Walt Disney Family Museum
Walt Disney Family Museum
4.5
Thursday
10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
About
Pre-purchased, timed tickets are required for entry. Located in the scenic Presidio of San Francisco, The Walt Disney Family Museum is one of the Bay Area’s most inspirational venues, welcoming visitors to an historic building that reveals 40,000 square feet of imagination. Find animation, innovation, inspiration and immerse yourself in the remarkable life story of Walt Disney—the man who raised animation to an art, tirelessly pursued innovation, and created a distinctly American legacy, transforming the entertainment world! The museum presents contemporary interactive galleries and state-of-the-art exhibits which are narrated in Walt’s own voice, and features early drawings, cartoons, movies, music, listening stations, more than 200 video screens, and a spectacular model of Disneyland. Come experience the life story of the man behind the magic.
Duration: 2-3 hours
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from £19.98
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Neighbourhood: Presidio
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- WikumjBromley, United Kingdom317 contributionsFascinating museum, must for movie fansOne of the best museums of our California trip. Easy to miss but not to be overlooked - a fantastic place for any fans of Disney or movies in general. Really interesting to learn about Walt from his childhood through to the birth of animation, Disney motion pictures and theme parks. Even has the original drawing of 'Mickey' mouse that Walt drew during a train ride. It's surprisingly large and you could easily spend 2-3 hours here. I would say more for adult movie fans than children although older kids may enjoy it.Visited May 2023Travelled as a coupleWritten 18 June 2023
- Don'tWaitForRetirementCalifornia4,974 contributionsThe amount of information is overwhelmingThis is a quality, thorough and interesting museum, however we experienced INFORMATION OVERLOAD! There is a LOT of reading and after a while we were like 'how much more?!!' Despite finding the story about Walt's life and how Disneyland came to be interesting, I started to feel delirious and skipped bits after about three quarters of the way through. A couple of interesting aspects that stood out were a model of Walt's apartment, an early model of Disneyland and samples of paint colors that are used. (Do not however, hover your camera/phone above the Disneyland model as you will be told off by a staff member!) The museum is housed in a lovely brick building with a cafe and a gift shop. Staff are dressed in formal red and black uniforms and are polite, just like you'd expect at any Disney experience. We purchased our timed ticket on-line before our San Francisco trip and arrived at the museum a few minutes early by ride share. Due to the timed ticket, the galleries weren't too busy. I would suggest going early in the day since there's so much to digest. I would not recommend this museum for children younger than 12, due to the sheer amount of detailed reading and information. I can't fault the museum, but I can't really say I overly enjoyed the experience since there was so much to take in. I feel it could be greatly simplified. If you found this review useful, please click the thank/like.Visited August 2022Travelled as a coupleWritten 3 July 2023
- jeffrey kNeedham, Massachusetts587 contributionsreally interestingThe name says 'family', but this is not really a family museum, where you will bring children. Currently, the museum is in two parts, and the one relating to Disney animals could be of interest to some children. They had some activities, such as coloring a prepared drawing that might keep a kid happy. Children might react to the various Disney animal characters they have seen in movies or on the TV. But....this is really an adult museum in two parts. The animals are familiar to almost everyone, and the points of interest are how they portrayed the characters and how they animated them. The main museum is a totally comprehensive analysis of the Disney family, focusing on its origins, on Walt, and on the accomplishments of Walt, his relations, the studio, and others. There are some 15 exhibition rooms, not counting the space devoted to the animals. We allocated around 3 hrs total, and we had to cut our visit short. Likely we could have spent 5 hrs overall, given the huge amount of material. Also, this is a museum that relates what Disney and his studio did to society at large. Some painful issues were developed (the strike in the early 50's, the studio's relationship to the HUAC) more than others (almost nothing abut Song of the South). You come away from this experience realizing that Disney was the right person in the right place at the right time to make and to take advantage of some of the best technology of the 20th century and, in some senses, to shape our society as a whole. One comes away amazed at just how much the Disney 'system' has affected our lives.Visited September 2023Travelled with friendsWritten 13 September 2023
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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4.5
2,835 reviews
Excellent
1,975
Very good
671
Average
154
Poor
26
Terrible
9
Ohiocoupletravels
West Chester, OH58 contributions
Always a Disney fan, I loved the history of how Walt & Roy got things going and how his vision was fulfilled in films & amusement parks.
