The most coveted place to spend a night this weekend wasn’t a swank Tribeca hotel or a Hamptons estate, but the American Museum of Natural History, where 175 people ate, drank, watched an outer space show and finally collapsed on a cot under the giant blue whale.
“I don’t usually sleep well in public, but the whale was a soothing presence,” said Kathryn Duque, 25, from Queens.
“Maybe they should install whales on airplanes to help people sleep.”
Kids have been having sleepovers at the museum since 2006, but Friday night was the first time the big kids got a chance. Needless to say, there was a little more alcohol, and a little less following of the rules.
“It’s always been aimed at children,” explained Brad Harris, visitor services director at the museum. “Now we’ve taken the program and geared it toward adults and added a few glasses of wine.”
The freedom to roam through the dinosaur bones and meteorites didn’t come cheap, as attendees paid $375 each for the privilege of hanging at the AMNH after hours. Tickets were completely sold out.
For the money, each guest got a green folding cot on the floor of the Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life. The set-up looked a little like a Red Cross shelter after a disaster, but guests said it was well worth the hefty ticket price.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to be alone in the exhibit hallways,” said Mango Chin, 32, from Queens. “There’s no hotel in New York that could provide this kind of experience.”
True enough, unless that hotel happened to bring in experts to give lectures on how to poison a spouse and to host live animal demonstrations with golden eagles flapping about.
Most of the museum’s 45 exhibition halls were open for exploration during the first part of the night. Even after the lights went out at 1:30 a.m., some intrepid explorers managed to sidestep the ropes and stroll among the Neanderthals and totem poles until the wee hours of the morning.
Since the museum only served wine with dinner, more than a few explorers came armed with hip flasks of their own.
The 7 a.m. wake-up call proved to be the most painful part of the sleepover experience. To rouse the crowd, museum staff activated the cacophony of recorded animal noises in the Hall of Ocean Life.
Peaceful slumber gave way to the cries of whales and the barks of walruses.
Yet even with the rude awakening, the crowd seemed ready to come back and do it all again.
“New York City is Neverland,” said Dr. Mark Siddall, curator of the AMNH’s Division of Invertebrate Zoology.
“No one here ever grows up, and on one is ever too old to spend a night at the museum.”
