Mary Rose Museum

We bought yearly passes for our family to the dockyard in 2019, before the pandemic and loved to visit - the only nag being that the Mary Rose Museum was not included. We renewed recently, now its easier to visit attractions again and were delighted to find out that it was now part of our annual membership. I cannot express adequately in words how wonderful this museum is. You enter initially into an interactive chamber, with narration from a very familiar and famous voice. You get to meet Henry VIII himself and experience the Mary Rose sinking.
Getting to see the ship itself is amazing; it's at the centre of the building and you work your way around it, through different displays and floors. You catch glimpses of it, as its kept in relative darkness until they suddenly bring the lights up and you get an idea of the scale of it. They have a hologram display which beams video of actors, portraying different members of the crew going about their business, directly onto the ship - which our kids loved. On the very top floor, you can finally go into the actual chamber itself (through an airlock, which the kids were delighted with). It's really eerie and ethereal experience.
We visited during half term and the kids were invited to take part in special activities offered by the museum and made their own clay ships tiles. There are also interactive activities dotted about the building for the younger visitors to try. It's BRILLIANT, we will be back.

Absolutely fantastic museum with a very understandable haunting feel to it.
The displays are really cleverly done.
So much information and so many artifacts.
Warning: there are many skeletal remains on display.
The coffee and muffins in the cafe were excellent.

We marked out the Mary Rose Museum as our single attractions on the tickets we bought. There was a large group of us and this seemed the best bet to cater for adults and children. We chose well and the Mary Rose did not disappoint. The attraction is well run with friendly and engaging staff. They did well fielding the questions from both young and old minds and really helped ignite passion and wonder for this bit of history. The exhibits are a marvel and seeing the possessions gives you a small glimpse into what life aboard one of these ships may have entailed. The ship itself is something else. On the one hand it is a sizeable vessel but in comparison to modern ships feels surprisingly small. It may have been diminutive but no less formidable for it. The cannon display was fantastic with the kids being able to get involved and again added amazement as to how it all would have worked on board. Life as a sailer/soldier would have been very tough indeed. There is so much information here that you could easily while away hours losing yourself in rich tapestry of history. While younger kids will tire of walking around at some point, older kids and adults will love what is on offer.

We stayed approximately 4 hours in this museum. It was really amazing to see all the artifacts. We took the one attraction ticket for the Mary Rose as I had seen the Victory a long time ago. I see you can buy an all year ticket and I would have bought that if I would still live in the UK. I would recommend you take a day for each attraction. We would have stayed longer if I had discovered the multi storey car park before. The great thing about this museum is they have experts there explaining things. I think that made it more interesting for the children. You could also try a long bow. WOW.

This was my second visit, I absolutely love this museum. I have an obsession with the Tudor period, plus I do remember watching the Mary Rose being lifted from the sea back in 1982. On see the Mary Rose in the flesh so to speak is absolutely awe inspiring, she is magnificent. We are very lucky to be able to view this fantastic piece of history. Other artefact’s that were also excavated from the sea bed are equally amazing and on display throughout the various levels of the museum. The only downside was on entering the museum we had to wait with a large group of strangers for a pre- museum show. Would be better if this was optional as this sort of thing is not for me. I did not enjoy being crammed into a corridor with a group of people. My first visit a few years ago we could just enter the museum. Apart from this I would highly recommend a visit, the preservation work that has been undertaken is outstanding.

It was quite an informative and entertaining visit, learning all about what might have caused the ship to sink so quickly with so much loss of life - only 35 survived.

Also, the focus was on how the ship was found, then raised, salvaged and preserved. The ship and the people who lived and worked on board was brought to life by the digital reenactments - it was amazing.

After thirty odd years I finally made it to the museum. We both had a very interesting and beautiful visit. Lovely knowledgeable staff on hand to give background to the exhibits. Brilliant. Only way to describe the visit.

I recently visited The Mary Rose and had an incredible experience learning about the history of the ship and the people who sailed on it. The exhibition is incredibly well done and provides a wealth of information about the ship and its place in history. I particularly appreciated the interactive exhibits and the replica of the ship, which helped me to visualize what life would have been like on board.

One of the things that stood out to me during my visit was the amount of extra information that I was not aware of before. I had a lot of misconceptions about the ship and its sinking, but the exhibition helped me to understand the true history of the Mary Rose and the role it played in the Tudor navy. I was especially fascinated by the artifacts recovered from the ship and the stories they tell about the crew and their daily lives.

The staff were knowledgeable and friendly and were more than happy to answer any questions I had. The facilities were clean and well-maintained, and the museum is easily accessible by public transportation.

Overall, I had an excellent visit to The Mary Rose and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in naval history or Tudor history. It's a truly unique and fascinating glimpse into the past and I learned a lot that I was not aware of before. It's definitely a must-see if you're visiting Portsmouth