Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum - Wembley, Alberta

Jacquie DuVal

I had the BEST time at the Philip J. Currie dinosaur museum today in Grande Prairie. It was a slow day for them at the museum, so I got a private gallery and lab tour, as well as one on one time with the museum's reptiles, Peanut the snake and Mack the Tortoise. The staff (Aidan and Erika) were incredibly knowledgeable, and you could tell they were extremely passionate about their jobs. I learned so much today and found it all fascinating!

If you get a chance to visit GP, I'd highly recommend the museum. It certainly was a highlight of my time here!

Ar Be

Pros: amazing exhibits, reasonable price, attached restaurant has great food and service at great prices, the playground is amazing (better for slightly older kids like 5 and up, but good for everyone), well stocked gift shop

Cons: some of the extra tech for exhibits didn't work very well or wasn't really necessary- nothing that took away from the experience though.

This place is truly amazing. It's hard to find a place where everyone is really patient and friendly, all the staff we interacted with left a positive impact.
The exhibits are beautiful, the murals and background sounds in the main area give it such great atmosphere. It's got such a great mix of enjoyable visuals, and informational reading and videos.
Some of the extras are a bit gimmicky, like the VR viewers, don't really add much to the experience imo, and the touch screens on the upper floor that let you assemble dinosaur skeletons were not very responsive or forgiving so our kids weren't very interested.
But the exhibits themselves were so well done, our oldest was more excited than I've ever seen her running around in here taking it all in.
The sand pit where they could excavate fossils was a blast for them.
Washrooms were all clean and tidy and highly functional.
Some older comments mentioned it being too oil and gas centric, but after visiting I can't find any merit to those criticisms. There's a small corner on the bottom floor devoted to some extremely neutral information on the materials and industry, which I thought was perfectly reasonable given how a lot of the local specimens are uncovered and how intertwined the community is with that industry. I never felt like it was propaganda- there were no obvious presented pros and cons, just total neutrality as it should be.

Spent the entire day here and would do so often if we lived closer, don't be fooled by some of the negative nit-picky comments- this place is a must stop if you're in the area.

Lindsay Wennerström

My office was in Wembley and I loved spending my lunch hour here. They have a really cute cafe for lunch and it was a welcomed destressor from hectic days. At one point I even thought about graduate school with Dr. Currie as a supervisor, but alas he was not taking on any students at the time.

Blair Norton

What a gem, lived in Alberta all my life and didn't that the west side if the province in this area is home to some fossils. This museum is new within the last 10 years and highly recommended for those that enjoy fossils or are into dinosaurs.

Zoe MacKenzie

The kids had so much fun and the space was just awesome.
The play ground in the back was also greatly enjoyed and provided a great place for the kids to run off some energy.

SHANNON RICHARDS

The river raft trip was amazing. The guide, Gabby, was very knowledgeable. Our paddler, Carter, was charming and full of entertaining stories. I highly recommend this day trip. Great for any age.

Madison Doglio

Absolutely beautiful space and very cool displays. The palaeontology room was so awesome and it was cool to watch people work. The only downsides were that it was so small, and not all the interactive displays were working! But it’s a stunning building inside and out!

GiantSnail

Several well-preserved fossils, some fun interactive displays, and a gift shop with crocheted dinosaurs! Very nice and modern on the inside.