portsmouth naval shipyard museum

Visited on 12-30-14. Enjoyed my visit and was very entertained. Museum was cramped and seemed somewhat dated though. Would love to see a bigger gift shop as well. Still, would recommend though.

My husband and I made a day tip to Portsmouth while vacationing in Virginia Beach. It is quite small but very informative. It is really geared towards adults. Lots of pictures and reading involved. I think the under 20 crowd would find it boring. We spent about 2 hours going through the history of the Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. It was a pleasant afternoon. I was disappointed the Lightship itself was closed to go on. If you do not like to walk; don't go to Portsmouth. Parking seems very limited. We parked near the Visitor's Center and the Naval Museum was about a 2 block walk and there was no signs to lead our way. We could have spent hours walking around looking for sights that were at least 10 to 15 blocks from each other. After leaving the museum we headed back to Virginia Beach.

We stayed at The Governor Dinwiddie Hotel & Suites, very comfortable, and you are provided free parking. The Hotel is in a great location, there are restaurants and bars within minutes from the hotel front door. The Cancun Fiesta Mexican Restaurant and Sports Bar are downstairs from the hotel, to your right from the hotel front door, great food and very friendly attentive staff. Across the street from the hotel is the Commodore Theater (go to their website to get information about an evening at the movies). A German restaurant is across the street, from the Commodore, next door is the Blue Waters Seafood and Grill, and across from them is a Burger joint. A convenience store is to the left of the hotel around the corner and more restaurants down the street, and antique stores.Visited the children Museum, The Colored Community Library Museum, The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and quite a few other interesting sites. We got the Portsmouth map which made it very easy to find the locations. Olde Town Historic District is very interesting, there are also lots of historic churches. My friends and I had a great time visiting Portsmouth.

While walking around Portsmouth, we decided to stop in. It cost $3.50 for the 2 of us, and it was well worth it. Lots of Information on the early days of Portsmouth. Great displays. Well worth a stop.

This was our first time visiting the Naval Shipyard Museum after visiting the area on vacation for many years. My Dad had the idea to visit and it was so much fun. We were thrilled to see the USS Wisconsin here and took lots of great pictures. There's a lot to see. What I'd thought might be maybe an hour could easily be a very interesting and informative 3 or 4 hours that never gets dull nor boring. There's a nice gift shop as well in the museum. There's even a Koi pond that kids and adults can enjoy feeding the huge Koi bread. We had some Oyster crackers and the Koi loved that.

It's an "OK" museum, the type to see once in your life if your a resident of the area. I wouldn't go back. Not exciting for young kids, butane for adults.

We went to see the U.S.S Wisconsin beacause my dad was in the navy and wanted to show us a piece of his life so long ago. I thought the ship was amazing. The tour of the ship was self guided but there were workers on board to answer some questions. We were lucky that my father was with us so we had an amazing tour guide. The areas for visitors to go were well marked and they did provide a map so you didn't get lost. Also they did have a couple station set up so you could buy water since it gets very hot out on deck(it was 95 the day we went) I found the ship and museum very interesting and rich in our countries history

We visited this museum so that we could also see the Lightship Portsmouth and I could get my lighthouse passport stamp. The museum is small and well maintained. The displays are easy to follow chronologically starting during colonial times through WW2, primarily.The museum staff were friendly and helpful.It is a short walk down to the lightship which you can also tour.

friendly and knowledgeable staff, excellent picture opp, great to be able to go back in time, very close to wharf so easy to get to.

We saw this small but informative museum just a few hours before we caught a flight out of Norfolk. It had very professional displays of naval history. Spent about 45 minutes there. Posted price seemed high, but the man at the entrance gave us a discount, perhaps because we had limited time to see it.

Worked here for over 35 years and lived around it all my life. Tons of naval and local history all wrapped up in one location. Well worth the vist for whatever the reason. Learn the fascinating world of ship dry docking and the rich WWI and WWII history. This place is staffed by those who know through their own years of working at the yard. Come out and enjoy and learn.

I worked at NNSY for over ten years but I learned about NNSY so much by visiting this museum. The layout of the shipyard was very realistic and proved a birds' eye view of the places where I walked to each working day. I would highly recommend this museum for a vist. The staff was very friendly, professional and eager to answer all of my quesions.

Not an enormous museum, but jammed with artifacts and copy to explain the history and importance of Portsmouth as the first major naval shipyard and port of the US. Particular attention to the USS Delaware. Lots of little-known facts about dry-docking and ship building, with many stunning models.

Lots of exhibits from as far back as the civil war to modern day. The Shipyard is over 240 years old and has much history with it.

My wife, brothers and I were looking for something to kill time on our visit to Norfolk. The Navy and Shipyards there are pretty impressive. We went to the Portsmouth Shipyard Museum and the entry was $2.00 each. (Great). We took the better part od 1-1/2 hours to look at all the historical models, art, tools and stories of the shipping history from early settler times to to the present. We were all entertained and left with comments on how much we enjoyed our visit there. Small children may not keep their attention for long, but that is the same in all museums. Recommended.