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Details
(Area code: 410)
Port Discovery, 35 Market Place, Baltimore, 727-8120;
activity hot line, 468-0687. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Adults $10,
children 3 to 12 $7.50, under 3 free.
Bennigan's, 34 Market Place, 837-0553
Johnny Rockets, Harborplace, Light Street Pavilion,
Pratt and Light streets, 347-5757
California Pizza Kitchen, Harborplace, Pratt Street
Pavilion, Pratt and South streets, 783-9339
Planet Hollywood, Harborplace, Pratt Street Pavilion,
685-7827
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By Theodore
Fischer, Sidewalk
By gleaning the
collective wisdom of the 250 children's museums that already exist in this
country, turning the dream meisters of Disney loose on the case and moving
into a dramatic, historic structure in the main tourist area of Baltimore,
Port Discovery immediately joins Camden Yards, the National
Aquarium and the Inner Harbor in the exclusive worth-the-trip category
of attractions.
Port Discovery is a nonprofit venture built with a combination of federal,
state and municipal funds. The "kid-powered museum" is located a
block from the harbor and three blocks from the aquarium in the historic
Fishmarket Building, originally an open-air fish market and later an adult
nightclub complex that went belly up. It makes strategic use of the
three-story, 80,000-square-foot space with a central atrium, where
surrounding balconies thoughtfully equipped with stationary
high-powered binoculars provide vantage on free-ranging youngsters.
Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering in consultation with teams of
educators, Port Discovery focuses on the 6- to 12-year-old market. But
unlike similar facilities (and much to its credit), it works best
for the older kids. Younger children are, of course, welcome. Sensation
Station, an exhibit that consists of a ball pit, an easy
climbing apparatus, draw-on windows and a central pillar textured with
fur, bark, rugs and bugs (plastic, of course), is recommended for children
4 and under. Consider it a good place to park toddlers while older
siblings savor more inventive and challenging exhibits.
Kids
can really get physical at Port Discovery's center-stage attraction, KidWorks
(left), a three-story climbing tower that may have been
designed by Disney but whose gray and chrome metal pipes, wire mesh
screens, gears, open fans and thickly netted crawl tubes look like
something from Batman's post-industrial Gotham City. The stark
design enhances the satisfaction of those who manage to negotiate the
wobbly net bridges, the fast-moving zip lines, the darkly twisting
air-duct slides and, for the bravest of the brave, the spiral ladder
leading into the wire-cage globe at the summit.
Other,
more cerebral activities emphasize creativity. In the R&D Dream Lab
(left), for example, children have access to an array of power and
hand tools, a full set of supplies and plans, and expert assistance from
eager young "program associates" who shepherd children to and
through age-appropriate projects. Studio Workshop lets kids morph
their photographs into the face of a beloved parent or, if they prefer,
somebody cool like Cal Ripken.
Port Discovery is devoutly pro-dream, and in What Next? kids
compose a Dreamapฎ to steer them to solid information (books, museums'
Web sites, organizations) on private passions ranging from animals and
computers to music and "looking good." On a more traditional
note but one loaded with Internet-connected computers Port
Discovery houses a branch of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library.
The two most sophisticated and imaginative exhibits are mazelike puzzles
that won't insult even adults' intelligence. To determine the identity of
a defunct pharaoh, Adventure Expeditions (left), set in Indiana
Jones-era Egypt, involves translating hieroglyphic cartouches, penetrating
a tomb, X-raying a mummy and passing some time in a pitch-dark coffin. Miss
Perception's Mystery House is a hunt for a missing member of the
Baffeld family who apparently lives in John Waters' part of Baltimore.
Along with reading semiliterate diaries and fondling critters immured by a
sloppy wallpapering job, supple young Sherlocks must negotiate a twisting
22-foot-long kitchen drain pipe in which it's (thankfully) too dark to see
the creepy slimy hairy stuff encountered along the way.
Even though a large crew of program associates on hand for crowd control
is in constant wireless contact with the Port Discovery nerve center,
congestion and lines at least in these early days can be an issue.
Weekdays are far less crowded than weekends, but if you have to come on
weekends, late in the afternoon is best. If you're worried about
encountering a sold-out sign when you arrive (it happens, but not often)
you can buy timed tickets in advance through Ticketmaster.
A museum store carries books, toys and souvenirs, but except for action
photographs snapped at various places in the museum that are available for
purchase, there's nowhere else to spend any money. Like other children's
museums, Port Discovery figures on getting its share of the lucrative
birthday-party market. For $185 for the first 10 guests (over 3 years old)
and then $10 a head (up to 50 guests), you get 90 minutes in one of the
three party rooms, an assortment of favors and all-day museum access.
Also, several yearly membership plans offer unlimited admission.
Although Port Discovery will eventually add an in-house McDonald's and
make-your-own pizza stand, for the time being there's no place to eat on
the premises. The most convenient eatery is a unit of Bennigan's,
an Irish-accented sports bar whose kids menu offers macaroni and cheese,
cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chicken strips and "cheesydillas"
including fries, soft drink and sugar cookie for $3.39 to $3.89. But
Port Discovery is only strides away from the Harborplace mall and familiar
child-pleasing options like Johnny Rockets in the Light Street
Pavilion and California Pizza Kitchen and Planet Hollywood
in the Pratt Street Pavilion.
Directions: From the Beltway take Interstate 95 to Exit
53 (Interstate 395) north toward Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Turn right on
Pratt Street and left on Market Place (opposite the Power Plant). Enter
the pay parking lot ($6 weekends) beside the entrance to Port Discovery or
find a metered (in effect at all times) space on the street.
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