Photo: Via @amnh.Admit it: You were secretly jealous of Ben Stiller in A Night at the Museum. Elementary school field trips (and our childhood imaginations) instilled in us a curiosity about what happens when all the visitors trickle out, security guards finish their rounds, and the dinosaurs are left all alone. The American Museum of Natural History hosts sleepovers for patrons between the ages of six and 13, so they can discover this for themselves, and parade around the dioramas and displays after hours. Children have all the fun. Well, now it's our turn.
The AMNH announced Tuesday it will debut an adult version of the popular program on August 1. The sleepover "for grown-ups" — and you know it's for grown-ups because it says it on the poster, in big, colorful font under a drawing of the museum's iconic blue whale — features a more sophisticated program, with presentations by curators and a midnight screening of the "Dark Universe" space show. Oh, and there's booze.
So, instead of having unsupervised children running around the exhibits at night, you'll have drunk adults running around the exhibits at night. But, the event isn't about debauchery: The opening Champagne toast will be accompanied by a jazz band; Neil deGrasse Tyson will narrate you back to sobriety; and there will be snacks. Evening and breakfast snacks. The great equalizer of the children and adult sleepovers hovers overhead: Everyone gets to sleep under the big, blue whale.
Before you start packing your overnight bag (or fantasizing about the snack situation), you can consult the AMNH website for more details. Tickets are $375 a pop, and are sure to disappear fast. Did we mention you get to sleep under the whale?