search & figure out which way to go inside. Then once inside you second guess yourself because areas are unclear & you feel like you might be going backwards. Very confusing which is a distraction to the overall experience. There were several people throughout different exhibits who clearly had the same issues. We go to museums all the time and have never noticed this problem, you should be able to explore easily without a guide. This is an obvious flaw which may not be noticeable to employees, but to people who are new to the experience... it is a problem.

We were able to be there during the Auschwitz exhibit, which was powerful. Again with the lack of obvious flow here. The Human trafficking exhibit was very odd in its layout & content, but at least it raised awareness to the issue by the exposure.

The portion of the Berlin Wall out front was pretty disappointing. It definitely deserved a spot inside with a little more information on its history. We almost missed it all together.

Basically loved the content, but wish they had some information shared in a more exciting way. Tons of school groups go through & you can see several areas get boring because they are expected to read tons of information, and only a couple people can read the same thing at a time so it isn't possible. My daughter LOVES to read so she tried to read everything... just wasn't possible when there are others around. So you end up feeling like you may have missed out on something important.

Also wanted to say the employees are very friendly. They all smile and say hello, which is great.