Explorations V Children’s Museum in Lakeland, FL

We enjoyed our visit to this museum because our toddler had such a great time exploring the watermelon seeds area. We didn't have much luck upstairs due to safety reasons, there is nothing keeping a toddler from tumbling down the staircase if they get away from you for a split second. Additionally there were no hand sanitizer or hand wash stations and an extreme lack of personnel monitoring the area. The worst part?! Our son who is doesn't go to daycare got hand, foot and mouth disease from this place. You cannot trust this glorified indoor playground. A place like this should have attendants in every area plus shut down an area every couple of hours so they can be wiped down / sanitized. Who know what other illnesses are being embedded into what your children touch? We really wanted to be annual members but now we can't.

This museum is located in Bonnet Springs Park a really beautiful peaceful place. My family and I visited here recently, I absolutely loved it. We would have stayed longer but my kids are a little older so they didn't enjoy all the stuff they have for kids but there are many opportunities to interact with all the stuff the museum offers. Once a month on the last Monday of the month the museum entrance is free, they also had a pop up shop of a mini farmers market with locals. Both floors are super interactive and engaging. Highly recommend for a fun place to spend your day if your in Lakeland.

Nice museum,so much bigger then when it was downtown many new added things ,play yard in back should be done soon.

We had the opportunity to attend a birthday celebration at the new Children’s museums in Lakeland. A spacious location with a very clean facility. Having the option to enjoy the museum and the park before/after the celebration was supposed wonderful option/bonus. The rented room comes with tables, chairs, and tablecloths conveniently located on the first floor of the museum. Even though I found the room in fairly good conditions, it is extremely dark and almost claustrophobic. The rules for set up are quite strict and it is a pricey option however, you agree to them when you decide to celebrate your special occasion at this location. Having said that, as a professional with 18 years of experience in the hospitality industry, the lack of service, compassion, conflict resolution and basic Customer service was beyond disappointing. As a new facility, it seems the food and beverages ratios are not quite mastered to say the least. With strict “no outside food” policies, comes the understanding that for the amount of money paid, the facility would not leave your guests without any food. I personally witness the children eating ONE slice of pizza and two or three nuggets. Adults were being fairly reasonable with their food servings as well. Not even 30 minutes into the party the food was gone and several people did not get a chance to eat. Miscalculations happen, mistakes are made and this was obviously the case. What was beyond my understanding was the lack of care or flexibility to resolve the situation. The client was offering to pay for additional food, or even an exception to bring food from across the hall to feed the guess. It was all denied. I could not believe that an institution would allow this to happen without actively finding a resolution for the client. The entire party felt pushed out of the location an hour after the birthday started. It was tense enough that several members of the party felt the need to interject and try to find a resolution that would be suitable for everyone. The staff lacks any type of conflict resolution training , compassion or even basic service delivery standards. There was no offering to assist at the time of the birthday cake in effort to accelerate the process, even when they delayed the process themselves, by not delivering utensils on a timely manner. It was 30 minutes before the party was over and the staff was kicking everyone out. Guests witnessed team members talking back, lashing out and walking away making a scene due to them claiming it was “not their job to deal with this”. I was in disbelief. How can a member of the service industry at this level would behave that way. You would expect this from a low fast food restaurant not an institution who charges hundreds and hundreds of dollars for what ended up being a subpar service experience. A family celebration was ruined by these staff members. There is no doubt that every single member of the party will be sharing this terrible experience for months to come, if not years. This was my experience and from what I hear, there were many more situations were service fell beyond short. I was personally looking into possibly hosting a birthday party at this location. Needless to say, this will never happen. It is a shame as the children were having a blast as they’re blind to what the parents had to endure during what I could only refer to as a horrible birthday service experience. I only hope the senior leadership steps in and not only act on immediate service recovery for this family, but starts a thorough service analysis and training on how to actively deliver a proper experience.

this place moved to Bonnet Springs Park, 400 Bonnet Springs Boulevard, Lakeland, FL 33815 in 2022. the museum is now part of a larger park and no longer in downtown Lakeland.