A family trip to the Museum of Ice Cream | San Francisco

Today I'm blogging all about that one time I found myself in a pretty spectacular museum that’s 100% kid friendly.  We spoke to the Co-founder who told us he built the museum with the hopes to inspire children to love art in a magical way.  The Museum of Ice Cream lives up to all hype and more.  I'll share my tips on how I scored tickets, what to bring (and not bring), my favorite rooms, and how long it takes to fully explore everything behind those pink walls.  Also dumping a large amount of super fun and frame-worthy photos so, enjoy friends!

Two things:
One, my favorite color is white.
Two, Vanilla ice cream is the most popular ice cream flavor, which happens to also be my favorite.  My grandpa taught me young, the best way to eat it is smothered with maple syrup.  Don’t knock it until you try it, it’s delicious.

Being from LA I still have a ton of friends down in that area, and last year my feed was full of yellow banana swings, pink cotton candy walls, and pictures of smiling friends in a blue pool filled with rainbow sprinkles. So, of course, I needed to see this for myself.  I planned to go next time I was down in southern cal and then found out they were sold out through forever.  Yup.  Forever.

When I found out they were building one in San Francisco, I quickly made this my lifelong quest to get the golden ticket to the modern day Willy Wonka Factory.  I got on the email list, I stole (well, borrowed) my husbands platinum Amex and I set my alarm for the pre-sale date.  They offer the first tickets to Amex holders only, and then to the general public after two days. Basically you get an email the day before letting you know the tickets for Amex holders will be available at 9am on X date.  I set my alarm, called the number at 9:02 am, sat on hold for a few minutes only to hear a recording telling me they were sold out and to call AMEX directly.  While on hold I went online and I was able to book them that way.  So skip the call and just be ready to book online the moment tickets go on sale.

It wasn't an easy task, but I got two tickets on a Thursday in September.  Now, the SF location is sold out until Feb of 2018. But you can get on the email list to see where their next location is happening.  I think they have one in NYC that sold out 30,000 tickets in 5 days!  When you buy your tickets just be ready, I wasn't at all prepared.  You have to list the names of who's attending ON THE TICKET, so know who you’re going with and know their schedule.  You also have to pick a specific time on a specific day AT THE TIME of purchase.   Lots of good time slots get taken first, so have a few dates that work for everyone prepared.  If your dying to attend TMOIC you must be flexible with your dates and times.  Like most things everyone is dying to see, it isn’t easy to get into.

We went on a Thursday at 2 pm.  The building was inconspicuous until you saw the bright pink banner and pink velvet robe directing a line of people to the glass door with the bright pink wall behind it. We didn't wait in line long, just until a small family showed up behind us.  They take you in, in groups, every 10-15 minutes or so.  You move from small room to small room, and you can stay in each room as long as you want, you just can't go backward.  They told us it would take about 45min to an hour depending on how fast or slow we go through each space.

At the first stop, we are greeted by what I will call a very seasoned Disneyland employee on steroids.  The brightest, most cheerful humans I've ever come in contact with. She shouted at us, "Before you enter, you must think of a team name!"  Now, for the record had I known I was was going to be traveling with the group I got in line next to, I probably would have planned this better. [take note- whoever your grouped with at the entry, is who you’ll be with for your entire experience and all your pictures]. Don't get me wrong, our group was great, but it consisted of an 80 year who was coming to the museum alone, she definitely didn't expect this type of museum experience, I guarantee that! And a small family of 3.  Two brothers, a sister and one of their small children.  She must have been 8 or 9 and they were in their 40s.  White washed jeans (not the fashion-y kind) and t-shirts they've probably had since high school.  The little girl shouted, "Sour gummy bears!"  The lady jumped with joy and said, "I love that on my ice cream, it's the perfect topping and team name.  You all may now enter the museum of ice cream!"  Jason looked at me with a concerned look on his face.  He isn't the biggest fan of crowded places or loud people; nor is he a fan of Ice Cream.  (He's that guy who eats the rainbow sherbet) but he loves me, so in we went.

I was running a little late and couldn't find parking.  As I noted you are scheduled for a specific time on your tickets and they will give 15 grace period but after that, you won't get in.  So, I quickly grabbed my camera in one hand and my phone in the other.  I knew I didn't want my massive diaper bag/purse in all my pictures so I left it in the car.  Big mistake!  Everytime I wanted to snap a picture I had to put my camera or phone and sunglasses on the floor.  If I were you, I would just bring a small bag that you can throw all your small necessities in. Jason carried Finn, we didn't take a stroller and I am not even sure if they would have allowed one.  If you have a walking toddler, plan on leaving the stroller in the car, and chasing him around the entire time. [but, that’s kind of the point, right]?

We started in the first hallway, it wasn't even a room.  It was actually one of my favorite places we stopped in because we were the only people in there.  Because they filter you in every 15 minutes or so, it gives the group ahead of your time to take pics, explore, etc before the next group comes in.   But don't go too slow or what happened to us, will happen to you.

I won't talk too much about the rooms because each museum is different and images should give you a glimpse into the goodness the museum has to offer. The first actually room we went into was an interactive room.  They had a carnival-like game of ring toss set up.  I was busy taking pictures that almost missed my hot husband hit 5 in the row while holding a wiggly toddler. Man, did I score the jackpot with this guy!  Just wait until we take him to the fair and walk away with 85 oversized stuffed animals and 3 basketballs.

We moved from room to room, snapped a few pictures and each space took us about 3-4min.  I started out using my camera but honestly using my iPhone was easier and the lighting was great! Now, fast forward to the 5 room.  It was this one, with the white walls and the letter magnets.  It should have held about 7 people at a time and then all the sudden, we were surrounded my about 100 GoPro executives.  The owner decided to host a massive all company event that same day at the same time.  I wouldn't say they were the most polite group of people.  They basically took over every single room until we got to the sprinkle room.  It was hard to take pictures, it was hard to grab Finn as he weaved in and out of people's legs and was off in a flash.  But the good news, he couldn't go far and there was a ton of people watching him.

When we got to the top of the stairs after about 45min, Jason looked at me with a face of concern and said, "We're only at the bathrooms?  This is only the halfway point!"  Remember somewhere up there I said it was supposed to take 45 min total. Well ya, we hadn't even gotten to the sprinkle pool yet!
When you get to the top of the stairs you hit a wall and another velvet rope.  We finally made it to the sprinkle pool, of course with 67 of my closest GoPro buddies.  They let them go as a group for about 10 minutes as we tried to entertain our 21month old toddler.  As we stood with a crowd of people, a younger looking man who was dressed quite nicely said, "it will be just a minute folks, does anyone have any questions for me? I am (insert name here) the co-founder of TMOIC.  I totally have no idea what he said because I was dying of heat while trying to wrestle Finn in my arms.  Until Jason said, I have a question, "How did you come up with the idea for this?"  I was like who are you talking to? And then saw the cameras and realized he was being filmed for some sort of documentary or something.  He went on to talk about how he wanted a place for children to explore and learn and touch and feel art. I'm sure it was profoundly better said then that, but I was too busy thinking about what part of the pool I was going to 'swim' into.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, we were in! It was time for the sprinkle pool! They make you remove your shoes and valuables and then you can jump right in! Don't worry, the sprinkles aren't real but they are small and they do stick to you! I found sprinkles for days after that trip!

We rounded the next corner and at that point, we both were kinda done.  It took us almost 2hrs to get through it all and I think that would have been much faster had the other events not been happening on the same day.   All in all, 100% worth it.  And Finn had the best time!  Let's just say, if the Museum of Ice Cream sold season passes, we would definitely be holding one.