Skip the Line: Mel Fisher Maritime Museum Admission Ticket and Audio Tour

Very poor ! I expected better and when you advertise audio we thought it would be headphones. Instead it’s a stick you hold and hit a button for each room and then hold the stick to one ear.

First of all there was no line. Second there was no record of my having paid for entrance, let alone enter…. Since I was there, I offered to pay a second admission. I will be hard pressed to use your service in the future.

The museum and the artifacts are great. The museum provides a ton of information about Mr. Fisher, his operation, and the history behind the Atocha and Margarita shipwrecks. I am deducting 2 stars from my review however, due to the Museum and staff not being "parent friendly". We were not allowed to use the handicapped platform lift to get to the top of the stairs outside to enter the building with our 2 small children and stroller, and there is no ramp alternative to enter the building. The employee that notified us that we were not allowed to use the lift was very snarky and rude when telling us that "it's for Handicap only" and then walking away before we could ask if there was another way to get our stroller up the stairs. She stood there and watched as me and my wife lifted the stroller and our 2 kids up and walked them up the stairs. I don't understand why we were not allowed to use the platform lift to get up the stairs to enter the building, but we were allowed to use the actual handicap elevator inside to get to the second floor exhibit. The blond lady with the Australian accent that gave us our audio guide devices and offered to take us to the second floor on the handicap elevator was very nice, courteous, and professional. The other two that day however were not. After we finished the tour my wife took the kids to the bathroom to change diapers while I browsed the gift shop. The courteous blond employee must have had to step away from the podium where the audio guides were handed out, so the employee outside (the snarky one that said we were not allowed to use the platform lift) stepped in to man the podium. While I was walking around the gift shop her and the other employee that sold the admission tickets were "gossiping" (to put it politely) about me and my wife wanting to use the platform lift. I poked my head around the wall of the left side of the gift shop where I could be seen and they knew I could hear them and they didn't say anything else. The fact that they were "gossiping" about me and my wife is the whole reason I am writing this review. The museum was excellent, and while not being able to use the platform lift to get our stroller and 2 kids up the entrance stairs of the building was an inconvenience, if that's their rules, it's their rules. Even if it's a silly one that leaves parents in the position of inconvenience and possibly safety concerns lifting children, stroller, diaper bag... up the stairs. But to blatantly "gossip" about 2 customers for doing nothing more than trying to enter a museum with their children in the middle of a gift shop, is unprofessional. I wish the museum the best and don't wish to "tarnish its name" for lack of better phrases with this review, because the museum certainly is spectacular, and I will still return to visit it again as we visit the keys every October.

I found this dory fascinating and the articles in the museum intriguing. There is a great deal of history in Key West and this museum provides a unique piece.

Amazingly driven man and family. Great museum with outstanding artifacts from the treasure fleet that sank. Well laid out and only takes about 1.5 hrs to see it all. Great displays and descriptions. Bringing kids would be pushing their level of interest to the max, better to tie them up outside or leave them with the crazy uncle you are traveling with. “Today is the day”