5 /5 GR well: This place was way more impressive than I was expecting. To be honest, I had just heard it was a nice place to go and my parents were in town.
The mansion is beautiful, if you like that sort of thing. My parents and kids enjoyed it - it is only the first floor, so it does not take very long. I had a friend compare it to Vizcaya in Miami and the similarities and differences were one of the most interesting parts to me, having been to Vizcaya multiple times.
But we did not give ourselves enough for this entire Ringling Museum experience. The glass exhibit going on currently was beautiful, and then in the circus museum, we spent so much time looking at the very impressive miniatures, that it was suddenly closing time!
This was obviously our fault - we arrived around 1, and had lunch at the restaurant, which was very good (multiple vegetarian options, my party of 6 is half vegetarian), and could never have seen it all by 5. We didnt even get to step foot in the art museum.
So it seems like we will have to come back, we (2 seniors, 1 adult, and 3 kids ages 10-14) all had a great time.
The playground is also nice - we were able to stay on that after closing for awhile (the slide is fun for adults too!).