Written 11 March 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kimberly W
239 contributions
Visited here recently with my sister. Found the museum very interesting and enjoyed seeing all the drafts and original drawings of Walt’s work. Enjoyed particularly hearring about the working of Snow White as I love that film.
A very nostalgic place and a nice clean spacious museum.
Would recommend! (This was included with the city pass).
A very nostalgic place and a nice clean spacious museum.
Would recommend! (This was included with the city pass).
Written 23 February 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Leah-Anne
United Kingdom122 contributions
Feb 2024 • Friends
The museum is very in depth on Walt’s life and interesting, I really recommend visiting if you’re a Disney fan. Was cool to see drawings from the 1930s of the character developments etc
Written 23 February 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Analu Sante
San Diego, CA31 contributions
Mar 2023 • Couples
Attention all Disney fans! You absolutely have to visit this museum! Prepare to be amazed by the incredible attention to detail and stunning beauty that awaits you. Trust me, it's an experience you won't forget!
Written 14 February 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
focusport22
178 contributions
Dec 2023 • Couples
This is a great museum on the life of Walt Disney and his family. They also have the train that was in Walt’s backyard.
They touch upon the different decades and show a lot of things that people may not know about.
They touch upon the different decades and show a lot of things that people may not know about.
Written 27 December 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ciro V
Mexico City, Mexico5 contributions
Dec 2023 • Family
Amazing place that tells the story of Walt Disney life, vision and legacy
Worth every penny
Arriving by bus is a good option
Worth every penny
Arriving by bus is a good option
Written 17 December 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
P&K USA
Durham, NC317 contributions
Aug 2023 • Couples
Being such big Disney fans, we couldn’t not visit The Walt Disney Family Museum on Montgomery Street, when on our 13 mile walk around San Francisco on August 10th 2023.
It was card payments only, so we paid the $50 general admission for two adults on our card.
We spent a leisurely 2 hours inside the museum, exploring the galleries. It wasn’t too busy so we were able to see and read all the displays we wanted to without feeling pressured.
The museum was very thorough, charting Walt Disney’s life and success, and it was was full of some very exclusive and rare items.
One gallery had a wall filled with 348 frames of animation from Steamboat Willie (the first Mickey Mouse cartoon with sound from 1928), primarily the work of artist Ub Iwerks, and representing around 15 seconds of footage. Shockingly impressive!
We also got to see/enjoy:
- The Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Academy Award and seven accompanying miniature awards;
- The earliest known drawings of Mickey Mouse (graphite on paper), Minnie Mouse and Oswald the Rabbit;
- Early artwork by a young Walt Disney;
- Film cells, posters and rare artefacts from Walt’s life;
- Original Mickey Mouse merchandise;
- The Lilly Belle Train from Walt’s garden railroad at his Holmby Hills home;
- The revolutionary Multiplane Camera;
- The original model of Fantasyland Castle by Fred Joerger, 1953;
But the pièce de résistance was waiting for us towards to end of the trail and that was the enormous and detailed Disneyland Model. We spent a good while scrutinising it and comparing it to our recollections from our very recent visit to Disneyland in Anaheim a week or so earlier.
The last gallery was called ‘Walt’s Legacy’ and of course covered his death in 1966. By this point you were so agog with admiration for Walt’s achievements that it was upsetting to read about his death and the worldwide reactions.
As always, you exit into the gift shop. It was very expensive and sadly this restricted us on what we bought there. It was pricier than the gift shops in Disneyland, but we managed to pick up a reproduction retro Mickey Mouse soft toy for only $27+tax.
As we continued the rest of our lengthy walk around San Francisco, with the next stop being the fog-cloaked Golden Gate Bridge, the cumbersome boxed Mickey Mouse collectible came with us. We had to hold on tightly in the wind!
The Walt Disney Family Museum was a pricey visit, but if you’re a serious fan of Walt Disney then it is a must-visit destination when in San Francisco.
It was card payments only, so we paid the $50 general admission for two adults on our card.
We spent a leisurely 2 hours inside the museum, exploring the galleries. It wasn’t too busy so we were able to see and read all the displays we wanted to without feeling pressured.
The museum was very thorough, charting Walt Disney’s life and success, and it was was full of some very exclusive and rare items.
One gallery had a wall filled with 348 frames of animation from Steamboat Willie (the first Mickey Mouse cartoon with sound from 1928), primarily the work of artist Ub Iwerks, and representing around 15 seconds of footage. Shockingly impressive!
