How can a museum have an "exclusive" one-hour time slot for senior citizens along with two-hour general admission time slots?

We old folk have a difficult time lasting for 2 hours, so I assume that we would just get the highlights. Personally, I think I’d do my best to go for the 2 hour tour on another day just to see what I had missed with the 1 hour visit.

So it doesn’t slow the tour down and frustrate the general public. And gives the older folks time to relax and enjoy.

It’s not for a tour. It’s so seniors can visit at a less busy time. It doesn’t mean they have to leave after an hour; it means they can come in earlier.

They get forcibly removed on the hour with cattle prods.

After looking at your link it looks to me seniors can go early so there is more likely a smaller crowd and they can distance and will be less likely to catch an illness. They don’t have to leave after an hour, they just get an hour without all ages there and a head start in front of a larger crowd if the museum has a fairly natural path that most visitors take through the museum.

Probably also so the seniors don’t have to be trying to look at the art when little kids are there jumping around and school groups and camps are there, with hyper kids and babies and strollers and all that.

Museums aren’t the only places that have “seniors only” times. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I know some stores do that.

Walmart is one:

“Walmart’s weekly dedicated shopping time for seniors 60 and older and those most vulnerable to COVID-19 began in March 2020 when Walmart reduced its regular hours. The hour is from 6 to 7 a.m. Tuesdays and uses the honor system.”

I’m not sure how helpful that particular one is. Most seniors take a longer time in the morning to begin functioning at full speed – both brain-wise and physically. I don’t make any appts before 10 if I don’t have to. Oh! I think our zoo has special hours too, and I think movie theaters do.

Funny enough, a lot of the most vulnerable seniors I know take a while to get themselves out of the house, and very early hours would not be appealing to them. Even the seniors I know who are as spry as most 30 year olds don’t like doing anything outside of the house before 10:00am. They could do it for safety, but very early is difficult for a lot of people.

It’s not about the tour or that its an hour versus 2. It is a time slot dedicated to the elderly and immune compromised. It isolates the first hour for less chance of germ transfer and cross contamination.

I just called the museum and found out that the main feature of the seniors time slot is that fewer people are admitted than in the other time slots.

^^ Which is what we were saying.

It’s a timed audio-guided tour in a robotic wheelchair that ends up at the senior exit chute exactly 60 minutes after they strap you in.

It says right on the link for seniors and immunocompromised. That last part is the big clue that it is for safety.

Many museums also offer similar hours for “sensory sensitive” children/families (i.e., Autism, ADHD, etc.). They may dim some lights and have more hands-on activities. We’ve tried to participate in such things in the past, but sometimes they are at inconvenient hours or seem poorly thought out or executed (and other times are great!).