The King Tut exhibit was absolutely amazing. I went over the weekend, and I was nervous that it would be too crowded to enjoy...however, I was wrong. The tickets for the King Tut exhibit are timed entry. The timed entries made it less crowded inside the exhibit by spacing out the amount of people allowed in at one time, so there was never any point where I felt overwhelmed by crowds of people.

The exhibit itself was awesome. There were so many artifacts to look at, movie clips to watch, and fun facts to learn. What i liked about this exhibit was the fact that it was not just about King Tut himself. Rather, the exhibit was also about his immediate family, distant ancestors, and life in ancient egypt in general. The ancient artifacts were so detailed and beautiful, it was hard to believe they were so old! At the end of the exhibit, there were two gift stores. One of the stores was dedicated completely to ancient Egypt and King Tut, while the other was a Discovery channel gift store with a wide variety of souvenirs. I bought an ankh necklace for a great price, and wear it everyday!

All in all, I learned a lot from this exhibit, and enjoyed it too! I would definitely recommend it to families, tourists, and history buffs like me.

We saw the exhibit when it was in SF, and I agree - it was amazing. I've heard mixed reviews, and I guess a fair number of people were disappointed, but our family thought it was great.

The tickets are timed? Does that mean you can't walk up and have to buy tickets ahead of time? I'm pretty interested in visiting over Labor Day weekend, but I'm not ready to "commit"!

We went last month in NYC. We thought it was very well done and were glad we went.
The exhibits were impressive and we learned a lot.

There was another post on this same exhbit a few weeks ago, however it was not as favorable as your glowing review. Since this is your very first post here, some of us might like to hear what else you saw in NYC. Any details about the rest of the weekend?

The other post has been topped.

Lauratg - When the exhibit was in SF, the tickets were timed. We bought ours online earlier that week. There were ticket sales the same day, but the number of tickets available for each time slot was limited. So someone might show up at noon, but the next available time slot is 2:30.

If I were not planning ahead, I'd probably go to the museum earlier in the day, buy tickets, then go out to lunch or something and come back at the appointed time.

I think the problem is -- folks who expected the new exhibition to be over the top amazing like the one back in the 70's (I saw that one in London and in San Francisco) -- simply didn't do their home work. For instance several northern California newspapers had long articles about the new exhibit and what is/isn't included and why.

The other thread has lots of posts about it was a ripoff because the '70's version was Soooooo great.

The current Exhibit isn't/was never intended to be the same. For one thing, the gold mask will never again leave Egypt.

This show was very good - just can't be compared to the old one.

We're planning on seeing it, but we live in Manhattan so it's no big effort. Also the tickets are relatively inexpensive (under $30) and there are lots of discounts available. If you go to schooltix.com you can get $15 discounted tickets through December 17th, not much more than a movie.

The link below indicates Tut's chariot is coming to the Exhibition next week:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/07/26...ariot/?hpt=Mid

Thanks November_Moon,

I will try to get over there early in the day to reserve timed tickets.

I had just about crossed this exhibit off my list because of the unfavorable review on fodors. However, it is one of the few (non-show) things to do in the evening with kids so I am now leaning towards going. I never saw the one in the 70s so, I won't be unfavorably comparing the two.

Laura - I never saw the one in the 70s either, so I was judging this exhibit solely on itself. And it is a great thing to do with kids. We went with a group of about 10 - kids and adults. Everybody had a fun time.

My 7 year old daughter loved the exhibit as did her grandparents. My husband got bored. I really enjoyed it as I judged it soley by what was in front of me and my daughter's interest in it!

Wanted to report back. We were there last Saturday morning (9/3) just before ther 9AM opening time. The line wasn't long -- maybe 40 people and we were able to get a 9 AM viewing time. I thought the exhibits were not as elaborate as those at the Met, but they were very well explained and it wasn't crowded at all. I liked it. It isn't a long exhibit -- only an hour to 90 minutes or so.

Lauratg: Glad you enjoyed the exhibit. Did you get discounted tickets? Also did you see the 3-D movie and get the audio tour? If yes, how were they?