DC's Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum Direct Entry & Guidebook

When you get your tickets make sure they are the right tickets. Ours had a bar code on them and were not good to enter the museum. And they were non refundable because we didn’t cancel with in 24 hours. I do not recommend

My husband and traveled to Washington DC. We made reservations online to visit the newly opened renovated Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum. The experience was very easy. We were unable to climb the many steps to enter the Memorial. However you first check in with your online ticket across the street . You first must pick a time to visit when you book your tickets online. There was a huge line to purchase tickets that day for the Museum. However we had tickets in advance and walked right up to an easy entrance.( bypassing the huge waiting line) They have an elevator for those individuals that can’t walk the many stairs inside. We took the elevators making it easier for us to visit the museum. The tour was about 30 -35 minutes. This is a self guided tour with a very short video. We had a great experience that was really impressive and informative. The tour was free and you pay a dollar or two per person for booking online. Totally worth the time and effort it saved us. Beautiful memorial.

+2

Very interesting and informative. Enjoyed the models of the size of his hands on the statue. Looking forward to the movie being extended.

You must buy timed entry at Recreation.gov. There is a $1 reservation fee per person. The material is good. There are various audio languages for the displays. It was interesting to see the competing proposals for the memorial. There are ORIGINAL copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and 13th amendment. It's right to store those historic copies in subdued light and controlled climate, but it is impossible to read. I would have liked a readable copy elsewhere. AC was not very strong, especially in the museum store. Good restrooms - cool workers' graffiti in the women's restroom. At the end of the very short movie is a disclaimer that this is just a trailer. The real movie will come later. (I do not understand why the movie isn't complete. This project was announced in 2016.) I hope someone will post when movie is complete. We spent less than an hour there, including shopping.

This new exhibit in the undercroft of the Lincoln memorial is a nice addition to the memorial itself. Gives you something to see and do while there. You do need timed tickets. It seems that they will be adding more things in 2027. Not a lot to see but information about the building of the memorial.

The under story is a nice experience and really well done. Issues with getting the tickets and not sure the guide book on phone is worth it. Might just pick up tickets at the exhibit as there were no lines to skip.

There really wasn't much to it. We watched the five minute movie (which was pretty lame), read all the exhibits (which were interesting) and were in/out in 30minutes. For all the security etc, it was underwhelming. But, it was free, so how can we complain. Note: At the end of the movie, there was a caption that indicated a longer version would be there in 2027. Hopefully it has more about the building of the memorial and Lincoln.

Your ticket did not work and you over charge for your service and take advantage of people even after reaching out for help

If you can score free tickets this is worth your time, but if you buy them from a 3rd party, I think you will regret spending the money. I purchased tickets via Trip Advisor and paid $25 per ticket because I had read that it was difficult to get tickets from recreation.org (and I agree, if you cannot plan 30 days out). Recreation.org does release a limited number of tickets the day before at 4 PM. And so, I was able to get the $1.00 (one dollar) tickets from recreation.org at 4 PM the day before, so I wasted $100 buying from TripAdvisor. Trip Advisor would not refund me my money at 4:05, stating it was less than 24 hours. I justified it because there was the promise of a "paper or digital guide" to go along with the $25 fee x four people $100. There is NO PAPER GUIDE. It is a pdf that is unreadable in the dark undercroft. I gave my free tickets to a foreign exchange student and his host mom. There is about a 3 minute audio only/video once inside the undercroft with the promise of a longer video in the future. What a shame!!! 50% of the undercroft is taken by the gift shop. There are rumors that you will see writings on the wall that the original construction crew had written. I saw no such a thing. It will take you less than 30 minutes to go through, if you want to read the plaques. If you don't read them, 10 minutes. There are nice bathrooms available. The undercroft is handicap accessible, and air conditioned.

There is a movie you can watch. Otherwise it takes about a half hour to see the actual exhibit. Exhibits are interesting and done very well. Can’t believe I have never seen this area of the memorial after all these years in the area.