Vancouver Aquarium ~ A Diamond In The Middle Of An Emerald!
Written: Sep 11 '08 (Updated Sep 11 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent Aquarium, Great Exhibits
Cons: Crowds & Price
The Bottom Line: The Vancouver Aquarium is a great place to go for the day if your in Vancouver, especially you have children in tow.
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| susieq112's Full Review: Vancouver Aquarium, BC |
I’m still reeling from my summer vacation which ran from mid-May to mid-June, but I’m finally pulling together the pieces and trying to document everything so I’ll never forget. Not since my trip to Hawaii have I been so far away from home, but it has been just as many years since I took a month long vacation. With all that time away, we found ourselves in Vancouver, British Columbia for a few days before our Inside Passage Cruise to Alaska, but we surely didn’t see a lot of Vancouver unfortunately. The only thing we did get ample experience with was Stanley Park and the famous Vancouver Aquarium, in fact we spent a whole day there.
Getting There As A Tourist
We stayed on East Hastings at the Holiday Inn Express Vancouver. As a first time tourist I managed to meander my way from the US/Canadian border to our hotel without too many delays and no accurate maps and I also managed to make my way to Stanley Park without any mishaps or wrong turns. The bottom line is that Vancouver, even with its size, isn’t terribly complicated to navigate.
To make things easier there is only one road that goes through Stanley Park at that is route 99. The most important thing to note is that the main thoroughfare, 1, runs right into 99 north of the park, so if your already on 1 its probably best to go North of Vancouver and drop down to Stanley Park going South.
If your traveling from the South you can easily jump on 99 by crossing the border on Interstate 5.
If your already in the greater Vancouver area simply follow the traffic to the downtown area, trust me all roads lead to downtown and if they don’t a nearby one will. Once in the downtown area work your way to the North and you’ll simply run into 99.
Where Is The Aquarium?
Once in Stanley Park simply follow the signs that say ’Aquarium’ and when you find a parking lot, park and start a small trek. Our walk took us about 5 minutes from where we parked and all of the paths were concrete. Beware that you will have to pay for parking and if I recall right we spent about 5 to 7 dollars (CAN) for that parking.
Admissions
The admission took me by surprise. I live north of St. Louis so I’m accustomed to the ways of Forrest Park there. We don’t have an aquarium but we do have a history and art museum and a large zoo, all of which are free.
So, this place isn’t free and the admission is somewhat steep. Adult admission is 24.95, Senior/Youth/Student is 19.95 and children (4-12) is 16.95 (all CAN), children up to 3 are free.
For those in close proximity to the park, or those that plan to make multiple trips to the aquarium in one year, they do offer yearly memberships which would make the cost of the aquarium sensible for those who visit on a regular or semi-regular basis.
Inside The Aquarium
The Vancouver Aquarium actually consists of inside areas and outside areas. By far I remember the outside area more. Here they had quite a few areas. One pool contained 2 beluga whales. This was located right next to the café in the aquarium, so we watched the whales swim around as we ate lunch. You could also see the beluga whales from below also. Here they had a huge wall in the side of the aquarium so everyone could watch them swim. While we were there they had one female and one male.
Next to the beluga whales where stellar sea lions. This area was partially closed off during our visit, so we didn’t really get to see the sea lions.
They have a nice setup for sea otters. We spent quite a while watching one eat as it floated belly-side up in the water. There tank also featured “peep” windows into their pool, so you could seem them under the water.
Another large pool contained a number of dolphins.
By far the most interesting part of the aquarium for me was the large tanks within the main building. Here they had large and small tanks set-up and each tank represented a different part of the sea life in this area of the country. Each tank featured a number of sea creatures, star fish and so on. The tanks gave a good insight to what was in the water in the surrounding area and it was extremely impressive to see the vibrant colors and crazy things that grow in the beds of the inlets, straits and so forth. It was also interesting to note the vast differences between each place.
My second favorite area of the aquarium was the jelly fish exhibits. Aside from seeing a few tiny jelly fish on the beaches in Florida a number of years ago I had never really seen these critters in action. The exhibits in the Vancouver Aquarium are brilliant and extremely interesting. In this area of the aquarium they showcase the jellyfish in their own aquariums, with brilliant blue backgrounds, so you can take in all of the fine details. This aquarium didn’t represent any extremely large jelly fish, but none the less it was an extremely interesting exhibit.
Around the corner from this area you would find what I’m sure my son would label his favorite part, which is a kids section. Here the young ones can play in an hollowed aquarium which included tons of starfish and other reef animals. The other side included an area where children could nurse/take care of stuffed sea lions and another small section had a TV with informational programs on the aquariums inhabitants and some books. We spent well over an hour in this area and my 2 year old loved it.
The aquarium also has quite a few other exhibits and tanks, you’ll even find a small gathering of birds in one area.
Crowds
One thing that really stunned me about the aquarium was how busy it was. When we arrived at the aquarium there appeared to be a few school groups outside, but that alone didn’t account for the extreme amount of people within the aquarium on the day we visited.
While the aquarium itself contains a number of exhibits they are actually compactly contained. In other words, this place isn’t extremely large and the crowds were compounded. To make matters worse it was loud and no one was using an “inside” voice so the entire time we were there it was amid overly loud adults and their overly loud children. This was definitely a distraction to the exhibits and while we would stand back from the tanks to look that often invited a gaggle of children to simply stand right in front of us. We visited the aquarium mid-day on a Friday so I’m unsure if there is a way to avoid these large crowds.
Gift Shops
The aquarium had one large gift shop with smaller shops/stands scattered throughout. Americans may want to keep in mind that this is Canada and the prices are substantially higher than ours. This comes as a double whammy to American tourists whose American dollar is weak at the moment. We browsed the shops and I picked up a $3 (CAN) magnet as a memento to add to my refrigerator.
As far as the products within the gift shops they were your normal run of the mill items. Most of the items are targeted towards children and include small toys, stuffed animals and t-shirts.
Overall I found the Vancouver Aquarium to be an excellent place for a visit and an educational pit-stop during our vacation. The Vancouver Aquarium is the first aquarium I’ve ever been too so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it definitely gets a thumbs up from me. By far the only downfalls where the price and the crowds…
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
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Procrastination ~ At this rate, I'll never finish my mini-doumentary...
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