My husband and I took our 3.5 year old son and our 11 month old daughter to the Children's Museum of Phoenix for the first time this past weekend and we were very impressed. I agree with previous posts that it is ridiculous that children under 2 have to pay full price since there is reay only one room age appropriate for children under 3 (or at least 1 room they will not get run over in by older children). However, I liked the under 3 room a lot. This room was quite large and had a variety of activities for the younger kids to do. I especially liked how peaceful this room was compared to the rest of the museum...I felt sane in here.
As for the rest of the museum, my 3 year old LOVED it. He spent plenty of time in each room and was never disappointed when it was time to move to the next. The did not find the large climbing sculpture to be a death hazard as one reviewer posted previously. I also found the staff to be extremely friendly and did not hear any of them raise their voices or be rude to any of the children. I believe my sons favorite rooms were the supermarket, the kitchen and the fort room (everything you need to make the perfect fort).
My only negative experience from the day was dealing with other people's children. In particular, some of the older children whose parents are not paying any attention. You know the one's I am talking about. They run the smaller children over, hog all the balls...the kids you want to discipline since their parents are so clueless. BUT that is not the fault of the museum so I do not hold it against them.
Although I found the membership costs to be super expensive, we decided to get one since I think we will be back enough to make it worth while.