Field Station Dinosaurs

Yes, that is me and a dinosaur.

Last month, my husband and I found a GroupOn deal for admission to Field Station Dinosaurs in Secaucus, NJ. Tickets for the outdoor exhibit were pretty steep and had prevented us from visiting previously, even though my husband is a big fan of dinosaurs. But with the GroupOn deal, we figured it would be worth it to pay a visit.

So, is it worth it?

There's something awkward about being the only two adults there who were not accompanied by small children. And I should also add, small, gullible children. Seriously. These kids were really impressed by the robotic dinosaurs and one kid, who was probably 8 years old, asked one of the employees if these were real dinosaurs. I really hope that kid was joking, but he seemed totally serious and even a little scared of the dinosaurs.

Let me be perfectly clear: These dinosaurs are pretty lame. Unless you have young kids, there is no reason to go to this. If you have kids who are 8/9 and up, don't bother taking them. It's basically a lot of walking around, looking at dinosaur robots slowly moving, and listening to dinosaur robots make cat-like and alien noises. My husband said that if his parents had brought him here when he was a kid, he would have HATED it.

I guess we kind of expected something more. Like, maybe dinosaurs walking. Obviously, they would still be walking behind barricades, but at least they would be taking a few steps to appear realistic. Even the dinosaurs that were "fighting" each other were only slowly moving their heads back and forth. Thrilling.

This kind of reminded us of the arena show my husband and I went to a few years ago: Dinosaurs Alive! or something like that. Totally disappointing and actually hilarious in its disappointment.

Again, my husband and I were the only people at the show without kids.

Aside from the walking around, there are different dinosaur-themed activities for kids at Field Station Dinosaurs. You can watch a movie, listen to some guy talk about something, play dinosaur games, and more. As adults, we did not participate in any of this. But if you have young kids, they will probably want to participate. Without kids, you can do this in less than an hour. With kids, it's going to be longer, but you're going to wish that you could leave in less than an hour.

Maybe robot dinosaurs with more movement would be too scary for young kids. But come on. I'm not asking for Jurassic Park, here. I just wanted something a little more... exciting.

If you're going to pay full price, you can purchase tickets from the official Field Station Dinosaurs website here. Basically, if you purchase in advance and buy the basic tickets without the movie or Commander's Tent admission, it's $17.50 per kid and $20 per adult. (So glad we didn't pay full price!) You also have to pay $10 to park. We actually parked at the Secaucus Train Station for $9 and then walked over to the exhibit. It's really not that far of a walk, and there are sidewalks.

Has anyone else been to Field Station Dinosaurs? What did you guys think?