Terrific museum - Took the directors tour in the morning on the 4th. The tour was amazing. The staff was great and knowledgeable. I learned a lot and had a great time! It was fun learning about the lives of real Pirates and seeing actual artifacts from the ships.

A Must See During Your Salem Visit! - A hidden treasure right in the middle of Salem, MA! So close to everything. This is a must see museum. Make it a priority when visiting Salem. Regardless of your age or where you are from, you will get something out of it. The story of the shipwrecked Whydah Gally is a fascinating one. It's wild that it went down off Cape Cod back in 1717, only to be discovered in 1984. The museum flows well, is interactive, and managed by the best staff in the industry.

Excellent - great tour!! spent about 3 hours there. the staff was great! very friendly. a lot of interesting history. Would definitely recommend checking it out.

Bringing history to life - We experienced Real Pirates Salem with our Scout Troop and families. Carolyn welcomed us into her museum and gave us a fantastic experience. Yes, you can do the museum on your own. But, Carolyn brought the story behind the actual artifacts to life, engaging the Scouts and the adults in the experience. Some really cool stuff at the end with the concretions and stuff they're working on. Our trip created lasting memories for our Scouts and families. Look forward to going back and seeing what else they have learned from the Whydah.

A pirates life, short byt nice - Absolutely excellent. Captain Johny Depps is the best. It was informative, entertaining, sad and fun. I was delightfully surprised by how good it was!

Great Experience - This collection of a real pirate shipwreck and its artifacts is so cool and beautifully displayed. The best part is the people who work here - all are so passionate and so friendly - we got so much more than just a museum tour! Definitely recommend and would go back.

Mind blowing experience! - As a pirate buff, I had a blast! Learned a few things I didn’t know, AND was able to touch several pieces of 8! Amazing! But to me the highlight of the tour was when our guide opened the container housing the concrete like material which once covered one of the cannon recovered from the shipwreck Whydah. You could clearly smell the wood and gunpowder! Talk about bringing history alive!! A+ Do t miss this one folks!

Fabulous guided directors tour from Bill Golden! - My spouse and I had the pleasure of attending the directors tour with Bill. He is very knowledgeable on the history of the ship Whydah, artifacts, and of those persons involved during that time. After Bill completed his tour, my husband and I started from the beginning and took time to read all the information and take pictures. This tour was a nice break from everything else we did and saw in Salem. Highly recommend this tour for others. If you are on the fence, just do it! Thanks Bill!

A lovely chance to experience a different side to Salem's history - A really fantastic museum and a nice change to hear about this part of Salems history too. I'd suggest buying tickets direct as we brought through trip advisor expecting the directors tour booked but it was only the standard entry. They were very good and sorted us out.

Skip this tour - Instead of just buying tickets to the museum, I bought the guided tour because I thought it would be more interesting for my grandchildren, age 11 and 14 . It was awful. The guide was dressed in pirate costume, but he spoke low, and in a monotone, and was just not interesting at all. He basically read what I could read on the wall from the exhibit. The kids were bored after about five minutes and wandered off. We left early.