Free MoMA, Met and Intrepid Tickets With a Library Card
Three of the city's busiest museums sit inside the Culture Pass network, and a full-service library card gets you in without paying desk prices. December dates open at midnight on Nov 1, all three museums close on Dec 25, and every visit has to be booked on its own.
🗺️ Three museums, three bookings
🎨 MoMA on West 53rd
Adults pay $30 at MoMA, and Culture Pass entry costs nothing, for however many people the museum lists on your reservation page. Booking runs through culturepass.nyc: Reserve a Pass, pick NYPL, Brooklyn or Queens, sign in with the card number and PIN, then choose a date. Only cardholders 13 and over with a regular full-service card qualify; e-cards, Welcome Cards and NYPL virtual cards do not. One card holds four active reservations, and one pass per museum each calendar year. The fifth-floor collection galleries are the reason to come. Confirm the date is really open before you build a day around it, then print the pass shortly before you arrive.
🏛️ The Met on Fifth Avenue
At The Met, adults pay $30, and New York State residents plus New York, New Jersey and Connecticut students pay what they wish. Culture Pass is a separate channel that covers the entry listed when you reserve, and a card can use one pass per museum each calendar year. The Great Hall and the Temple of Dendur fill an afternoon. The cardholder has to arrive in person with valid ID matching the pass name, and passes do not transfer.
🚢 Intrepid at Pier 86
Intrepid tickets run $38 for adults, and its Library Culture Pass covers up to two people. Reserve the pass online at culturepass.nyc first, then collect admission tickets at the box office window on Pier 86 with the pass and photo ID. The flight deck is the reason to go, with aircraft parked under open sky, plus the space shuttle Enterprise and the submarine Growler. Once you print or download the pass the reservation cannot be cancelled, and a pass you never use still uses up that museum for the year.
