2016 Update: This is an old post. Please visit the CuriOdyssey website for current prices as they have changed.
Last year we purchased a family membership at the McKinley Museum here in Canton, Ohio for about $49. Doing so not only got us into McKinley for free but since McKinley is part of the ASTC reciprocal program we could get free or discounted admission into many other science museums around the US and the world as well. But then I started learning about memberships in other places that included zoo and science museum reciprocal privileges.
The two I learned about were Boonshoft near or in the Dayton, Ohio area (family membership $79) and CuriOdyssey formerly known as Coyote Point Museum in California ($65).
Several weeks ago I purchased our new family membership from Coyote Point now known as CuriOdyssey. Now, we don’t have any plans on ever going to California (though I was born there) but the price was better.
How to buy the best zoo/science museum membership plan for your family.
Today we broke-in our new Coyote membership by visiting the Akron Zoo for free but paid $2 in parking. My favorite exhibit was the jellyfish and the touch pool /kids play area near the jellyfish.
*UPDATE: As of at least Summer 2011 Akron Zoo stopped allowing CuriOdyssey members Free Admission to their zoo. Also, CuriOdyssey’s family membership has gone up in price to $75 I think.
Do you have or know of a membership to anywhere special that the Hall of Fame Moms readers would benefit from knowing of? Please share in the comment section.
Now we can get into a variety of science museums AND zoos for FREE or discounted admission! Since I’m homeschooling now, this is a great thing 😉
Subscribe here to get Hall of Fame Mom’s in your email box or by RSS.
Hey Toni! We have never bought a membership to the Akron Zoo. We used to get in free with the reciprocal zoo/science museum membership we bought through Curiodyssey (formerly called Coyote Point) but Akron Zoo changed their rules and started charging half price I think to people like us. I think the family membership was around $70 or so…too much for us. We don’t go to the zoo that much. I ended up renewing our Curiodyssey membership we do what we can for free through it.
What did you do this year when you had to renew? I think I saw this right after I bought a membership last year to the Akron Zoo.
Take a look at the Happy Hollow Zoo Membership (in San Jose, CA). It gets you in nearly EVERYWHERE–both zoos and science centers. It’s gone up in price and you have to buy it for each individual now, but depending on the size of your family, it could be cheaper than buying two memberships.
http://www.hhpz.org/index.cfm/id/55/
The jellyfish sound pretty cool! Let me clarify…were you able to PET the jellyfish? Or was the play area just nearby? I’ve pet stingrays before but jellyfish sounds like a stretch… 🙂 Thanks for linking up to Try New Adventures Thursday.