Wonder Works: Panama City Beach, Florida

One of the most exciting things we did on our last trip to Florida was visiting Wonder Works in Panama City Beach. It’s a giant children’s museum-science museum hybrid, but with a bit of whimsy!

The exterior of the building looks a bit wonky. The story is that Professor Wonder accidentally created a tornado in his laboratory. It lifted the museum and carried it to where it now stands, upside down! Of course, everything inside is upside down, too, but only at first. A special “inversion tunnel” rights everything before you go in too far!

Wonder Works Zones

The museum is divided into zones based on weather, space, art, light and sound, imagination, and physical challenges.

At the Weather Zone, you can explore freezing water, hurricane winds, and become a human lightning rod.

In the Space Zone, you can get in a replica of the space shuttle Mercury or drive the Mars rover.

The Wonder Art Gallery isn’t traditional; it’s full of illusions!

The Light & Sound Zone has “magic” screens that you can use to capture your moves while dancing and posing. There’s also a giant piano!

The Imagination Zone has a giant Lite Brite, plus floor projection games. You can also virtually paint and color.

We spent the majority of our time in the Physical Challenge Zone, which had a high ropes course, a bed of nails, pulleys that allowed you to lift yourself, and wonder walls (made of plastic pins).

The high ropes course was incredibly safe. The rope attached to a metal piece that followed a track along; you didn’t have to clip in and out at each station.

Only one of our kids could handle being up that high. Luckily she was the tall enough to participate. Several other attractions also had height restrictions (42″ and up).

The Physical Challenge Zone was also home to the bubble lab! We spent so much time here. It was fun, easy, and appealing to all ages.

Of course, at the end there was also a gift shop. (There’s always a gift shop.)

Toilet-shaped candy was one of the silly items sold there. My kids thought it was hilarious!

The Verdict

We loved it! This was years ago and my 10-year-old still asks when we are going back.

We spent about 4 hours at Wonder Works and were grateful we wore comfortable clothes and shoes. We’ll definitely return when everyone is a bit older (and taller) and can really take full advantage of the day there.

Maybe we’ll even try a different one next time?

Plan Your Visit

Wonder Works
9910 Front Beach Road
Panama City Beach, Florida 32407
website