Skip the Line: Mel Fisher Maritime Museum Admission Ticket and Audio Tour

I paid the exorbitant admission price expecting to see something about Mel Fisher and the Atocha. There was virtually nothing about either!

This museum has much improved since I visited it 30 years ago. The exhibits on the first floor from the Atocha shipwreck are well displayed with good signage, and not too fully packed in too few cases. The second floor focuses on the Henrietta Marie shipwreck. There is great video on the investigations of this site. The main focus on the Henrietta Marie was the slave trade, and many shackles are the main artifact focus. The subject is treated respectfully. Worth a couple of hours from the heat to see this collection of fascinating treasure recovered from the ocean.

Museum was really interesting. My husband had seen a few different treasure shows on Discovery and even though he kind of rushed me he still enjoyed it. I think the audio is nice, but if you don't mind reading you could skip the audio.

Extensive history 1500 Spanish ship wrecks and tons of info on life and cargo. The detail in the silver and ceramic plates. The silver/copper used to create coins. History of coins. In the 1500's used slave labor. Spent about an hour. Excellent layout of artifact and description to read.

This is a very interesting museum with a great history and interesting audio guide. Well planned and great exhibits. We learned a lot about Key West history. We walked right in!

Can't say enough about the museum and it's staff. Mel Fisher was an amazing man who lead an amazing life and won it all. We originally booked the platinum ticket for Oct 24 but hurricane Milton delayed our trip for a month. We ended up at the museum on a Sat when the conservation lab was closed. The staff still took us back for a personal tour and answered all of my historical questions. I really appreciate their accommodation and high recommend this museum.

Very poor ! I expected better and when you advertise audio we thought it would be headphones. Instead it’s a stick you hold and hit a button for each room and then hold the stick to one ear.

First of all there was no line. Second there was no record of my having paid for entrance, let alone enter…. Since I was there, I offered to pay a second admission. I will be hard pressed to use your service in the future.

The museum and the artifacts are great. The museum provides a ton of information about Mr. Fisher, his operation, and the history behind the Atocha and Margarita shipwrecks. I am deducting 2 stars from my review however, due to the Museum and staff not being "parent friendly". We were not allowed to use the handicapped platform lift to get to the top of the stairs outside to enter the building with our 2 small children and stroller, and there is no ramp alternative to enter the building. The employee that notified us that we were not allowed to use the lift was very snarky and rude when telling us that "it's for Handicap only" and then walking away before we could ask if there was another way to get our stroller up the stairs. She stood there and watched as me and my wife lifted the stroller and our 2 kids up and walked them up the stairs. I don't understand why we were not allowed to use the platform lift to get up the stairs to enter the building, but we were allowed to use the actual handicap elevator inside to get to the second floor exhibit. The blond lady with the Australian accent that gave us our audio guide devices and offered to take us to the second floor on the handicap elevator was very nice, courteous, and professional. The other two that day however were not. After we finished the tour my wife took the kids to the bathroom to change diapers while I browsed the gift shop. The courteous blond employee must have had to step away from the podium where the audio guides were handed out, so the employee outside (the snarky one that said we were not allowed to use the platform lift) stepped in to man the podium. While I was walking around the gift shop her and the other employee that sold the admission tickets were "gossiping" (to put it politely) about me and my wife wanting to use the platform lift. I poked my head around the wall of the left side of the gift shop where I could be seen and they knew I could hear them and they didn't say anything else. The fact that they were "gossiping" about me and my wife is the whole reason I am writing this review. The museum was excellent, and while not being able to use the platform lift to get our stroller and 2 kids up the entrance stairs of the building was an inconvenience, if that's their rules, it's their rules. Even if it's a silly one that leaves parents in the position of inconvenience and possibly safety concerns lifting children, stroller, diaper bag... up the stairs. But to blatantly "gossip" about 2 customers for doing nothing more than trying to enter a museum with their children in the middle of a gift shop, is unprofessional. I wish the museum the best and don't wish to "tarnish its name" for lack of better phrases with this review, because the museum certainly is spectacular, and I will still return to visit it again as we visit the keys every October.

I found this dory fascinating and the articles in the museum intriguing. There is a great deal of history in Key West and this museum provides a unique piece.