This one gives a whole new meaning to “ship to shore.” Part of a children’s museum in Miami has been re-designed as a cruise ship, to educate kids about the ways of the sea in the hands-on, interactive format that has become the way we live. Our experience in taking kids to museums is that it’s just as much fun for the (grand)parents, so don’t tune this out just because you’re past the age of majority.
The revamped display is funded, at least in part and perhaps in entirety, by Carnival so, yes, there is a vested interest at work here. That aside, how can anybody not like a facility that among other things shows kids and old folks:
• how to plot a course in the Caribbean using authentic maps and charts
• what it’s like, through actual recordings, to port a vessel
• the array of maritime careers that are available and what they entail
• what “going on a cruise” means, with a heavy emphasis (sell, sell) on the fun part
The Miami Children’s Museum is less than three miles from the Port of Miami…much closer if you could hitch a ride on a boat or if you’re a strong swimmer. The two-level part of it devoted to cruising was unveiled last week, and we can only assume that was some other kind of fizzy drink symbolically used to celebrate the occasion! Actually, it was confetti.
It’s shaped like a ship and looks like a ship — with teak-like floors, portholes and ship railings — so it must be a ship. The “bridge” is on the upper level, as bridges are, and lighting and murals re-create a view of Caribbean waters with a cruise ship (Carnival, of course) on the horizon.
Besides education, the kids can do the silly things that adults do on cruises — the limbo, dress up in funny costumes, act out parts in a theatrical performance. The difference is kids do it without encouragement.
In the end, the museum encourages kids to embrace cruising. Had there been such a thing available to us, we’d surely have been on a cruise before we were, at the ages of….whatever.