No school Wednesday: veterans get into Battleship Cove free, and the zoo and Whaling Museum stay open

SOUTH COAST Veterans and active duty service members with ID get into Battleship Cove free on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, while the Buttonwood Park Zoo and the New Bedford Whaling Museum keep their regular hours.

All 26 South Coast public school districts and charter schools in our November school calendar are closed that day, so many families have a weekday with children home. Below are museums, a zoo and trails with Wednesday hours, with what each charges and the discounts each offers veterans and military families, followed by two places that are closed.

How we chose

Every place here is a museum, zoo or nature site on the South Coast or close by that posts its hours and prices on its own website. Hours, prices and discounts appear only as each place posts them, and where a place posts its regular Wednesday hours but no Veterans Day schedule, we say so. No place paid to be included, and because holiday plans can change, it is worth calling ahead before you go.

Battleship Cove, Fall River

"Join us at Battleship Cove as we honor all of those who served," the museum at 5 Water St. says in its Veterans Day listing, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and says active duty members and veterans with ID will receive free admission. Its fall hours, which run through Dec. 7, are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week, and the museum stops admitting visitors onto the ships an hour and a half before closing, so the last admission onto the ships Wednesday is 2:30 p.m. The museum takes calls at 508-678-1100 for anyone checking ahead.

For everyone else, general admission is $25 for adults, $23 for seniors 65 and older and $15 for children 4 to 12, and children 3 and under get in free. The usual price for active military and veterans with ID is $16. A general ticket also covers the Maritime Museum, though that building's posted fall and winter schedule lists Friday through Sunday, Monday holidays and school vacation weeks, and a Wednesday holiday is not on it.

Buttonwood Park Zoo, New Bedford

The zoo at 425 Hawthorn St. is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closes only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is $13 for adults 13 to 61, $11 for seniors 62 and older and for high school or college students, and $9 for children 3 to 12. New Bedford residents with a current city address on their ID pay $7.50 for adults, $6 for seniors and students and $4.50 for children, and children under 3 get in free.

Parking is free, and the Bear's Den Cafe is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The carousel and train take $3 tokens, and the zoo says the rides cannot run when the temperature is below 45 degrees.

For children 6 to 10, the zoo runs its Innovation Staycation on Veterans Day. The morning session, Wild Creations, mixes crafts with art and science, and the afternoon session, That Tracks!, teaches animal tracks through games and crafts, with an animal ambassador encounter in each. Sessions run from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 4 p.m., a half day costs $35, or $30 for zoo members, and families sign up through the zoo's online ticket site. Children staying the full day sign up for both sessions and bring a lunch to eat at noon before a half hour of recess, the zoo says.

New Bedford Whaling Museum

The museum on Johnny Cake Hill is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closes only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is $24 for adults, $22 for seniors 65 and older and $14 for youth, and active duty military members and children under 3 get in free.

Retired military members get 10% off, New Bedford residents get half off, and people with an EBT, WIC, ConnectorCare or Wonderfund card pay $3 each for up to six people through the state's Card to Culture program, the museum says. Its entrance is temporarily through the Museum Store while the plaza is renovated, and because the William Street intersection at Johnny Cake Hill and Bethel Street is closed, there is no parking on Johnny Cake Hill.

Fort Taber, New Bedford

The Fort Taber-Fort Rodman Military Museum and Veterans Memorial, at 1000C S. Rodney French Blvd., went back to its regular schedule of Wednesday through Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m., on Sept. 30. With no separate Veterans Day hours posted, its regular Wednesday afternoon hours stand, and parking at Fort Taber Park is free until April 2027, the museum says.

Children's Museum of Greater Fall River

The museum at 441 N. Main St. lists September to June hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and posts no holiday schedule, so families can call 508-672-0033 to confirm Wednesday. General admission is $10, and infants younger than 12 months are free. Active duty members and veterans get 20% off general admission for everyone in their group, admission drops to $5 after 3 p.m. on weekdays, and EBT cardholders pay $3 a person for up to four people.

Trails in Dartmouth

The Lloyd Center for the Environment's main building at 430 Potomska Road is closed while construction goes on, but the center says its walking trails are free and open to the public from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year.

Taunton and Plymouth

In Taunton, the Old Colony History Museum at 66 Church Green, 508-822-1622, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and has posted no Veterans Day change.

Plimoth Patuxet Museums in Plymouth is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 29. A ticket to the Historic Patuxet Homesite, the 17th-Century English Village and the Craft Center costs $35 for adults, $31.50 for seniors and $20 for children. Mayflower II alone costs $19, $17.10 and $13 for the same three groups, and a two-day Heritage Pass that adds Mayflower II and the Plimoth Grist Mill is $46, $41.40 and $29. The museum lists no veterans or military price for any of them.

Closed on a Wednesday

The Fall River Historical Society's museum and archive are closed for a major infrastructure project and will reopen in spring 2027, the society says. The New Bedford Art Museum posts hours of Thursday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which leave out Wednesdays.

Parades and ceremonies in each town, along with town offices, trash pickup and other services that close or shift for the holiday, are in our Veterans Day guide.

Later in the week

Four days after Veterans Day, on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m., the Fort Taber-Fort Rodman Military Museum's speaker series hosts William Comeau, a New Bedford native and Vietnam veteran who served with the 4th Infantry Division in 1966 and 1967.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.