We also got to see/enjoy:
- The Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Academy Award and seven accompanying miniature awards;
- The earliest known drawings of Mickey Mouse (graphite on paper), Minnie Mouse and Oswald the Rabbit;
- Early artwork by a young Walt Disney;
- Film cells, posters and rare artefacts from Walt’s life;
- Original Mickey Mouse merchandise;
- The Lilly Belle Train from Walt’s garden railroad at his Holmby Hills home;
- The revolutionary Multiplane Camera;
- The original model of Fantasyland Castle by Fred Joerger, 1953;
But the pièce de résistance was waiting for us towards to end of the trail and that was the enormous and detailed Disneyland Model. We spent a good while scrutinising it and comparing it to our recollections from our very recent visit to Disneyland in Anaheim a week or so earlier.
The last gallery was called ‘Walt’s Legacy’ and of course covered his death in 1966. By this point you were so agog with admiration for Walt’s achievements that it was upsetting to read about his death and the worldwide reactions.
As always, you exit into the gift shop. It was very expensive and sadly this restricted us on what we bought there. It was pricier than the gift shops in Disneyland, but we managed to pick up a reproduction retro Mickey Mouse soft toy for only $27+tax.
As we continued the rest of our lengthy walk around San Francisco, with the next stop being the fog-cloaked Golden Gate Bridge, the cumbersome boxed Mickey Mouse collectible came with us. We had to hold on tightly in the wind!
The Walt Disney Family Museum was a pricey visit, but if you’re a serious fan of Walt Disney then it is a must-visit destination when in San Francisco.
Written 10 December 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Liv S
Leicester4 contributions
Aug 2023 • Family
This museum is very boring and we are Disney fanatics! We love museums and we love Disney, but this was just not it. It was also not near any of the touristy things we planned to do and took an Uber to get there only to find that the information is fairly basic and totally uninteresting. The small museum At Hollywood studios covers more stuff than this. It was just not for us, especially given the location. Bonus travel tip, the presidio is nothing special from a tourism perspective. I could see how you would want to live by it, but there’s no need to make a separate stop here.
Written 18 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Rich B
Foster City8 contributions
Sept 2023 • Family
Loved to learn about Walt. Interesting to know about the creation of animation and the history of the Disney characters
Written 16 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
jeffrey k
Needham, MA587 contributions
Sept 2023 • Friends
The name says 'family', but this is not really a family museum, where you will bring children. Currently, the museum is in two parts, and the one relating to Disney animals could be of interest to some children. They had some activities, such as coloring a prepared drawing that might keep a kid happy. Children might react to the various Disney animal characters they have seen in movies or on the TV.
But....this is really an adult museum in two parts. The animals are familiar to almost everyone, and the points of interest are how they portrayed the characters and how they animated them. The main museum is a totally comprehensive analysis of the Disney family, focusing on its origins, on Walt, and on the accomplishments of Walt, his relations, the studio, and others. There are some 15 exhibition rooms, not counting the space devoted to the animals. We allocated around 3 hrs total, and we had to cut our visit short. Likely we could have spent 5 hrs overall, given the huge amount of material.
Also, this is a museum that relates what Disney and his studio did to society at large. Some painful issues were developed (the strike in the early 50's, the studio's relationship to the HUAC) more than others (almost nothing abut Song of the South). You come away from this experience realizing that Disney was the right person in the right place at the right time to make and to take advantage of some of the best technology of the 20th century and, in some senses, to shape our society as a whole. One comes away amazed at just how much the Disney 'system' has affected our lives.
But....this is really an adult museum in two parts. The animals are familiar to almost everyone, and the points of interest are how they portrayed the characters and how they animated them. The main museum is a totally comprehensive analysis of the Disney family, focusing on its origins, on Walt, and on the accomplishments of Walt, his relations, the studio, and others. There are some 15 exhibition rooms, not counting the space devoted to the animals. We allocated around 3 hrs total, and we had to cut our visit short. Likely we could have spent 5 hrs overall, given the huge amount of material.
Also, this is a museum that relates what Disney and his studio did to society at large. Some painful issues were developed (the strike in the early 50's, the studio's relationship to the HUAC) more than others (almost nothing abut Song of the South). You come away from this experience realizing that Disney was the right person in the right place at the right time to make and to take advantage of some of the best technology of the 20th century and, in some senses, to shape our society as a whole. One comes away amazed at just how much the Disney 'system' has affected our lives.
