Museum of Ice Cream | San Francisco , CA
When photos of the Museum of Ice Cream started popping up on the social media sphere I wanted to join in myself. My boyfriend had tried to surprise me tickets to Color Factory but they had sold out before he had a chance to finalize the order. One of my coworkers was buying tickets and told me right when they were available to buy so I was able to snag some tickets before they quickly sold out. I pushed our date out a few months so hopefully the hype would die down and wouldn't be as busy. I thought I'd give a mini review on my experience via blog post so any of you out there would be able to decide if you wanted to do it for yourself if the opportunity ever arose. Overall I really feel like this is an art event solely "for the gram" - so if you're really trying to go for history, this is not the one for you lol. There are cherries, clouds, rainbows, unicorns, gummy bears, disco ball rooms, rock climbing walls, and more - if you're not into all the girly ish, don't go. Simple as that.
The entire museum is made of several themed rooms and you buy your tickets based off of time groups. They try and have everyone go in as a group so you can move through the rooms together. Our group was maybe 15-20 people so it wasn't too large but it also wasn't small enough to have empty space to take as many photos. My friend had gone at the beginning when they opened up and she said they were pretty strict on the time spent in each room. When we went they weren't too strict on any of the rooms although they did kindly suggest that people move on to the next room. There was only one time restraint room and that was the sprinkle pool - but more on that later. One thing I'd definitely recommend is going with a friend or a group of friends so you can take photos for each other. There was one individual in our group that was by themselves and they had to ask others to take a photo for them. It wasn't too big of an issue since the time restraint wasn't too strict, but if it was you'd be disrupting others' time when they also paid to enjoy an event.
I had read a few reviews that complained about ice cream not being free or having to pay for the ice cream. I was kind of disappointed when I heard that as I assumed that some of it was free and at the end there was the option to buy some. But while we were there I was pleasantly surprised that we did get some free ice cream - the best of the best being an It's-It strawberry ice cream sandwich. As strawberry is my fav flavor, I was over the moon. There were also mochi ice cream (halves) and these mini ice cream cones - all were pretty good considering. If you're lactose intolerant, definitely come prepared and take a pill beforehand! In addition to ice cream, there's also cotton candy sprinkled with iridescent glitter.
I do think that one of the longest lines had to be the one to go into this mirrored disco ball room. It's like a tiny little room shack that actually gets quite warm. I think someone before us went in with some heavy cologne and the whole room smelled soooo strong. The line did build up pretty long for this one so someone did have to come out to suggest that people only take 3-4 photos or to skip if they weren't interested. There was a large group of older adults who did pass on this room so that did help alleviate things. I did however think the mirrored room had the coolest photos so I definitely do not recommend skipping this room!
The last room is the sprinkle pool - probably the most notorious photo from the museum. This one had a time limit of 2.5 minutes (it goes by very fast) and I can see how it gets stressful to get your perfect shot. I was slightly annoyed that there were 2 workers walking around continuously sweeping sprinkles back into the pool because they're in every. single. one. of. my. photos. -__- The sprinkles aren't real so they won't be gross and sticky. You will, however, find sprinkles all over you afterwards. There was a "wash off" room which had little air hoses to spray any residual sprinkles off. I found a ton in my pocket and even after we got home - my boyfriend kept finding sprinkles all over the couch.
After the sprinkle pool is basically the end of the museum! There are three swing sets - two singles and one duo - which are pretty fun for photos and boomerangs! These do tend to have long lines but just be patient! There's a little ice cream shot (pricey), a ping pong table, and a gift shop! I ended up snagging two pins to place on my ever-growing collection on my backpack.
Overall it was a fun event! It's a bit pricey for what it is but I loved how cute all the rooms were. And all the photos that I got from it were so much fun and I can't wait to post them up on my IG eventually. It'll definitely be full of pink dreams and unlike what my feed typically looks like. Have you ever been to any of these gimmicky 'For the Gram' type events? What do you think about them?