Ark Encounter, Kentucky, United States

5Skywatcher2024 5:00 PM Feb 2, 2023

A must see location
I had seen photos of this place but photos cannot portray this awesome place. It is like looking at photos of the Grand Canyon where being there is 1000 times better. Every detail for controlling food and waste of the animals were portrayed in this massive display. The ark was surprisingly much larger than I imagined in real life. The craftsmanship that went into building this massive structure was amazing. Visiting during the winter was nice because we did not have to deal with large crowds. The trade-off is that the outdoor displays and performances are not functional. I would recommend a winter visit if you want to enjoy looking at every detail of the ark without the noise and feeling crowded.

4Brandi K 5:00 PM Nov 28, 2022

Looks cool but boring experience
Ok, so hear me out. I am NOT a museum reader. I want to look at the thing, maybe read a caption, and pay money for an audio tour so I don't have to read a million signs at a museum. This Ark? Full of a million signs, posters, placards, etc. So a lot of it has nothing to look at but wood, occasionally a cheesy animatronic person, and some random animal statues here and there. I can't imagine that it's very entertaining for small children. It's a LOT of reading, if you want the full understanding of everything around you, which is great for some people, but some of us aren't about that life. So an audio tour option would do this place some good and also give them another source of revenue, in case they aren't making enough on their extra activities like zip lining. So out of the 6 in our party, 2 actually read everything, and the rest of us played on our phones in between walking around. (There are several pokestops and a gym, if you're so inclined.) But the 94 year old grandmother thought it was wonderful and she's the whole reason we took the trip, so I guess it worked out ok. She read every.single.sign, by the way. Speaking of extra activities...I don't know, for me, it cheapens the experience a bit to be shuttled past a ropes course and super short zip line. It was cold so we didn't even walk out to the petting zoo area and we don't have small children so there was no need to visit the playground. All of the staff we encountered were super friendly and smiling. To be honest, the best part is just standing outside the boat and marveling at its size. The rest I could have lived without. We arrived at 9:00 am for opening and were finished at 12:30. It's a LOT of walking, so we did rent a scooter for Nana. If anyone else in your party is going to even think about sitting on that scooter while it's not in motion, better put them on the waiver. They're extremely and annoyingly persnickety about that.