The entrance, cafe and shop are at the level of the entrance and is well spread out beneath the dome. The actual project/ museum goes below ground level. When arriving we were directed to the counter and served quickly with our Edinburgh passes. Other customers who pre-booked their tickets online seemed to take a lot longer in the queue. The project is an interactive way of showing visitors how the Earth was millions of years ago to how it has become in the present day. There are staff that guide you through the museum so its not difficult to navigate your way around and they introduce you into some of the main rooms that you enter. The conditions in the rooms change with the theme of the room.
For example, the room that is designed to educate visitors on the earths centre and volcanoes is dark, the floor moves replicating tremors and there is grey smoke when watching a volcano erupt.

One of the best sections of the dynamic earth is the 4d cinema experience of a simulated flight around the world. It combined 3D film with different things that stimulate your senses. Cold blasts of air, Soap suds blown out as snow and a sweet smell when flying over trees. It was fantastic and family friendly - nothing too scary for young children.

Before leaving there was a short film on in the planetarium about some of the different extreme weathers across the solar system. This was done by an allocated time slot given to you with your ticket as you enter. We arrived to the showing half an hour early so we must have walked through the museum more quickly than others take on average. We were still allowed to view the earlier showing so thankfully we didn't have to wait.
The chairs were comfy and leaned quite far back so that it is easy to watch the film on the dome shaped screen above your head. I watched about 50 % of the film partly because I was so comfy in a dark room that I fell asleep. This doesn't reflect on the film in any way, it wasn't extremely boring or anything it was quite good in the bits that I did see. The group of school children that were in at the same time absolutely loved the experience and were all giddy and excited throughout and on the way out.

Before leaving we decided to have refreshments at the cafe. Like in most museums the drinks and food were quite expensive. It didn't put us off but I would of preferred paying less for a drink. The cafe was set out really well with plenty of seats and tables not placed close together - easy to get round with trays, bags, prams etc.

This attraction was well worth visiting to make the most of the Edinburgh passes that we had bought from the tourist information. If you don't have a pass expect to spend £11.50 per adult and £7.50 for a child. The museum probably suits young families with children more so than maybe just two or a group of adults. I enjoyed it as an adult but it's really designed to educate children in a fun and less formal way. I hope this doesn't put couples off going because it is quite good but it is obviously aimed at a younger audience. If you were visiting I would leave 1 1/2 to 2 hours to walk around and check the last visiting times. I think last admission is an hour and a half before closing time. Another bonus is that it is close to the queens gallery (included in Edinburgh pass) and the House of Parliament (free admission).