I’m posting the pictures today, and will be back in the next couple of days to write up my actual thoughts on my family’s visit to the Answers in Genesis Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky. I’ve captioned the pictures, so you can get a sense of my thoughts from that, but more details will follow in the review.
Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures!
Atheist protestors on the highway near the entrance. I wanted to get a better picture, but we were in a rush to get in to the ark.
Still scrambling to get things up and running on opening day.
Not a bad crowd at 10:00 AM. Didn’t see anyone coming in when we left at 4:00.
Cool buses to get you from the parking lot to the ark.
Yeah, you do have to be impressed by the size of the ark.
Some leftover logs on display.
Some serious craftsmanship.
The first hour was a line snaking through the base. Luckily, they had a video playing over and over.
The Noah Interview. I liked how all the actors who weren’t with Noah were so obviously BAD. Not much for nuance, this film.
Some models to help you pass the time in line.
A beautiful wood relief about Noah. Would love to have a copy.
Our first encounter with the passengers on the ark. Do they come alive after everyone leaves the ark at night?
Yep. That’s a pair of pterodacti. The AiG people claim that dinosaurs shared the ark with humans and other animals.
Like this cute furry guy. Pretty nice work on the animal models. Would be nice if they’d been animatronic, but the place already had a $150 million dollar price tag.
Some pretty amazing views. Again, great detail and craftsmanship.
Lots of long, empty passageways, though.
One of the displays. Again, animatronics would have helped.
Nice set building.
The entrance to the fairy tale room
The fairy tale room
Read this carefully.
A non-biblical warning in the fairy-tale room. Pretty ominous.
More empty space. One of the problems with building such a massive ark – it’s hard to fill!
Very unremarkable door, but it’s the door that the animals would have entered. Surprised there’s not more to it. Maybe in the future?
Not sure what the point of this was, slapped on the wall almost randomly near the door. Not so well planned out.
Again, another big long empty hall. This cost $40 a person, remember, guys?
The entrance to the display on the fall of humanity. Thought there’d be more to it than pictures and dioramas, but nope.
Painting display…
Painting display…
Painting display with giants…
Yes, giants…
Another empty area in the midst of the display. Seriously, guys?
Hunting triceratops. Someone needs to make a movie about this.
Tiny little risque dancers in the diorama.
Sacrificing a tiny little diarama baby to the creature from Dreamscape (obscure movie reference)
And in case anyone was wondering, yes, they show the deaths of the masses who missed the ark.
Aw, cute little guys will nip your finger off.
This is the “Spooky” room.
The Spooky room with flash. Actually, my three year old loved this display.
Snoozing dinosaurs. AiG was really pushing this.
More picture on the wall exhibitions.
And more, but this with a video.
A glance around. Again, amazing structure!
Did I mention that the ark itself is pretty spectacular?
More columns.
Get up to the third floor, and you get the Gospel presentation. Nicely laid out, but again, just in pictures. There’s so much more they could do with this!
An interesting third floor
Some very old Bibles on display. Pretty impressive, and there were several.
Some interesting displays about missionaries.
More pictures.
And more. There were lots of these sorts of arguments for AiG beliefs. It got tiresome.
Saying that you built something that rivals Disney means you have to also entertain, guys. This doesn’t do it.
Yeah, it was very important that we not cross that line. Not sure why.
More pictures.
More pictures. But this one was pretty funny.
So, it’s okay to take artistic license. Got that, Darren Aronofsky?
The living quarters on the third floor. Probably the best part of the ark, display-wise. But still, animatronics would have helped.
Living quarters. Fancier than I’d have imagined on the ark.
The kitchen.
Some racial diversity in fake people.
Noah releasing the raven.
Looking back over the living quarters.
More mugs than you can shake a shofar at.
Stuffed animals aplenty. But no groundhogs.
And of course, t-shirts. We Christians love our clever t-shirts.
In case you want to build your own ark, you can buy your own cubit measure.
Looking back over the gift shop. They brought in some shekels today!
The petting zoo. The animals choices were pretty sparce, but they’re apparently getting in more.
Shouldn’t they have only had pairs of each animal in the petting zoo?
The friendliest goat in the world. Either that or he wanted to eat my cell phone.
Couldn’t pet these guys.
The future home of camel riding.
The restaurant, where you can eat surrounded by all kinds of dead animals.
Them were some hungry Ark Encounterers.
The hardest working kitchen in Williamstown.
In case you want to plan ahead, here’s the menu.
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Am looking forward to your review.
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Still waiting……………
Still writing…. (the toughest review I’ve written so far)
Thanks, though!