Jaunted

The exhibit opened in February and is still drawing huge crowds, which is gratifying -- but having purchased a timed ticket, we assumed we'd be able to lovingly coo over every shabti and royal headdress. Instead, the areas around each display case were six people deep, at least. (To the small girl behind us asking, "Whazzat? Whazzat? Whazzat?" for each artifact? We feel the same way.) Was it poor organization, or just a ploy to pack in as many possible people to recoup National Geographic's and the exhibit's costs? We suspected the latter.

And we're not the only ones, either: A commenter on TripAdvisor described the scene as "so many mobs of people packed into these rooms, impatient to see what they paid too much for"; another asks, along with us, "Why have a time viewing if you are just going to let hundreds in at one time?" Especially when many of those are audio-tour zombies, totally ignorant of their surroundings (including the artifacts they were standing right next to).  

We paid over $30 a head, plus transportation, for a stressful and rushed experience. Is this really what we waited 30 years for? We'll think twice before splurging on a major exhibit like this one again. Good thing we've already seen "Bodies."

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[Photo: chrisinphilly]