great aquarium for a rainy day.
Written: Mar 12 '08 (Updated May 04 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good for a day trip. Shark tunnel, Hippos
Cons: expensive, can be very crowded on weekends
The Bottom Line: this is a very child friendly aquarium. It is very clean and nicely planned. I gave it an Average rating because of the high cost
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| nancy1972's Full Review: New Jersey State Aquarium |
My husband and I first discovered Adventure Aquarium on our own. He had an appointment in Philly and we had a couple of hours before that scheduled time. We decided to stop in Camden, New Jersey, across the river before we went to Philadelphia to check out the aquarium located on the NJ side. We went on a weekday and the place was not busy. We enjoyed it very much and thought it would be nice to bring the kids here.
The kids had some vacation a few weeks ago. Being that it was Feb., we were looking for a place to go to that was indoors. Adventure Aquarium was perfect for our day trip.
My family went to Adventure Aquarium about a month ago. We went on a Sunday, so it was rather crowded. We are a family of eight. We purchased the annual passport family explorer, which includes admission for 2 adults,4 children, and 2 quests for $175.00 Included were 4 ticket to the 4D theater so we had to purchase 4 more tickets. Also, included are 2 discount parking vouchers. We would like to come back so figured this would be a better deal. It is rather overpriced. We ate in the car before we went in so I can't tell you if the food was overpriced.
We decided to take in the 4D movie. Planet Earth was playing at time of our visit. It was very intense and my 4 year old twins were scared and were whimpering the whole 15 minutes. The rest of the family thought the movie was very short. We thought the movie would have been longer. Though, the twins couldn't wait to get out of there fast enough.
We went to many exhibits. My children really enjoyed the West African River experience featuring 2 hippos. The hippos hung out right in front of the glass. We were able to get a great view of them. I never realized how huge these amazing animals really are. Watch your head for the free flying African birds. You may feed the birds for a small fee. Just go up to the stairs and a keeper will get you the food.
There are a few tropical rain forest exhibits, which had various speciments including piranhas. Right next to that tank was a video taken of piranhas in the wild devouring a antelope. It was very graphic, so just wanted to caution everyone if you're squeamish.
Next we went into the Shark Realm, which features a 40 ft. underwater tunnel. If the aquarium is not to busy you can hang out in the tunnel and get to stay a little longer in there, as the sharks swim above you. It's really spectacular. If you want to get even closer, the aquarium has a program where you can actually get to swim with them provided you pay a fee and are scuba certified. I did not like the fact that at the end of this exhibit brings you end up right into the gift shop. We quickly steered the kids to the exit.
Hands-on exhibits include the touch-a-ray tank and touch a shark. Also, other tanks, had starfish, hermit crabs, and horseshoe crabs available to touch. T My 12 year got all wet, by the dogfish shark tank, when a shark made a sudden move. Don't worry, these are small sharks. The kids enjoyed it much!! I did have a complaint that there were not enough paper towels nearby to dry your hands or sinks with soap. I guess if you are really worried you can go to the rest rooms and make sure everyone properly washes their hands. Also, they close the exhibit from time to time to give the animals a chance to rest.
The Ocean realm was really amazing. They have theater type seating where you can just sit down and watch the fish swim by. My husband really liked it and we could have just spent the whole day there sitting and watching these beautiful creatures.
The seals and the penguins' exhibits are located outside. The penguins area was rather small. A Staff member discussed their feeding habits. That was basically it. We moved on to the seal shores, also rather small where we saw a few seals. Being that it was cold, we didn't linger too long outside.
That was how spent our day with the family. We were looking for a great day trip that was indoors and this was good enough to feel like we got away. We live in the NY area, so it took us about 2 hours to get here. This is NOT a huge aquarium. You just need a few hours here and that's it. With kids who have short attention spans anyway, it's just perfect. I like it much better than the NY Aquarium that's 10 minutes from me. That will be another review some other time. I just haven't been to that aquarium in almost 2 years and want to give a recent review on any new exhibits.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
nancy1972
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Member: nancy
Location: .new york
Reviews written: 42
Trusted by: 14 members
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