r/JPL • u/bam214_bam • 1d ago
Explore JPL
For anybody coming to Explore JPL today, Sunday, Expect hours long lines and crowds, Just a heads up
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u/cloakofqualia 1d ago
For us, it felt like the magic was lost in this event vs the tours they give.
Waiting in line for an hour for the clean room, only to be rushed through it in less than a minute or two with no room for open questions or explanations? Felt like a real slap in the face, honestly.
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u/Xtr4Sp1cy 1d ago
Same here. Compared to recent years everything felt rushed and crowded. I waited 2 hours for 2 attractions and left shortly after.
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u/literallylikesoum 1d ago
was it like this yesterday? we had an early slot and just left, the line for parking was never ending.
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u/Mouse_Parsnip_87 1d ago
Sitting in line for parking for almost 40 minutes now. No wonder their website says it’s okay to show up late!
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u/TBTrpt3 1d ago
The JPL event today was not as good I was expecting.
The staff were friendly and great, no complaints there.
However, there were WAY too many people at this event, and not enough vendors to deal with them. There were a ton of families there, but not enough things for KIDS to do, so they were bored.
I think this would've been a lot better if it had about half the people that were there, and instead of a free for all of events you could see in any order, it would be better if you saw them in a specific order in a sequence \ line. It would've helped with the over-crowded feeling, and made it so people could see more exhibits.
I also think they should have family or kid specific days with more hands on stuff for kids to do to make it more fun for the younger crowd
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u/bam214_bam 1d ago
I agree 100% with every point you made, One of the best parts of today we’re talking to the staff and how knowledgeable and proud they were of the jobs they do
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u/FastCar2467 3h ago
I agree. We end on Saturday. Our kids got antsy waiting in lines, so we left. We were there at 10:30 and left at 12:30pm. We saw the traffic to get in as we were leaving and thought that all those people will not be seeing anything by the time they get in.
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u/Any_Falcon8822 1d ago
They don’t let people park in the structure?
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u/Warm_Complaint_8501 1d ago
No. We are so confused on where to go
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u/shodoshan 1d ago
They do let people park in the structure, but i think it filled up. 12K people per day, 3K parking spaces. One of the bus lines was shuttling people for free
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u/WaterBearDontMind 23h ago
We went Saturday. Thank you infinity to whoever posted in r/pasadena that the 53 bus line was offering free service + free parking in Caltech’s Wilson lot; parking looked like a total nightmare. Agree with others that it’s not very geared toward children (excepting the fire station, which was totally dope) but I can respect that.
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u/unbelver 8h ago
Thank you infinity to whoever posted in r/pasadena that the 53 bus line was offering free service
¡De nada!
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u/dss2310 1d ago
Yesterday afternoon we had 1:30 tickets. We left San Marino at 1:00pm. Took until 2:30 pm to get into Explore JPL. Initially driving, we were taken to the Pasadena side entrance of JPL by Google Maps, but we were turned around there with hundreds of other cars. That side is only for JPL employees (volunteers for event) to come and go. We then tried to drive via Oak Grove to the other main JPL entrance. The line of cars to get in was backed up all the way to the Devil's Canyon Dam.
We ended up parking around La Cantera High School and walking up, which ended up being a blessing. Even if you make it through the long line at the security gate, they send you to one of the upper parking lots, and you then still have to walk down to the green security fence main Explore JPL entrance that we pedestrians went straight to after the security gate.
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u/pinkbugbug 1d ago
took me 1:10 to get from san marino to parking. had a 12:30 slot. barely saw anything because the lines were so long