Ark Encounter – Review

First, you have to park quite a away from the Ark and a bus to the Encounter.  Remember this if you plan to return to your vehicle to get eats or other things and especially if you have a family.  Figure a round trip of 25 minutes or so depending on how far you had to park from the buses.  To ride the bus, you must first pay for your admittance to the Ark encounter and they’ll also get your $10 parking fee at the same time.  You may ride the bus as many times as you need.

The bus drops you off near the Ark and nearer yet to a (I say “a” because there are several) gift shops.  It’s also where you get on the bus to return to the parking lot.  The buses are heated and I assume Air Conditioned as well.  There are enough buses running that you don’t have to worry about squeezing onto them.  I saw a family with a stroller on the bus and they didn’t have any problem bring it in, stowing it or getting it unloaded, though they were not able to sit by the stroller; such are the ways that buses anywhere are made.

Once you step off the Ark, you have the choice of going into the gift shop or looking to your right and seeing the Ark.  Not knowing how the day would play out, I went inside first to see what amenities they had.  Besides lots of good Christian Creation materials available for purchase, there was also an eatery and restrooms.  Also a very large auditorium is in here. Note that I mentioned rest rooms.  You don’t have to hit them now as there are a lot of them around the grounds and in the Ark; I guess for all the workers to use while preparing Noah for his journey.

Because of that last sentence, now is a good time to talk about ‘creative licensing’.  The Bible doesn’t give us a lot of information about the Ark, its construction and preparation.  In fact, Creation to post-Babylon, which includes the Ark and flood, all occur in the first 11 chapters of Genesis.  For those of you not to Bible savvy, that’s also the first 11 chapters of the Bible.  So not a lot of details are given on its living conditions, builders, and preparations for the ‘voyage’.  So Answers In Genesis personnel used some Creative or Artistic Licensing in the Arks presentation.  They talk about it as you first enter the Ark.

So, upon exiting the gift shop (gift shop #1) I head to the colossal Ark.  And it is colossal.  300 x 50 x 30; cubits.  There are several cubits used throughout history but in this case, the Arks size is 510 feet long.  That’s 1 and 2/3 football fields.  So you get to look at it for quite a while as you walk to it.

I suspect the grounds would look much better in the spring, summer or fall but as it was it was pretty bleak.  But it’s mid-February.  A pond/lake is off to the right and zip lines off to the right.  I suspect Noah’s workers used them transport wood and materials to the job site back in there day.

Thankfully, there were no lines in the cattle stalls and people restrictors under the Ark like there probably are in the better months and more people on the grounds.  So I able to Wisk right to the ramp that led up to the souvenir picture station and main entrance.  If needed, you can rent single and double strollers as well as electric and people powered wheel chairs just before you get on the ramp.  Though there seemed to be plenty of seating along the walls of the Ark, wheel chairs maybe should be on your mind.  There are three 3 decks and two sides on each deck.  At ~500 long, times 6, your walking 3,000 feet.  Plus there are the exhibits and small stretches in the Ark not including the activities out of it.  I could see a person easily walking close to a mile inside the Ark alone.

I heard an employee say that someone used their exercise app and walked 1.7 miles.  I asked what that was in cubits and was quickly returned a puzzled look.  I offered him some advice about staying in character.

OK, I’ll

As you can imagine, there is plenty of room for lots of exhibits inside the Ark.  Though there were a lot of exhibits, there was also a lot of empty space on the walls.  I say this because if it was crowded, there isn’t that much too look at as you wait in line between exhibits.  Of course, for the first little while, a person would just look at the inside of the structure which is pretty impressive.  But I doubt this would the attention of many once they are on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors.

Though I didn’t have to wait in line to get into an exhibit since it wasn’t crowded, I would believe it would be nice to have things to hold your attention while in line; especially if one was there with children.  But maybe they do when there are more visitors in attendance.

Each level has restrooms and a snack bar.  There is also another gift shop on the second floor; this is #2.  Elevators are near the restrooms.  Large, wide ramps connect the 3 levels of the Ark and the ground floor (4 floors on total) and exits you out into a gift shop (#3).

There was also a small petting zoo area on the second floor and on the opposite end of the Ark, was a theater.  Several exhibits are also spread out on the second floor.

The third floor contained another theater and several more exhibits as well as the crew’s living quarters.

The appearance of the Interior looks what I would envision to be authentic and reasonable enough to be valid of what Noah could accomplish and yet visually appealing and comfortable enough to be enjoyed by visitors.

I really didn’t see a whole lot that would keep kids interested if it was busy.  Again, if you’re waiting in lines, it may be a long day.  In my opinion, there should have been more stuff on the walls to read as you shuffle to the exhibits.  Some of the exhibit’s materials were really packed together and people needed to move before I could read/enjoy them; and it wasn’t that busy.  Other exhibits were spaced out to the point that they should have more stuff in them.

