OMSI Reviews

Really fascinating submarine tour and the interactive bit for kids and big kids was excellent.

Great toddler room! So many fun things to discover.

It fun and you get to learn new things and the built something new there

I never knew how run down OMSI was until I visited the science museum in Oklahoma, yes Oklahoma tops OMSI.

Great place for learning and entertainment. However,

I had a blast here! Did the submarine tour, checked out the art show & all the other cool stuff. Had to buy a couple products from the store! Staff is funny & highly recommended!!

very over price exhibit and very hot in inside not worth miney

Love love love OMSI. We attend whenever the feature exhibit changes, we recently enjoyed a Pompeii exhibit and currently they are hosting a robotics exhibit. Lots of hands on and interactive encounters.

My kids played tick tac toe against a robot and won! Then my husband challenged a robot to a game of 21. There is something for everyone.

The staple exhibits, like the biology and engineering encounters are so we'll done too. We can easily spend the whole day here. Plus on the on site restaurant has delicious and affordable (and healthy food).

Great way to spend the day. We enjoyed the Pompeii exhibition, and special eclipse presentations. Very educational. And my husband was enthralled by the fetal development exhibition, we are expecting and he learned a lot.

I absolutely LOOOOVE OMSI. Even though I much rather go to OMSI After Dark because: A. I don't have children myself and B. It's just so much more fun without a bunch of little rug rats tripping you constantly. Lol. I mean that very lightly. It's a WONDERFUL learning experience for kids of ALL ages! Thank you, OMSI&Team!!

Very interesting content and subjects, definitely targeted for young children, has great educational areas to play and often a "rotating"/traveling exhibit. Near the Orange line train, has a good restaurant which is a bit spendy. Does have interesting and unique events open to a wide variety of ages during and after general hours targeted at numerous audiences.

I just saw the Bodies exhibit, and it was very high quality and a great educational experience.

Lots of exhibits were under construction. Play area was great for young daughter. She liked the water table.

Enjoyed the king tut exhibit. The museum is large and you need to wander around a lot to seed all of it. Special exhibits have extra cost

Absolutely wonderful museum. My only gripe is that this place is ALWAYS crowded.

Absolutely awesome place. I could spend all day here

Friendly service a lot of different activities for the whole family you should plan on spending up too 3 to 4 hours here if you want to see everything the museum has to offer.

Its pretty good. Went on a day with YMCA and summer school field trips and it was a mad house. Kind of ruined the experience but it isn't omsi's fault.

Wonderful place for kids that parents (grandparents) can enjoy too. Rotating exhibits are always fascinating.

Omsi has gotten ridiculously expensive over the years.. still a great place but a bit ridiculous as far as price goes

This is a great place to take your kids gets a little crowded so got to keep a close watch on it only reason I didn't give it 5 stars because it was kind of dirty in some areas.

OSMI after dark is so much fun. We thoroughly enjoy taking in all the events. This place is amazing.

Just do the submarine tour. That was worth it.

Honestly the museum itself is tiny. I expected much more. It s for children mostly. The only part that was memorable was the 44 real fetuses at the Natural Science section.

Have only been here during the monthly "After Dark" (21+) events. It is hands down the best hands-on science museum I've ever been to. It runs circles around its more famous sister in San Francisco, the Exploratorium. They clearly work hard at keeping the permanent exhibits up to date and relevant. They get terrific traveling exhibits too. There is always something new to see. The After Dark events are one of my favorite things to do in PDX - nerds and beer - though lately it has been ridiculously crowded! Alas, the beer is all in bottles, but it's local beers, and a good variety. The cafe is better than expected, but nothing special. Hit happy hour at clarklewis instead, then come play with the toys without having to elbow any tots in the head. ;) Would be a great date night.

Parking is convenient. Only $5, pay inside. Line was long but it moved quickly. Less than 10 minute wait. Planetarium was a bust. IT issues and laser show wasn't the best exhibits were very entertaining. Love the hands on exhibits for the kids.

OMSI is one of the coolest things in Portland, hands down. Their current King Tut exhibit is so detail oriented and really left me with a better understanding of not only the king, but also the painstaking process used to uncover the tomb which had been lost for centuries. One of the things I like most about OMSI is the amount of hands on exhibits they have for both kids and adults alike. My girlfriend loves going to museums and similar cultural touchstones when we travel and I'm usually good to grin and bear it, but here I genuinely found myself having a good time and really enjoying myself. The public transportation options are phenomenal, which is usually true of Portland, but here even more so, due to both street car and MAX train stop right out front. If you get a chance, I could not recommend this place more highly.

Always an interesting place to visit check out the submarine tour

Always a great place to visit. Art of the brick is amazing

It is a good museum but I would like that with the purchase of the entrance you have access to all the exhibitions, because apart from buying your admission pass you have to buy the passes separately to enter the planetarium and other exhibitions they have. I would like them to have more things in the children's area.

OMSI is always wonderful. We've had a family pass for years and we love spending weekends there all year long.

