Dustin M. R.
Yelp
Our second destination (Day 1, Venue 2) for our Western New York family vacation was the prodigiously named Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park. Having read previous Yelp reviews, I thought I was prepared for the parking situation, but I still had to circle the block once to find a spot that would hopefully not get me ticketed and/or towed. Figuring out where to buy admission tickets was the next challenge, which was apparently a pretty common occurrence, as the family ahead of us at the first ship was turned back because they missed the fact that you had to buy your tickets inside the lobby of the restaurant-looking mini-museum building.
If you are not familiar with the Park, it has three sections: a free outside area, the three warships, and a mini-museum on the floor above the Liberty Hound restaurant. The free area was a somewhat cramped-feeling open-air museum with various Cold War-era fighter aircraft, a US Army tank, a Vietnam-era armoured personnel carrier, and a Vietnam-era fast patrol boat that the Park said was Trumpy-class, but Wikipedia amusingly described as actually being Nasty-class. Regardless, the centerpieces of the Park were the three United States Navy warships: USS Croaker, USS The Sullivans, and USS Little Rock. At 311ft long, USS Croaker was the smallest of the three; a Gate-class submarine that served six war patrols during World War II. At 376ft long, the middle-child of the Park was USS Sullivans, a Fletcher-class destroyer which served during both WWII and the Korean War. The big momma of the Park, at 608ft of length, was USS Little Rock. Originally serving as a Cleveland-class gun cruiser right after WWII, she was rebuilt as a Galveston-class guided missile cruiser during the Cold War.
Things we liked about the naval park included the attention to the small details on the self-guided ship tours. Other museum ships might display the galley with a few props like pots and pans on the stove, and dishes on the counter, but USS Little Rock's galley was fully stocked, with bags of (fake) potatoes piled up in the corner, bags of limes hanging from the wall, and canned goods on the counters. Likewise USS Croaker's crew mess was stocked with (fake) fresh fruit, coffee cups ready to be filled, and a half-smoked cigar resting in the ashtray. We also loved the era-specific museum spaces; with wall-to-wall carpeting and expansive glass display cases, you almost forgot that you were in a 78 year old warship in the Buffalo River, rather than a brick-and-mortar institution on the land!
Our dislikes of the Park were all operational. As others have noted, parking is neither easy nor straightforward. Also, getting tickets to tour the warships was only simple if you knew were to go, so it seemed like there should have been a lot more signage saying exactly that. Our final complaint may be a minor quibble, but if USS The Sullivans was closed for touring due to (completely understandable) maintenance and repairs, but the vessel was 33% of the warships on display, then why did the Park still charge visitors full-price? Other museums we have visited in the past partially reduced their admission prices when a major portion of their exhibits was offline. Just sayin`.
Overall, our family very much enjoyed the half-day we spent at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, and would definitely return if in the area.
