Gettysburg National Military Park

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CLOSED NOW - Opens at 8:00am

Everywhere you look you are reminded of the battle that took place here and internal strife that threatened to divide our nation. Unfortunately, we were not able to see the battlefield reenactment which would have been a true delight.

WARNING! DON'T GO IN APRIL OR MAY! I drove over 2 hrs to see Gettysburg while on vacation near Philly. What a waste! It was early May, and the place was swarming with unsupervised, obnoxious kids on school field trips. I paid $8 to tour the visitor center/museum, and couldn't see or enjoy any of it - elementary school kids from several schools were running full speed, boys banging their chests at each other, girls dancing in front of glass displays, kids jumping on bench tops where people could then not watch the informative videos, etc etc etc - these were the worst kids I've ever seen, and I put my self through grad school as a substitute teacher in an urban school system. They were all over the gift shop, too, under foot, in the way, and making obnoxious noises. I complained to one of the employees who apologized and said they, too, all dread April and May when the school kids come. He said typically the "chaperones" just turn the kids loose and don't care that they're disturbing other visitors. I overhead 3 women say, "Let's just get out of here," and an older couple complain to a worker, who tried to corral a couple of the brats with little or no success. I saw another employee tell teenaged boys on a field trip to stop popping some toys they'd bought, as they were being annoying with all the noise they were making. The boys walked away sneering over their shoulders, and popped the toys again, looking at the employee defiantly. Another employee told me they get as many as 60 buses a day during April - May, and it's the worst time to be there because of that. Out of curiosity, on my way out, I counted 18 tour buses in the parking lot. Total disappointment, totally ruined day and experience. Total waste of a tank of gas and $8 admission. Totally disgusted that no school staff supervised any of those kids or corrected the bad behaviors.