Lots of interactive hands on exhibits for kids of varying ages.

Always fun, if you don't go too often. The after dark events give it a whole different feel, as well. Yay science

Our almost-2-year-old had a blast. We only really visited the kids area but that was more than enough for him. The people working at the food place were fun to talk to. I was kinda surprised parking was $5 but whatever, make sure you remember what spot# you parked in!

Love OMSI. Kid friendly and lots for kids to do and see and feel

They have a lot of educational exhibits that a lot of people could learn from. Admission is high but what do you expect their world famous I will be coming back

Omsi feels really, really outdated and tired. I hope they invest in some more modern interesting displays soon.

I like the chemistry and physics lab and the ocean exhibit. However, the windows face the river and theres nothing about our local surface water health, such a missed opportunity!

We went to see the lego sculpture exhibit and that was beautiful!

Super Cool, even for adults! We went for the LEGO exhibit and ended up spending as much (if not more) time in the other exhibits. There is definitely something for everyone here, and I would recommend going at least once if you are in the area. A super fun "touristy" thing to do with out-of-towners, or to take the opportunity to be a tourist in your own town!

If you enjoy history and science you'll love this place or maybe you'd like to tour a world war 2 submarine yep you can do that right here

For science people, YOU WILL LOVE IT!!!! this is the great place that I love to spend hours and hours inside!

It was fun place to visit. Especially USS Blueback submarine tour was awesome. We could know all about Navy submariners and submarine mechanism.
Christopher Marley's exhibit was also great. The place had a very mysterious and sacred atmosphere.

Definitely worth the price of admission and I say you can't miss the submarine tour (protip: there's a technical tour!). It's a good place to hit while in Portland and you might even learn a thing or two.

Great interactive exhibits. Very informative for adults and kids.

This place will knock your kids out for a nice peaceful drive home! Will visit again!

So much fun at the science center playing with sand

Amazing exhibits. My family had a blast. The space show is a must see. But the new born birth exhibit is definitely the highlight of our trip. Absolutely incredible experience.

If you live in Portland I recommend the membership - I got the 225$ patron membership and it has already paid for itself several times over in just 2 months! We go to OMSI often and it is my son's favorite place to go. Literally every day school is not in session we are here. Not only do they have varied, interesting exhibits, they have many many rooms and areas dedicated to free explorative play for kids and it's a great place to go on a rainy day where the kids can interact with each other and the exhibits. Plus the planetarium and movie theatre are great go to attractions that make it so you can spend the whole day at OMSI. Also, they have awesome activities such as soapmaking in the chemistry lab which I got to do with my son. He was so excited to learn about the chemistry of soap and then get to make our own! Right now he really has been enjoying the Port of Portland interactive exhibit. All in all it is a great museum for all age groups with great visit-again appeal. Our cool star soap is pictured below.

I've always enjoyed OMSI, but maybe bring back Laser Smashing Pumpkins

We were there for 6 or so hours. Didn't see everything.

Well....now I know what it feels like to be a second class citizen. So if I have a membership...I got to the front of the line...if not...I stand in a line to the right and wait anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. And that's just to get tickets. Add parking fees which are new to me. I won't be here again. First come first serve should be the normal.

Awesome place 1st Sundays on month during winter 2.00 and 5.00 admit nice.

Always fun for the kids and I enjoy the exhibits. Get the membership, its worth it

$2 discount days the 1st Sunday of the month are a GREAT deal

There is always so much to see and do at OMSI. Great for kids of all ages. Friday and Saturday nights you can see a laser light show at the planetarium (Depeche Mode at 7pm, Pink Floyd at 8pm).

This is a cool place. Being from Seattle I'm used to the Seattle Science Center. This was way cooler and better for the kids. We also did the submarine tour which was super awesome. Going to have to go back the next time I'm in Portland.

Absolutely great, if you have young kids. My family (2- and 4-year-olds) and I spent three hours there and left well satisfied. The main exhibit (exquisite creatures) was also great, and even my very restless kids were enthralled.

The rotating exhibits are always worthwhile. I've been coming here since I was a kid, so much fun. The new restaurant has fantastic wood fired pizza.

The museum is always fun, but the prices for membership keep going up and include less. And they have some events like the little maker faire that they chage extra for ($8 was my discounted price) and most of the museum was closed off for the faire so unless I wanted to cough up an extra 24 bucks I could only go upstairs for the day. I mean what's the point of paying for a membership then having to pay extra for everthing else. Sure members get discounts on all other activities, but it just gets old. I am done paying for memberships here and will just pay full price once or twice a year from now on.

Was an okay place to take the family. Mainly targets kids and people who enjoy absorbing unnecessary information. Some of the exhibits were not operational due to lack of maintenance or staffing.

The ordinary exhibits are mildly interesting. Obviously there is an educational aspect to the museum, but I didn't feel OMSI did good job conveying the values of science.

Very small exhibit, I have been to better science centers