UPPER WEST SIDE — While Ben Stiller may not be there, but you can come closer to creating your own "Night at the Museum" at a series of adult-only sleepovers at the American Museum of Natural History.
On Saturday, the museum is inviting adults to spend a night roaming its halls and mingling before unfurling their sleeping bags under a 94-foot-long whale in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life.
The sleepover — open only to adults who are 21 or older — kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with champagne and a jazz trio in the museum's Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall.
Guests are then free to wander the halls and rooms, experiencing dinosaur skeletons and mastodon without the din of school groups or the crush of tourists.
Participants looking for a more structured experience navigating the large museum can join a fossil scavenger hunt or watch a live animal presentation.
Wildlife handler Andrew Simmons leads the show and typically brings an owl, eagle, alligator, python, and a Canadian lynx kitten, which is similar to a bobcat, according to a museum spokeswoman.
The museum supplies sleeping cots, as well as dinner and a light breakfast. Though alcohol is not allowed and there's no bar at the museum, the dinner does include wine, a museum spokeswoman said.
Special current exhibits that usually cost extra, like "Life at the Limits" and "Nature's Fury," are open to sleepover guests for free, the spokeswoman said.
The night — which goes for $350 or $300 for members — wraps up at 9 a.m. with a light breakfast.
Tickets are still available for the Aug. 1 sleepover, which will host 200 people in all, as well as for the additional sleepovers planned for Oct. 2 and Dec. 19.
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