Ripley's Believe It or Not! Review

So much fun for the family!

• By: Kirsten Cochran
• Posted: Oct 26th, 2014
• Blog: The American Travel Project

Location of Ripley’s in Baltimore

The location of Ripley’s is right in the heart of the Inner Harbor, close to many other attractions like the Maryland Science Center and the Aquarium. It is in a building that houses several restaurants (we loved Noodles & Co for a quick and inexpensive meal). We didn’t even realize it when we booked our hotel (Hyatt Regency Baltimore), but we were directly behind Ripley’s and within very easy walking distance.

Ripley’s Attractions – Reviews

The Odditorium

This was the favorite attraction of my daughter, husband, and me. There are tons of really interesting artifacts. Really, I could have spent a lot of time here reading all of the signs and learning more about each item. There are ancient artifacts like mummies and shrunken heads, things you would normally find in a more typical history or natural sciences museum. What makes this place different is that it is actually very fun and interactive.

There is a Hogwarts Castle made of 500,000 matchsticks! My kids are massive Haprry Potter fans, so they loved seeing this. There is lso a Harry Potter portrait made out of candy, and a disappearing woven Hagrid (you have to see it to understand what I mean….it’s really cool!). One of my favorite parts of the Odditorium were the various works of art made out of unusual things like junk mail, ants, printed words, and so much more. Some were optical illusions that blew my mind.

Another great thing about this Odditorium was that it was very interactive. It wasn’t just about looking at things, but also touching and moving around. There were tunnels that the kids could crawl though, buttons to push, and (daughter’s favorite) a rainbow shadow room. She could have danced in there for hours! Overall, we thought that this Ripley’s was more interactive than the others we have visited.

The Mirror Maze

This was much more fun than I had at first anticipated. We went through it a few times because it doesn’t take all that long to find the end. My son came up with a trick for figuring out which walls were mirrors without touching them (I’m not divulging the secret here, you have to try for yourself!). You can spend a lot or a little bit of time here, depending how much time you have and how many times you want to go through the maze (and how skilled you are at getting out in the first place!). They gave us plastic gloves to wear so that the maze did not get all gross and fingerprint-y. I liked that idea because it kept the mirrors very clean, which made the maze look even cooler and shinier.

The 4D Movie

The 4D movie was my son’s favorite part of Ripley’s in Baltimore. The only complaint was that it was too short. There were 2 different mini-movies that were focused on an action-based theme. I don’t want to give away the ‘plots’ of the movies, but one was a car race and one involved sledding. Both were cute and lots of fun. It reminded me of some of the 4D attractions that they have at Disney or Universal. We did not find the movies to be particularly scary, but I could see that some parts may be scary for younger children. The focus was more on the cute aspect of things though, rather than the scare factor.