The entrance to the park is located right off Interstate 10 directly east of Mobile, Alabama along the Mobile Bay.
There is a $5 entrance fee/parking fee to enter the park. There is an additional fee to enter the museum building and tour the USS Alabama battleship and the USS Drum submarine. If you don’t want to visit those you can still use the park with their picnic tables and water views and see various military equipment on display. There looked like plenty of room for RVs to park.
You could easily spend a few hours walking around the outside of the park viewing the different memorials and vehicles.
There are 2 buildings on the property, one is the gift shop and the other is the museum with the ticket booth and more displays of military equipment. Wristbands were distributed upon paying the entrance fee so you can come and go from the area during the day and wander around in the outside park area. We spent so much touring and having a blast on the battleship that we left and went outside to a picnic table and had lunch and then returned. It made for a nice break especially after ascending and descending the steps so many times in the battleship.
The USS Alabama is a South Dakota class battleship built by the US Navy in the 1930’s. The ship was very active in WWII and carried about 2,500 crew consisting of officers and enlisted men. She was commissioned in 1942 and decommissioned in 1947 and now has a permanent berth in Mobile, Alabama. Her history and wartime efforts earned her numerous citations especially with helping to take the Japanese held islands in the Pacific from 1943 to 1945.
The tour of the USS Alabama is a self guided tour and you can explore both the inside and the outside of the battleship on your own. We spent hours running all around the ship and had a great time.
The self guided tour was divided into color zones with numbers to help you not get lost. We certainly did a lot of climbing up and down and walking around. It was great to see and being able to explore on our own. Note to women – don’t wear a skirt and high heels if you plan on touring. We saw a number of women struggling! Dress appropriately as there are a number of ladders and steps to ascend and descend.
The USS Drum is a Gato class submarine that was commissioned in 1941 and decommissioned in 1946 and it now sits on land in Mobile, Alabama. She was the 12th Gato class submarine to be built but was the first to enter combat in WWII. She received 12 battle stars and is credited with sinking 15 ships. It is also a self guided tour and you can walk through and explore on your own.
The Memorial Park is well laid out and well organized and was extremely interesting. We were quite glad we spent the day exploring the ship, the submarine, the museum, and all the vehicles. It was great.
On the way home we stopped at Rouses Market (our favorite market) in Spanish Fort to do some shopping for some fresh Louisiana caught crawfish and shrimp along with some artichokes and corn. We love Rouses!
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