Ice Cream Screams & Sprinkles Dreams. The Overrated Museum of Ice Cream in NYC.

Don't you just love social media? A couple of weeks ago someone posted a picture swimming in a pool of what appeared to be sprinkles, I was utterly moved. Ice cream is probably my favorite food in the entire universe. If I had to eat one thing for the rest of my life it would be ice cream.

Me in Coney Island eating my fav, soft serve & sprinkles, of course.

Ice cream brings back beautiful memories. From being a kid and running outside when you heard the ice cream truck, to my grandfather buying me my favorite frozen Popsicles, to my mom driving through “La Vacita”- (my Miami peeps know what I’m talking about).

Ice cream was always that indulgent treat you gave yourself even though you knew too much of it was not good for your health or your waistline.

So when I saw that someone had actually created a museum devoted to ice cream and everything that comes with it, I knew I had to go.

I have to say it feels pretty cool to finally be living in the city where the majority of the things people are talking about in other parts of the world, take place.

I've had family members reach out to me about the rainbow bagel craze, I've had friends ask me if I've been to Levain for the famous chocolate chip cookie, and who hasn’t stood in line at Dominique Ansel for the chocolate chip cookie milk cup?

So when I had friends in Miami talking to me about the Museum of Ice Cream in NYC, I made it my mission to go.

I had a friend in town from Miami visiting one weekend and we decided to check it out. I knew you had to buy tickets in advance but given that they were sold out, I plotted for plan B. I assumed that on a Sunday morning, in the Meatpacking at 9 AM, we might be able to get in before the rush. Boy was I wrong.

Right across the street from the Whitney Museum there was a tremendous line of anxious museum ticket holders, who were patiently waiting for their turn to go in. The girl at the front was extremely politely, but very firmly made it clear that we would not be going in.

My heart broke. How could it be that the Museum of Ice Cream, taking place in New York City, was completely sold out and I would not be able to experience it?

As the diligent publicist I am, I didn’t take NO for an answer. I tried various methods. I reached out to media friends, reached out to fellow publicists, I even reached out directly to the museums organizers. There had to be a way that I could manage to snag an extra ticket.

I. Got. Nothing.

Alas, my persistence did pay off, as I continue to refresh the page every single day and unlike the Hamilton lottery, I got lucky. One day there were simply just tickets available. I quickly purchase two tickets for a time slot 3 weeks later.

On the day of my museum ticket, it was dreary. The weather was awful, it was raining, gloomy and I was also battling an awful cold, but I could not give up the opportunity to swim in a pool of sprinkles, something I always dreamed about as a child.

So I sucked it up, put on my best ice cream face and headed down to the museum with two of my pals.

Here's what I saw.

As you immediately walk in, you are greeted by overly cheerful ice cream lovers! You are instantly handed the flavor of the week and get to snap some fun pics!

What I loved about the exhibit is that it was so socially interactive, they wanted to make sure you were sharing all the fun on social media. There were iPads on the wall throughout the exhibit so that you could snap pictures and upload them instantly.

Here's mine. And I mean come on, who doesn't love a good GIF?

Once you move onto the next room you get to taste inflated sugar helium bubbles.

And take cute pictures on a wall covered in cones.

I'm not exaggerating when I say: Ice Cream, literally lights up my life.

I need these lighting fixtures, ASAP!

Next, you move on to an exhibit featuring ice cream scoopers. Here you got a little bit of background information on the first scooper ever created and examples of how scoopers have evolved over the years. Yes people, an exhibit on ice cream scoopers.

And of course, you can't move on to the next room, without learning some cool facts about ice cream. Like, did you know the world’s largest cone is 10 feet tall? And, even more shocking, my favorite treat, ice cream, originated in China in 1000 B.C.?

And, I guess they missed this part in history class: Did you know our first president George Washington loved ice cream so much that he ate $200 worth of ice cream every summer? That's about the equivalent of $5,000 today. My kinda man.

You also get to contribute your own scoop of building the world's largest ice cream sundae, out of Play dough. Leave your scoop.

Now what I didn't like about the museum is that you were not free to move about it at your own pace. You were assigned a group and you could not move to the next room until you were told you could. I assume they did this for crowd control, but I still felt the museum to be very crowded anyway- and annoyed that I could not move about it at my own pace.

The next room you enter, is the chocolate chamber. And, side note- let me just say what a great job these guys did in getting top brands to pay for placement.

Dove was the chocolate sponsor of the museum and as you walk into the chocolate room there is a chocolate themed bed, fudge all over the room and tons of dark chocolate Dove hearts for you to take home. Lots of chocolate! A Willy Wonka lovers dream!

Moving onto the next room was what I waited for all my life, the pool of sprinkles!

The only thing that would have made this cooler, is if you could actually EAT the sprinkles. But I guess that would have been a health violation, right?

I jumped (not dove) right in! People were eager to get their sprinkle pool selfie, and so was I. But, what disappointed me the most about this is that the time inside the sprinkles pool was extremely limited.

And they take the time limit very seriously. I was trying to get the perfect boomerang when I heard the girl yell at me “You have 20 seconds left in the sprinkles pool”. Seriously girl, I'm just trying to get my Instagram post perfected here, OK?

Once you exit the sprinkles pool which is also sponsored by Dylan's Candy and has a variety of toppings at your disposal, including one of my all-time favorites, snowcaps, you get to the good stuff- the Ice Cream!

Now comes the pill popping! Pill popping you ask? Yes, I mean these super cute “Miracle Berry” pills, confuse the hell out of your taste buds. Basically the pill makes your taste buds think sour foods are sweet.

While you wait for the pill to dissolve there are some cute exhibits on the wall including my favorite this awesome Canon rebel camera that was covered in crystals and ice cream decor. I wonder how I could get this done to mine?!

Once the pill has dissolved in your mouth you request your ice cream and voilà the wall spins to reveal an ice cream cone.

Your cone is revealed with two lemon wedges and you think- lemon? Eeew. But the pairing of the lemon, after the pill, gives the lemon a super sweet taste and your taste buds burst with flavor once you savor the vanilla!

While you enjoy your ice cream on the way out, you walk into a little gift shop with cute souvenirs like ice cream necklaces, ice cream cone earrings and my personal favorite the ice cream cone iPhone case.

You can also wait to take photo opps on an ice cream sandwich swing, play on the scooper-themed seesaw or take a picture on the sprinkles LOVE wall.

Overall, it was kind of a huge letdown. Sure everything I just described sounds like a good time but once you actually get there, the museum itself is extremely tiny. You're in very tight quarters and the fact that you're not free to move around at your own pace.

Here are a few more snaps from my visit.

Anyway childhood dream fulfilled, swam in a pool of sprinkles and learned about my favorite treat.

The Museum of Ice Cream is open for one more week. If you've been lucky enough to score tickets, good luck- it will make for great social media pictures. If not don't worry you're not missing much.

At the end of the day, I did it for the gram.