Museum of Ice Cream Miami

So after having a blast at the Museum of Ice Cream San Francisco, I jumped at the chance to visit the newest version, Miami. Tickets were easier to purchase and surprisingly they didn’t sell out very fast. I procured tickets for a weekend in January (I’m behind on posting, I know) and then got on to finding plane tickets. I was in dire need of a mini vacation and recruited a friend to tag along.

We flew into Miami late on a Thursday night and had a terrible experience with our Air B&B. Long story short, it was not as advertised. On top of that it was freezing and we didn’t really bring warm clothes, having not had anticipated the drop in temperature. We ended up having to book a hotel in Miami beach and then all was well.

Friday we checked out the Wynwood district and went wild with taking photos of the amazing Wyndwood Walls. We made our way to Miami Beach and stopped in Wet Willies, because that’s what one does while in Miami. We met up with some family for dinner and grabbed some warmer clothing at Target. #lifesaver

 

On to the good stuff. Saturday was the whole reason I was there, The Museum of Ice Cream! As normal, we waited on line until our intended time. This is where it started to turn south. The cast member at the front door was letting people in as soon as their group was there, no regard to their timed slots. Unlike San Francisco, we were just by ourselves. There was no group for your time slot. We had four all together and as soon as the last person arrived we were let in. Then you were corralled in a zig zag line, with no AC and ice cream facts on dividers. There was no greeter and no introduction. Very different atmosphere from the SF museum. Slowly we were making our way to a woman telling ice cream fortunes. That’s not really our group’s thing and we told her so, but she continued and we couldn’t move on because there was a group ahead of us. So we uncomfortably waited while she told us “ice cream fortunes” i.e. you will be eating something sweet in the near future.

After surviving the awkwardness, we turned a corner and were greeted by a woman informing us we were headed into the sprinkle pool. My face fell because it’s supposed to be at the end, culminating an amazing visit. But that was not happening here. We enjoyed the pool nonetheless. Even though we had to share it with another couple. They were very likable.

We had about two minutes in the sprinkle pool, if that. Definitely not enough time, especially because it was the first real interaction in the museum. They pointed us out a door to the next space. It was an outdoor hallway with greenery, which led to a door to an “ice cream shop”. It was very similar to the ice cream shop in SF, 50’s diner style. Here everyone could grab a mini milkshake off of a moving conveyor belt.

There were celebrity photos on the wall leading the way to the next area. You walked out a door into an outside courtyard. The cast members were standing around and not really doing or saying anything. Most people were just walking through confused, not knowing what was happening. There was a photo op with balloons but no explanation as to why. The vibe was very different from SF. The cast members there interacted and explained that was going on. They also kept people moving at an appropriate pace. That was not happening in Miami. Groups of people were crowded in certain rooms and there seemed to be no reason why we had timed slots as the cast members were letting people go wherever and whenever they wanted.

We figured out we were supposed to go up a flight of stairs and through a doorway to the next space. This room had large ice cream shaped fans. Again no direction from the cast member in the room. I knew from photos that they were supposed to encourage you to do a dance with them, but this did not happen.

After we were done in the fan room, we walked into the pink jungle room. It was blazing inside. No one was leaving this area because it had a cherry swing, a banana swing, and the only way in or out of the shiny coconut crawl space. Yet again the cast members were not moving people along at all. The only one working was the guy handing out chocolate dipped bananas. The only people trying to get people moving were other people waiting in lines to take photos on the attractions. By the time we left the space we were all sweating.

Next you walked outside again and took a flight of stairs to another level. The first room had melted ice cream in pink milk containers, yes it was essentially milk. We tried to make a saying on the letter board, but most of the letters were broken.

 

The next room was the sand castle room. I’m assuming this was supposed to be a nod to Miami beach, but yet again, no info was provided.

The last room on this floor was kind of like giant weird shaped blocks that you could stack. I don’t know why they were included. A cast member as the end of the room was giving out gummy sharks.

We walked outside to the next set of stairs, made our way up, and were greeted by a small cone with key lime pie ice cream. It was interesting but tasty. This top floor had the wall of hanging popsicles, but by this time they had removed most of them because people were tangling them up. A lot of the ones that were still up were tangled. There were also colored plastic dividers in a hallway. On this floor, like in SF, there was a ping pong table. The best part of this level was the rooftop view. There were “gumdrops” for you to stand or sit on. But the view of the water was the best thing about it.

And that ends the Museum of Ice Cream Miami visit. I was not impressed. If this was the only experience I had had with these museums, I would not go to anymore. I’m glad I visited San Francisco first. I can’t say that I didn’t have a decent time, it just wasn’t as expected. The whole trip had a weird vibe, but I’m always happy to get a little time away. Overall, if I had to rate this trip, it would be a 5/10.