Located within a short walk of each other, the USS Midway Museum and a Hornblower Harbor Cruise combine together for a full day of big family fun in San Diego. Don’t tell the kids, but both activities have an educational aspect.
The USS Midway Museum offers a portal in time to multiple different locales all in one place. After nearly 50 years of service, the Midway has more than a handful of different stories to explore from different eras, with varying planes, helicopters, and other such technology present. Though sometimes the quarters are cramped to navigate, this all the more gives emphasis to the daily lives and routines of the crew on board for each of the Midway’s tours.
Admission includes a self-guided audio tour to 60 exhibits throughout the historic aircraft carrier and 29 restored aircraft. Exhibits range from the crew’s sleeping quarters to a massive galley, engine room, the ship’s jail, officer’s country, post office, machine shops, and pilots’ ready rooms, as well as primary flight control and the bridge high in the island over the flight deck.
We spent 4.5 hours aboard the ship, including a little downtime for lunch at the onboard Fantail Cafe. There is a lot of climbing ladder steps and walking aboard this huge ship. We were all amazed at how much manpower went into running the ship. It truly is a city at sea.
There were many museum docents on each level of the ship more than happy to answer questions and give helpful information. We met Tom, a Vietnam Veteran, on the hangar deck; he had over 3000 volunteer hours at the museum! Every year over 800 volunteers contribute more than 225,000 hours.
Younger visitors can earn their Junior Pilot Wings by visiting the Information Booth in the Hangar Deck.
After a long day of walking and climbing up and around the USS Midway Museum, your big family will enjoy the chance to sit down on a San Diego bay tour cruise. Hornblower Cruises & Events offers a one or two hour tour of the bay. You can choose to do the north side or the south. Each side is a narrated hour-long cruise.
The north bay cruise is a view of the city, be sure to sit on the right-hand side for best views. The south bay cruise covers the Naval Base San Diego. Be sure to sit on the left-hand side of the boat to see great views of the Navy ships. We took the north side first and the last southbound cruise of the day which in November coincided with sunset and evening colors bugle call.
You can order your tickets online for the cruise. Tickets online through Hornblower for a two-hour cruise tour would have cost my family of 6 $160. However, I was able to find a two-hour cruise tour Groupon deal for 6 for $105.
We arrived at the museum at 10 and left at 2:30 to board the very close by cruise at 3. Our cruise ship arrived back at the dock at 5:15. We also visited the Unconditional Surrender Statue and A National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military which are located nearby.
