The USS Midway is a decommissioned (retired) aircraft carrier docked in the San Diego Bay. It now serves as a top notch naval museum that is open for tours. It cost us $82 for the four of us and was well worth the money. (Ticket costs are: $26/adults 18-61, $22/seniors, $18/students 13-17, $12/youth 6-12, $10/veteran.)
As with most things these days, there are COVID restrictions: your ticket is a timed start to control total visitors on board at once, masks are required, 6 feet social distancing is encouraged and it seemed like many parts of the vessel have been removed from the tour.
The boys loved the Midway. (All of my boys.) We got to see:
Several bunkrooms – these were so cramped it is amazing they didn’t go stir crazy.
The Captain’s lower quarters – really nice, but according to a Yellow Hat (tour volunteer) the Captain only used this area while the ship was in port. The Captain slept up top by the bridge when underway.
The radio facilities control room – amazing to see how they transmitted classified information over the decades of the aircraft carriers service.
NOTE: Some of the ship was closed or roped off. I’m not sure if that was due to renovations or to COVID. (For example, the website lists the chapel and sick bay below deck, and the bridge and quarters above deck, but these weren’t open.)
There was a free audio tour available. You held the device up to the headphone symbols and a recording started. You listened by holding it up to your ear. You could also connect to the tour on your phone.
NOTE: Ben was excited to get to the tour and was worried about parking so we got to the tour at least an hour before our start time. We listened to most of these audio tracks in the truck. He was grateful we did because we did not bring headphones and it was hard to hear some of these recordings while on the deck.
The flight deck of the carrier had so many planes and helicopters displayed. Most of the aircrafts had folding wings. These were really neat to see, and of course growing up watching Top Gun, Ben and I liked seeing the F14s. The Midway Museum also had all the helicopters that have ever taken off from an United States aircraft carrier. Amazing to see the older ones.
I think the whole experience was really well done. We spent over 3 hours at the museum and Ben wished we had longer. We ended up closing the museum down. With the audio tour, lots of informational signs, and eager Yellow Hats ready to help, it was a great time. The kids enjoyed learning which is a solid accomplishment for any museum. I would definitely recommend it if you are in San Diego.