This is a cute little aquarium. It's not big, but the quality is pretty high. I personally liked this MORE than the aquarium in New Orleans! They have dolphins, otters, beavers, and more! This aquarium offers daily shows and programs with the animals (the dolphin show was awesome!) which are already included with admission. They have a stingray touch pool too, if you wanted to pet a ray! I think the $30 (if you purchase your tickets online a day ahead) admission price is a little high, but still fair since it's a decent aquarium for the area!
The cool thing is that this aquarium offers different "encounters" and "experiences". They have a dolphin and a penguin one where you get to meet, pet, and feed them. I wasn't too interested in those, but the one that did interest me was the "SeaTrek Encounter". It was a very unique experience!! I definitely recommend it if you've never tried it before!
The "SeaTrek Encounter" is an experience where they provide you with a wet suit, shoes, gloves, and a helmet that continually pumps in oxygen, so you can breathe underwater while you're wearing it. You put it all on and descend a ladder about 10 feet down into the main fish tank (yes, the one with the sharks, rays, fish, and sea turtles!) You just have to be able to climb up and down a ladder, so no swimming required. You stand on a platform and see the fish swim around you. They give you food to feed the fish and you just enjoy your time underwater. Because of the helmet, you just breathe normally the whole time and your head stays dry. You get 15 minutes underwater after the last person of your group makes it down to the platform. Depending on the size of your group, you may get to stay down there for much longer if there are more people and they take their time going up/down the ladder. If you want to stay down there for longer, you should volunteer to be the first person down! I loved this so much and wished my group was bigger, so I could stay a bit longer!
Some things that might be of concern to someone who hasn't done this before: The helmet feels a little claustrophobic at first when you put it on above the water, but once your head is below the water, you can see out from it much easier and that feeling goes away. My biggest concern was about not being able to pop my ears. I usually have trouble with pressure in my ears descending in an airplane (my ears hurt!), so I had some trouble with the helmet and descending/ascending the ladder here too, which is to be expected. It's a little hard to pop your ears; however, they teach you how to encourage your ears to pop (which is difficult for me due to narrow Eustachian tubes in my ears), and there is a diver with you the whole time making sure you're okay. I found that if you take your time popping your ears a little bit at a time for each rung of the ladder, you'll be able to get your ears to a comfortable place and you can enjoy the experience without pain. I was worried about my ears, but it was totally fine once I took it slow! If you've never done it before, it might be intimidating, but it was so amazing, it's worth taking the plunge!
The "SeaTrek Encounter" is expensive at $90 per person, but to be fair, it also includes general admission, so you get to enjoy the aquarium on top of this special experience. It's like paying $60 for the experience by itself, which in my mind, was definitely worth it! I don't think I could ever scuba dive, but this was a super fun taste of what it's like to be underwater with ocean creatures in a safe and comfortable environment! read more