Written 13 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
dglvtotrvl
San Jose, CA11 contributions
Is this museum good for little kids, ages 5 and 6.
LuckyPierre_11
Laval, Canada156 contributions
I agree with the others . It is best with older children and adults. Not related to Disney Corp.
Eva L
Fontanil-Cornillon, France4 contributions
Bonjour, faut il réserver les billets avant ou nous pouvons les prendre directement sur place ? Merci d'avance
sigagam
Mexico City, Mexico6 contributions
Hola, sabes si hay que reservar las entradas?, nos preocupa comprar el city pass y no poder entrar!
fejoso f
Tlaquepaque, Mexico68 contributions
Sirve el city pass o también comprar las entradas ahà mismo, no es una atracción de multitudes es demasiado tranquilo y agradable
Marta R
Windermere, FL
Can anyone recommend the nearest, safest, cleanest , FAMILY FRIENDLY HOTEL to the Walt disney family museum ?? PLEASE THANK YOU TRAVELING IN AUGUST 2018!
Stephen D
Newark, Delaware USA678 contributions
Stay at any chain hotel in the Fisherman's Wharf, Embarcadero , Financial district. There is a free express shuttle bus to the Presidio that drops you off at the visitor center, about 100 yards from the museum. See this link>> presidio.gov/transportation/presidigo.
Also note that although it is named the Disney Family Museum it is not a "family" museum per se. Rather, it is a museum on Walt Disney's family. It is all reading exhibits and pictures of how Walt (and Roy) built the Disney brand largely from the viewpoint of his daughter Diane. I loved it, I don't recommend it for children, especially if they can't read.
Mel
Lincolnshire, UK314 contributions
Is there a discount for a disabled Adult ticket ?
MarshaS0321
San Jose, CA17 contributions
I don't recall specifically but they do have elevators to all levels as I also have physical disabilities.
heatneal04
Jacksonville, FL
What is the average time it takes to go through the museum?
MCPOOlympia
OLYMPIA36 contributions
You could easily spend three hours in the museum. It's Walt Disney's life history and what a life is was.
heatneal04
Jacksonville, FL
What is the average time it takes to go through the museum?
cyrinay
Salinas, CA277 contributions
I’ve only been there once, and we took about 2 hours.
kristin b
Erie, CO2 contributions
Is the gift shop separate or do you have to go through the museum?
It's separate from the museum and you don't need a ticket to enter. It's next to the small cafe near the lobby and front entrance. The gift shop is very friendly and fun to browse in. It's worth a look if you love Disney things. There is an excellent variety of items at different price points.
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Claim your listingWALT DISNEY FAMILY MUSEUM: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)
Frequently Asked Questions about Walt Disney Family Museum
- Walt Disney Family Museum admission prices can vary. Entrance tickets currently cost £19.76, while a popular guided tour starts around £43.48 per person.
- According to Tripadvisor travellers, these are the best ways to experience Walt Disney Family Museum:
- The Walt Disney Family Museum Admission Ticket in San Francisco (From £19.76)
- Go City: San Francisco Explorer Pass - Choose 2, 3, 4 or 5 Attractions (From £54.55)
- San Francisco CityPASS® (From £68.78)
- Go City: San Francisco All-Inclusive Pass with 25+ Attractions (From £70.36)
- Guided Bike tour across the Golden Gate Bridge (From £43.48)
- Hotels near Walt Disney Family Museum:
- (0.03 mi) Lodge at the Presidio
- (0.29 mi) Inn at the Presidio
- (1.05 mi) Hotel Drisco Pacific Heights
- (1.27 mi) Union Street Inn
- (0.68 mi) Travelodge by Wyndham Presidio San Francisco
- Restaurants near Walt Disney Family Museum:
- (0.01 mi) The Walt Disney Family Museum Cafe
- (0.06 mi) Presidio Pop Up
- (0.11 mi) Dalida Mediterranean Restaurant.
- (0.26 mi) Colibri Mexican Bistro
- (0.36 mi) Cafe RX
- Attractions near Walt Disney Family Museum:
- (0.10 mi) Presidio of San Francisco
- (0.14 mi) Sports Basement Outdoors
- (0.10 mi) Presidio Tunnel Tops
- (0.08 mi) Main Parade Ground
- (0.08 mi) Share Chairs