USS KIDD Veterans Museum

There is a whole Museum to explore before boarding the ship itself. Lots of replicas and great stories to read. The ship itself is extremely well laid out and marked for a self guided pamphlet tour. Excellent find.

Awesome museum in the shores of the Mississippi! Really awesome museum and attached tour of the USS Kidd. The ship tour is the highlight of the museum and really illustrate how difficult life on a WW2 warship must have been.

Side aside 3 or so hours to really get everything possible out of the museum and self guided ship tour.

This museum and ship are amazing! Reasonable admission price. Limited parking in front, the nearest lot is more than a block away.

The ship is dry docked, but the walkway to it is paved and not covered, so be aware of that on hot days. The ship is not handicap accessible at all. Keep in mind, young and healthy people worked on this ship, so narrow walk ways and steep narrow stairs inside. No air conditioning inside the ship.

Inside the museum is amazing. It is air conditioned. Great displays, well laid out and maintained. Employees are friendly. Prices in the gift shop are reasonable. I would recommend the museum for everyone and the ship for those who are in good shape.

Visitors Beware: if you park in front of the museum, you better teleport into the museum. Otherwise, an old supervisor man named Todd will come running outside screaming at you "YOU CAN'T PARK HERE" until you explain to him that you're just trying to take a picture of the plane that's outside of the museum really quick before heading in.

Anyways, this museum is really nice and the ship tour is pretty neat, too. My younger brother loves these military type things, so I'm glad I saw this place while we made a stop at Baton Rouge on our road trip. The tour of the USS KIDD was very interesting, but if you have trouble with steep ladders, it's probably not the best place to go. My brothers and I all hurt ourselves due to not being careful; my brothers hit their heads while climbing the ladders into the ship and I smacked my shin on the raised portion of a whole in the wall that you walk thru.
Thank you to all the nice gentlemen at the museum who helped us on our little visit.
Again: Beware of Todd the Supervisor.

We came on a relatively cool but sunny day. The staff were very friendly, especially the man on the ship. It was fun to explore this type of battle ship, which is so different from the USS Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego.

I really enjoyed this museum. There are lots of really cool displays both inside and out. It helps give you a much greater appreciation for the sacrifices made during the Second World War. The parking does kind of stink because the parking lot in front of the museum can get blocked off by a train so if you park there you might end up getting stuck.

If you have a local library card, you can get in for free! And this place is well worth the visit. The ship is smaller compared to some others but still a lot to see. Be careful of steep and narrow stairs. They have a volunteer onsite if you have any questions. Ask a librarian and you can get a family pass that's good for one week.

I visited this museum a week ago for the second time with the first being about a decade ago. The museum has a building where tickets are purchased that includes two levels of scale model ships and other informational exhibits to look at along with the customary gift shop. Free parking is limited to the street next to the museum building and only has a few spaces. Outside of the building is a memorial to Lousianaians lost in wars, static aircraft and a climbable tower reaching an observation platform that overlooks the River and downtown Baton Rouge.

A walkway that goes over the levee from the museum to the Kidd allows for a short walk to the star attraction. Onboard, you are greeted by a docent that gives you instructions on what to do and not to do while onboard along with a map for the self guided tour. The tour includes the main deck, bridge area and a deck below. Total time for a walk through is about 30-45 minutes. I found the ship to be in decent shape overall and reflected what life was like living on a "tin can" during the War. There are a few stairs to navigate so take your time and watch your head and use the handrails as the stairs are typical Navy 'steep'. Kidd is a Fletcher class destroyer and what makes them unique are their 5 single barrel 5" turrets giving them that different looking silhouette from other WW II US Navy ships. Another different visual with this ship is the cradle that holds it upright and is designed to raise and lower the Kidd with the changing Mississippi River levels. Pretty cool.

Visiting this museum is an interesting and worthwhile effort.

The arrangement is a bit confusing: a museum building rests on the street, and the second level has a walkway to the top of the levee above, where you walk a bit to the ship. You can't buy tickets at the ship, so even if you walked on the levee to get here, you have to head down to the building. The museum had some interesting local war stories and was worth checking out, but was also a bit of a mess due to renovations and the bathrooms weren't particularly clean. But you're not here for the museum.

The ship itself I was really impressed by. Unlike a battleship or an aircraft carrier, a destroyer is something you can really walk through in its entirety and wrap your head around. It is nonetheless quite an impressive ship. While you're admonished not to open closed doors or push any buttons (I assume so you don't rain hellfire on LSU by accident), there is definitely enough of the ship open, visible, and in decent condition given its age that you get an experience. The self-guided tour works pretty well, though I would be happy to hear some information as well. The history and the design of it are quite interesting, and a memorial sits back near the museum as a reminder that there are good reasons we build ships like this.

Important to note that you'll want to be there well before closing to give yourself some time, and also that walking around the destroyer requires climbing a lot of cramped stairs. I took them slowly, but unfortunately, I suspect people with mobility limitations (including many of our veterans) may struggle to get around. Something to consider before you go.

I really enjoyed the USS Kidd and views of the Mississippi River. The destroyer was relatively small. It took 30 minutes to finish my self guided tour. I met Cameron who was a World War 2 buff. We talked about the Pacific War. He is a knowledgeable person. If you visit here, please speak to him. I heard that a Kamikaze hit the ship in Okinawa on April 11th, 1945. I was from Japan. I was glad to visit here after the war. The ship retired and rested in the Missippi River. I want many people to visit the ship and learn history. Peace!