Most of the interactive exhibits really only accommodated a small family and I could see them easily spending several minutes at each (once they got there).  For instance, you could ask Noah questions by selecting the questions from a touch screen.  I forget how many questions there were, but 13 come to mind.  If a person, once they got there, asked all 13 questions, I would suspect that 15 to 20 minutes could go by.  There was only one Noah and people won’t wait that long to ask Noah questions.  And these are the types of things you should do with your kids that spur interaction with them and adults.  Setup 5 Noah stations and get rid of snack bar to make room if needed.  Sure 5 Noahs might seem weird but I’d rather explain that then not explain a unique point of the whole exhibit to someone by them not ‘asking’ a question.

Out of the whole Ark, there was really only three portions that I feel were dedicated to children and they may be excited about.  The petting zoo (I get excited at them), the creepy animal area (I forget what it was called but it was neat and could be a little scary for the younger ones (but I think kids of all ages will find it fun), and the animal storage when you first encounter the Ark.

There’s more to do outside the Ark once you get through the 3^rd gift shop (#3, but I mentioned that already).  However, I can’t comment too much on outside activities as there wasn’t much going due to the time of the year and weather.  There is a zoo, and a village that at the very least sells many different types of foods.  In keeping with the operando, I would assume that there a gift shop here as well as at the zoo.  I like to think that there is entertainment going on as people eat but I don’t know if there is or anything else besides the food here.  I didn’t go to the zoo as I didn’t have warm enough cloths on for outside activates but what I did have on was bordering too hot for the indoor ones.

I myself am pretty much up on the Ark and other Creation topics so there wasn’t much information that I gleaned.  One area that did, and it wasn’t Biblical but creative licensing and feasible in my opinion, was a couple of displays dealing with waste product removal and air movement (fresh air intake).  God didn’t say anything about this type of stuff in the Bible but most likely it was needed and Ark Encounter designers did a good showing how it could have believably been done.

I don’t know what the cost of drinks or eats were at neither the snack bars nor the cost of food at the bus station.  I would assume that they are probably what they would be at any other similar venue.  However, I was pleasantly surprised at the price of the buffet restaurant; a good genre selection and plenty of sides plus drink for $14.  Though I’ve never been to a buffet at a theme park, I bet it would have cost much more as just a regular A-la-carte usually gets you in the $10 range.

Maybe I’m being a little hard on the whole exhibit; though I really liked it I felt it could have been better.  More children’s stuff.  More scientific stuff about the feasibility of the Ark itself, and perhaps how it would fare in the waters and maybe how things may have been for the first several years after the Ark, including the dispersing and migration of animals.

I don’t feel 3 snack stations were needed in the Ark and that that space could be used for other things.  Actually, there’s still room for other things even with the snack stations but I don’t think we need to be bombarded with the ‘Instant Gratification’ stations at every turn and the added aggravation for parents as their children pester them for pleasures.  A little walking for many of us shouldn’t be out of the question either.

And with a gift shop just feet away from the buses that you must get on to leave the park, is there really a need for the others in the grounds.  It’s not a secular park where we have to get everything they can from you.  I realize that a gift shop helps generate revenue and as a Christian non-profit, I don’t mind giving a little more; but I don’t feel I should have to be ‘roughed’ up to spend money and then have to carry items around the remainder of the stay, especially as they have most of the same stuff at the exiting gift shop.

However, the Ark Encounter hasn’t quite yet 4 years old.  There were a couple of exhibits coming soon inside the Ark itself.  There may have been outside as well but again due to the temperatures, I didn’t browse around outside.  It’s hard to say if it was a good value.  It was for me.  I’m not sure I could say the same for a family of 6.  There is a savings if you get an Ark Encounter and Creation Museum ticket.  They also have a deal going on right now where a child under 10 gets in for free with each paid adult.

I plane to go back, hopefully as part of a group.  And if possible, I’ll plan it to be in the spring or summer when I would assume that the grounds will full of flowers and such.

Since you see that I plan to return to the Ark Encounter sometime, I did enjoy it.  As a Christian, I didn’t need to see it but it is neat to get ideas of how it could have been done.  Of course as a Christian, we have to be careful not to be dogmatic in preaching ‘how it could’ for ‘how it was’ and leave room (lots of room I suspect) for God’s providence and lots of miracles during the time of the flood.

If I was a non-Christian, I probably wouldn’t even consider the Ark Encounter if I had to take a family.  At around $200 to go through a joke (that’s what they probably would be thinking) just to mock it, I’d be heading to an amusement park.  But if a friend, say a Christian friend, invited them to go (they probably would be less inclined to mock it for fear of hurting a friends feelings) and that friend could help explain things and challenge those guests to some reasonable thinking, maybe the Ark Encounter could make a difference if that friend could get them there.

But what if that friend had a way to get non-believer there where it would cost them so much (maybe half price for a non-believer or something).  Would the Ark Encounter lose money due to Christians lying and saying they are non-Christians to save on money at the ticket gate?  Maybe, but if Christians do that, then they should probably be there for sure. But I doubt that a non-believers going by themselves to see the Ark Encounter will have a life changing experience.

Godly life changing experiences come by Godly people being willing to help people with Godly life changing experiences.